You can straighten both plastic and metallic tinsel with a hair straightener/flattener. But, you need to make sure the hair is wet and has lots of conditioner on it. Use the lowest setting on the iron or even turn it off when you run it over the hair.
Do you have any G3 ponies you could practice on? Metallic tinsel is a little trickier than the plastic in most G3s. It can be done though.
I also wanted to give you these links -
MLP Preservation Project has a lot of tips and tutorials on fixing up ponies. Unfortunately, it's mostly G1 centered.
Lavender Lagoon is all about G2s.
And you can always post here with questions