It sounds like the most trivial thing in the world — how you put your straighteners away — but after 25 years of repairing electronics, I can tell you it's one of the biggest factors in how long they last. The single most common GHD fault is a broken cable, and the great majority of those breaks are caused by one everyday habit: wrapping the cable tightly around the straighteners. Get your storage right and you'll avoid the most common GHD repair there is. Here's how to do it properly.
Why wrapping the cable ruins it
First, the "why", because it explains everything else. Inside your GHD's cable are thin copper wires. Every time you wind the cable tightly around the body of the straighteners — especially around a tight bend right where the cable enters the iron — you flex and stress those internal wires. Do it once, no harm. Do it after every single use, for months and years, and the wires slowly fatigue and start to break.
Once some of those internal strands break, you get the classic cable fault: straighteners that cut in and out, only work when the cable's held at a certain angle, or eventually stop working altogether. I've explained that fault in detail in my guide to GHD cable problems — but the point here is that it's almost entirely preventable with better storage.
The right way to put your GHDs away
Here's the routine that saves the cable:
Switch off and let them cool. Wrapping or bagging hot straighteners stresses both the cable and the components — and it's safer to let them cool first. Give them a few minutes.
Don't wrap the cable tightly around the body. This is the key rule. Resist the instinct to wind it round the plates.
Loop the cable loosely instead. Coil it in gentle, wide loops on its own — think loose circles, not a tight bind. The wider and looser the loops, the less stress on the wires.
Never bend it sharply at the base. The spot where the cable meets the iron is the weak point. Make sure it isn't kinked, pinched or forced into a tight bend there.
Store them somewhere they won't get squashed. A drawer or shelf where the cable won't be crushed under other things is ideal.
That's genuinely it. A few seconds of looping the cable loosely instead of winding it tight is the difference between a cable that lasts years and one that fails.
A note on heat-resistant pouches and rolls
Many GHDs come with a heat-resistant bag or pouch, and they're useful — you can put warm straighteners in them safely straight after use. But two things to watch:
The pouch protects surfaces from the heat; it doesn't protect the cable from tight wrapping. If you cram the straighteners in with the cable wound tightly round them, you've still stressed the cable. Loop the cable loosely even when using a pouch.
Don't seal hot straighteners away for hours in a zipped bag if you can avoid it — letting them cool a little first is kinder.
Travelling with your GHDs
Travel is where cables take a real beating — thrown in a suitcase, wound tight, squashed under clothes. If you travel with your straighteners often:
Use a proper heat-resistant travel case or roll if you can, which holds them without forcing the cable into a tight bend.
Loosely coil the cable and secure it with a soft tie or velcro strap rather than winding it around the body.
Don't let the cable take the weight or get trapped at a sharp angle under heavy items.
A bit of care when packing saves the exact cable break that's a common travel-related fault.
The payoff
None of this is complicated — it's really just "let them cool, and loop the cable loosely instead of wrapping it tight." But that one habit prevents the single most common GHD repair, and it costs you nothing but a few seconds. Combined with the other care steps in how to make your GHDs last longer, it's the easiest way to get years more life out of a good pair of straighteners.
And if your cable has already gone — if your straighteners are cutting out or only working at an angle — that's a simple, inexpensive fix rather than a reason to replace them. You can book a power and cable repair here, and I'll have them back to you working reliably, from any angle, with a 12-month warranty.
The Repair Works is an independent UK repair service, run by me, Paul — 25 years of hands-on repair experience, working by post for customers across the whole country. Not affiliated with or endorsed by GHD.
