Heat Styling Tools and How to Store Them — Basically, How Not to Break Your Sh*t
5 min readYou’ve invested hundreds of dollars in your styling tool collection, only to find that the lifespan of your tools is much shorter than anticipated. Why would you throw your money away? You might have thought you’ve always treated your curling wands, ionic dryers and hair straighteners well. But neglecting your heat styling tools is a lot easier than you think with twisting cords, leaving them on for hours and dropping them constantly. Most people don’t think twice about it, only to toss their expensive tools and spend next month’s rent on a new set. It’s okay, NuMe is here to rescue you from bad hair days and unfortunate financial sh*t. Just think of all the other makeup and hair accessories you can splurge on with all the extra cheese you’re saving.
Drop It Like It’s Hot… NOT!
Dropping your tools is no bueno since the internal mechanisms of your heat styling tools are what makes them do the things. Our warranty here at NuMe doesn’t cover the breakage of tools after dropping them, and that is one of the main issues we notice in our customer service department. You can securely store your straighteners, curling wands and hair dryers by putting them in places where they won’t fall out of a drawer and onto the tile floor to help them last longer.
Each styling tool is an electrical powerhouse of cogs, copper wiring and other important doodads that generate heat and allow you to style your hair. Whether or not you realize it, dropping hair straighteners, for example, can damage the strategically engineered floating plates, causing them to crack, pop out and lose the ability to float along the thickness of your hair when styling. So please be careful not to upset the delicate machinery within, because dropping your tools can cause major damage to your hair, hot tools and wallet!
Don’t Get Twisted, Girl
The only one who should be Tangled is Rapunzel‘s hair. Can you imagine how many styling tools she would need to tame that mane? Dang, girl. Be honest, when your tool cools, and it’s time to put it back into your cabinet or gym bag, you wrap the cord around it and think nothing of it. No shame, we’ve all done it, but this one action ruins many a styling tool. At NuMe, we put a lot of work into our heat styling tools, so they perform better than others and last longer. The only way we can uphold our end of the bargain is if you chill with this particular habit right here.
Instead, when storing your styling tools, you can bundle the electrical cord by binding it with a piece of velcro or a rubber band. Don’t twist or wrap your cords around your tools. The issue with wrapping is that as the cord winds around the base of the tool, the wires are bent and they break after so many bending motions. If you’ve ever noticed the serious thickness of the cord at the base of your heat styling tool, you’ll see that manufacturers know how vulnerable this particular area can be to twisting and wrapping. So protect it and never wrap the cord around the tool itself, but bundle and store.
DIY Styling Tool Storage Ideas
If you’re unsure of how to store and organize your hair styling tools, especially if your bathroom doesn’t have enough storage, try to create a DIY hair tools storage unit. Lots of celebrity stylists use this hair tools storage idea to keep their tools in tip top shape. We’ve found a couple of fun and inexpensive ways to design your space so you can keep your sh*t damage-free and organized.
Box It In
We love this chic styling tool box by iHeart Organizing. All you need are some empty tin cans, a few pieces of measured and cut wood, wood putty and your choice of paint. Once you’ve measured the preferred length of your box, cut the wood pieces with a power tool, sand them down and glue them together. Painting and decorating is the fun part, just add some trim or accent colors to show off your style.
Pipe Down
This DIY hair tools storage idea is a clever one that you can make using a standard PVC pipe and some spray paint. Literally, that’s all you need; there’s nothing to cut or glue. Something like this is perfect for you if you style daily because it’s handy and neat. To hide cords from kids and pets, bundle your cords with a rubber band so they don’t hang, and push them into the corner of the counter behind the PVC pipe. Also, it’s important that you let your tools cool before storing them in the PVC pipe because...it’s plastic.
Or Just Buy One
If you’re just not that crafty and don’t have the patience for making things, there are a couple of awesome readymade storage units for hair tools by Yamazaki Home and Polder. Both storage consoles are heat resistant, so they won’t melt when you place a hot tool within the cradle, they can also hang conveniently from a towel rack or cabinet door. The Yamazaki unit is the perfect example of how you should store your styling tools, taking extra care of the electrical cord. Wrapping the cord around your styling tool and then storing it is one of the main culprits of most hot tools’ premature death, so make sure to spend the extra few moments and carefully wrap your cord around the cord storage arm on the unit to protect the wire from internal damage.
Storage on the Go
You may be tempted to improperly and lazily pack your styling tools when you’re on vacation, but there are ways to control the urge with a special travel case that will protect the tools and their cords. As a bonus, a heat-resistant travel case will save you from burning through any surrounding items in your bag when you have to zip up and run. All NuMe sets come with unique heat-resistant travel cases or pouches that can protect your tools. Most of these are hard cases that act as a buffer between all the bumping and tossing.
Some of Our Favorites:
- NuMe Thermal Pouch
- NuMe Jet Setter Pro
- NuMe Travel Set
- NuMe Curl Jam Bundle
If you love these tips on how to store and organize hair styling tools, sign up for our newsletter at NuMehair.com or follow us on IG at @NuMeHair.