They are the must-have tools for anyone wanting sleek, straight hair.
But top brand hair straighteners are now also hot property for thieves with salons reporting a wave of thefts.
The styling tools, which can cost anything from £20 to more than £200, are increasingly popular and easy to sell on – especially with Christmas around the corner.
One salon in Derby has been raided 12 times, while other break-ins have been reported in Oxford, Cambridgeshire, Hull and Aberdeen.
In Birmingham, police are linking a string of burglaries at salons in the city over the last few weeks.
Top brand hair straighteners are hot property for thieves with salons reporting a wave of thefts (stock photo)
Straighteners, styling tongs and other items worth thousands of pounds have all been stolen by the ram-raid gang, who gained access by smashing a brick or concrete block through the front door.
Police have seized three cars, which were abandoned, and are asking people to be on the lookout for items being sold on the cheap.
Just last month in nearby Nottingham, more than £1,800 worth of stock, including pairs of straighteners, were taken in a raid at a Nottingham hair salon.
Thieves used bolt cutters to get through a metal security gate then a crowbar to open the door at The Hair Room in Western Boulevard.
Owner Gill Jones-Ricketts, 48, said: ‘It’s hard enough, I think, to run a business and stay on top and stay ahead, and then things like this happen. It’s not fair, is it?’
The most popular brands stocked by salons are ghd (standing for ‘good hair day’) which start at £99 and are favoured by stars such as Jennifer Aniston, Katy Perry and Victoria Beckham, and Cloud Nine, which cost from £64.
Many salons are now keeping their stock in locked display cabinets in a bid to deter thieves while in north Wales police officers have warned salons to keep only a minimum amount of stock on the property.
Sally Montague, who runs her own Hair Group of six salons in and around Derby, told the Sunday Times: ‘They [the thieves] are after the ghds because they can sell them easily and they are portable.
The styling tools, which can cost anything from £20 to more than £200, are increasingly popular and easy to sell on – especially with Christmas around the corner
‘I have had my main salon in the city centre broken into 12 times. We don’t stock the ghds any more — we just get them in when clients order them. People will wander in and just pinch them off the shelves.
‘I see so many salons with them in the windows or stacked by the door and I think: you are inviting a break-in. Now we just have the empty boxes and keep them off the premises.’
Mark Woolley, founder and owner of the Electric Hair chain, with salons in London, Brighton, Oxford, Reading, Liverpool and Edinburgh, said: ‘At the Oxford salon someone ran in off the street, grabbed all the ghds off the shelf by reception and ran out again — in broad daylight.
‘Everyone knows what ghds are and they have instant value. What makes them better than others? They’re a bit like the Coca-Cola of the cola market or the Dyson of vacuum cleaners. They’re the most recognisable brand of all.’
At a raid in Knowle, West Midlands, thieves crashed a car into the front of the salon before grabbing cash and ghd hair straighteners and escaping.
And in May, burglars made off with £10,000 worth of hair extensions and straighteners from a salon in Liverpool. Owner Dianne Marshall, 48, who counts a host of footballers wives, including Alex Gerrard and Abby Clancy among her clientele, said she feared they would be sold on the black market.
A spokeswoman for ghd said: ‘As our brand is highly desirable, the theft of ghd products is something that we take very seriously.
‘We work closely with our salon partners and offer advice on the safety measures to follow to help reduce ghd-targeted thefts in salons, which includes providing dummy stock for window displays so that stock does not have to be visible.’