The Keys to Curling Iron Safety

When it comes to the safety of you and your home you can never be too careful. Sometimes the smallest risks turn out to hold the biggest threat, either because people don't realize they're dangerous or because they're aware of the risk but they grow careless over time. That's why it's so important that you learn the fundamentals of curling iron safety before beginning to swirl and twirl with your own iron, and to continue to follow these safety guidelines whether you've been curling your hair for two days or twenty years.

Personal Safety

The fundamentals of curling iron safety revolve around the fact that curling irons get hot. Really hot. And they have electricity flowing through them at all times. These two factors combined mean that the biggest threat you face from curling irons are burns, shocks and fires. Fires are the biggest problem you have to worry about with curling irons, but before launching into a spiel on effective curling iron safety for fire prevention let's talk about personal safety habits.

Always hold the curling iron far enough away from your head that it's not going to strike your scalp if your hand wiggles a little bit (thank goodness the 'fro is out of style!) and with enough distance that the heat it radiates isn't going to do the deed before the barrel can even come in contact with skin. Grip the handle firmly, and resist the urge to press runaway hairs down onto the iron while curling. This is an excellent way to get your fingers singed.

Never curl your hair in a wet area. The average curling iron gives off twenty watts of heat and has over 100 volts of energy flowing through it, both of which make it a bad candidate for an intimate friendship with the puddle of water on your sink. Sinks, bathtubs and kitchen counters are prime gathering grounds for water droplets, and the results when they come into contact with your curling iron can be electrifying-and not in a good way.

Fire Safety

Every year professional rescue teams are called to the scene to put out fires caused by careless curlers, which is why fire safety is vitally important if you're going to be using a curling iron. Check consistently to ensure that your iron is in good repair, without any exposed wires or unpredictable temperature changes. If something seems a little "off", dispose of the iron (or brush, or hot rollers, or whatever you do to put some verve back in your hair) immediately. It's easier to replace a $50 curling iron than a $200,000 house.

The first rule of curling iron safety you'll ever learn is to make sure the curling iron is unplugged when you're not using it. Allowing electricity to continue to flow through it makes it vulnerable to retaining heat, which means you might plop a towel on top of an iron that is "off" only to turn around and see it smoking moments later! Speaking of smoking towels, you also want to make sure you give your curling iron plenty of time to cool before sticking it back on the shelf. Curling irons can retain heat for up to an hour after they've been unplugged, and it only takes a smidgen of heat to set a linen closet (complete with cleaning supplies) ablaze in a matter of moments.

Curling iron safety is something most of us take for granted, but it's the moment we let down our guard that disaster strikes. Don't let it happen to you.