hair tools
By Najwa Jamal
The results on the left are from my Dyson, and on the right, my Shark. Photo: Najwa Jamal
I have fine, curly hair that tends to be a little dry. That means my blowouts are often laborious ordeals and turn out frizzy — and I’ve long yearned for a blow-dryer that could smooth my hair from root to tip (without using a straightener) and would give me results that last all day long. For about a year, the Dyson Airwrap has been my solution. It made my hair shinier than my Revlon One-Step blow-dryer brush ever did, and it gave me sleek, humidityproof styles. I never thought I would stray until one true potential rival emerged: the Shark Beauty FlexStyle. I was more than happy with what my Airwrap was doing for my hair, but I couldn’t help but be intrigued. It’s from another vacuum company, offers near-exact attachments plus a diffuser, and it’s all half the price. I’d seen a few comparisons but none with my fine, curly hair, so I had to try it.
My hair in its natural state. Photo: Najwa Jamal
I had been using the Airwrap for around a year, so when I received Shark’s FlexStyle, I decided the most just way to test it would be to mimic the early days with my Dyson. Without getting too familiar with the device, I put it through the same trials: I aimed to get both a salon-level blowout and to simply dry my natural curls with it. I kept my hair-care routine the same each time, down to the hairbrush I used and the order my products were applied, and ultimately used it for about three months, until I really got a feel for it.
Dyson Airwrap
$479
Buy at Sephora
Buy
with code: YAYSAVE
What’s in the Box: Out of the box, the Airwrap screams luxury. The device is packaged inside an elegantly shaped navy-blue oval storage container, its inside lined in velvet. I got the Complete Long set, the bundle marketed for hair “that’s chest-length or longer,” which comes with six standard attachments: 1.2-inch and 1.6-inch curling barrels, a round volumizing brush, a firm smoothing brush, a soft smoothing brush, and the Coanda smoothing dryer head.
Each curling barrel is able to curl your hair in two directions (an upgrade from the first-generation Airwrap), while the volumizing two-inch round brush, with many very thin, malleable bristles, is meant to create tension while blow-drying, adding body and shape. Both paddlelike brushes are made to straighten and smooth hair: One has hard bristles for coarser hair textures, while the other with soft bristles is intended for fine hair. The Airwrap’s crown jewel seems to be the Coanda head,a tear-drop-shaped cylinder attachment that can tame flyaways.
How It Works: The attachments seemed fairly simple, but the first time I used the Airwrap, I struggled. I was sweating, my hair was sweating, and nothing made sense to me and I wasn’t alone. The same concerns I had were echoed on TikTok: How the hell do you use the curling barrel? Why aren’t these curls holding? Why is the round brush making my hair frizzier? I’d come to realize that mastering the tool required a certain amount of trial and error, especially for my hair type.
It took roughly a month or so of use to get the hang of the Airwrap — but once I did, it changed my hair life. I realized the formula for a sleek blowout required prepping my hair with oil, heat protectant, and a blowout cream; quickly rough drying it with the Coanda attachment; then sectioning off my hair and blow-drying with the firm smoothing brush, focusing especially on my roots, until straight. Finishing off with the round volumizing brush, and Coanda head again, gives my hair even more volume, shapes the ends, and tames my flyaways. And then, while my strands are still warm, I pin curl them and let them cool and finish off with a hold-and-shine spray. The result? Some of the best blowouts I’ve ever had, salon or not.
Airwrap results. Photo: Najwa Jamal
TL;DR: Despite blowing out my hair twice a week, I noticed less split ends with the Airwrapthan when I was using the Revlon, and I’ve been able to grow my hair longer than I ever have (with the help of a bevy of oils and other hair products). On most days, straightening my hair will take around 20 or 25 minutes on the third heat and airflow settings, while simply drying my curls using the Coanda head takes 15.
Shark FlexStyle
$240
$191 at Sephora
Buy
with code: YAYSAVE
What’s in the Box: When I opened Shark’s FlexStyle, I realized the attachments were, save for some distinctions, quite similar to the Dyson’s — included was a 3.25-inch oval brush, a 3.6-inch paddle brush, a styling-concentrator nozzle, two 1.25-inch barrels (one for each direction), and a diffuser. Both brushes have a mix of nylon and boar bristles meant to “grab, smooth & defrizz.” All these attachments are included as part of the Air Styling & Drying System, one of three sets catered to a specific hair type. (There’s also one forCurly & Coily hair and another forStraight & Wavy.)
How It Works: The first time I used it, the most noticeable difference was the handle. The button placements were harder to toggle between than Dyson’s, and the weight felt less evenly distributed. But the airflow on the FlexStyle feels just as powerful as the Airwrap’s (albeit significantly louder).
For my first go-around, I broke out the diffuser to dry my curls since I didn’t get one with my Dyson, which gave plenty of definition and volume to sections of hair I typically have to retouch with a curling iron. I spun the handle sideways to 90 degrees, which only made drying easier and required less head-flipping on my end. I also tried drying my curls with the concentrator head, which was just as effective as Dyson’s Coanda attachment, doing so quickly, and giving me the bounce and shine I aim for, with minimal frizz and few touch-ups needed.
I decided to put the nylon-and-boar-bristle oval brush to the test next for a blowout. The result was reminiscent of my first time straightening my hair with the Airwrap: disappointing. The oval brush was far too large for my fine hair. I could not fully reach my roots, resulting in a kinky and frizzy blowout that took around twice as long as it would have taken me normally despite the same hair prep, products, and settings I used with my Airwrap. Two weeks later, I gave a blowout another shot, though this time using solely the flat paddle-brush attachment. It made up, in spades, for the oval one. With my handle at an angle, I was able to build the right tension and grip on my hair —the paddle’s significantly slimmer and flatter profile allowing me to get closer to my roots —and truly smooth my hair, even mimicking the Airwrap’s round-volumizing-brush effect on my ends.
FlexStyle results. Photo: Najwa Jamal
TL;DR: After getting used to the Shark, the blowouts I’ve achieved with it last even on 80-degree days with plenty of hair fiddling, but I’ve noticed that my hair doesn’t quite feel as free-flowing as it does when I’ve finished with my Airwrap. There’s a certain stiffness to the strands, a grit, that reminds me a bit of how my hair felt after using the Revlon brush. The curling attachments are also a little disappointing. The results are no better than with the Airwrap (nice but nothing to write home about) and even a bit trickier to use because you need to detach and reattach a barrel depending on the curl’s direction.
My Recommendation
Although advertised as devices that serve a similar purpose — i.e., multi-styler hair dryers with little to no purported heat-related damage — the strengths of each effectively serve the needs of different people. The FlexStyle’s general quality, price point, and breadth of choice is almost unbeatable, regardless of your hair being curly or not, but it does work on coarse hair, which is part of its appeal.
And while I still occasionally use the FlexStyle on days when I’m in need of a diffuser, I have to admit that the few hundred extra dollars make the Airwrap worth the purchase in my eyes. The Airwrap’s design touches, like the button placement and handle weight, as well as it being quieter overall, are a large part of its allure. The slightly smaller attachments give it quite the leg up in the blowout arena — they are nimble and able to get close to my scalp, smoothing and straightening in a way the Shark attachments were unable to. My blowouts with the Airwrap are left soft and free-flowing. It remains the device I reach for the most.
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