If you're someone who spends a long time drying and styling your hair, then one of the best hair stylers could transform your haircare routine. Using a combination of different technologies, today's top styling tools, which range from the best multi-stylers to tools dedicated to straightening and providing a perfect blowout look, can save you time as well as effort.
Of course, not all hair styler tools are created equal, and some are more suited to particular hair types, lengths or styles. Our experts have tested all the picks below, trying out the tools over extensive periods, considering how they work on different hair types and comparing them to some of the best hair dryers and best hair straighteners on the market. Below are our top five best hair stylers available today.
Best hair styling tool: quick list
Best overall
The Airwrap is perfect for creating curls, waves and bouncy blowout styles with minimal heat. It's not cheap, but the dupes can't compete.
Best brush dryer
If you're after a brush dryer to add body, this one is affordable and effective. It does just one thing, but it does it well.
Best straightening
The Airstrait dries and smooths hair at the same time, for natural-looking straight hair without the need for hair-frying hot plates.
Mid-range multi-styler
The FlexStyle is an all-in-one hair dryer and versatile multi-styling tool, with a wide range of attachments.
Budget multi-styler
Want lots of options without breaking the bank? This is the best budget multi-styler we've tested out.
The best multi-styler overall
Dyson's Airwrap made waves on its release in 2018 as an innovative multi-styler that can dry and style damp hair using some clever engineering to avoid the need for extreme heat. It has since been upgraded and is the best hair multi-styler on the market for most people, although its high price tag will be a barrier for many.
The Airwrap is lightweight, smartly designed and adept at creating bouncy curls, thanks to the 'Coanda' effect, which means your hair automatically wraps around the barrel. It also measures airflow and temperature in order to regulate heat and keep it below 150C / 30F – which means less heat damage over time. After a year of using it, our reviewer felt that their hair was not only shiny, but visibly healthier.
In terms of hair types, it seems best suited to those with longer hair, although shorter barrels for short hair are now available. The Airwrap has also received mixed reviews from those with Type 4 hair, although this has been improved with the release of new attachments.
The Airwrap does take a little bit of time to get used to and those that travel frequently should note that it won't work in countries with different voltage. Overall though, it's a very clever piece of kit that can yield impressive results. It's a testament to how good it is that it remains ultra-popular despite the sky-high price tag – competitors' efforts to create good Airwrap dupes haven't gotten close to challenging the OG yet.
Read our full Dyson Airwrap review
The best hair brush dryer
The best 2-in-1 hair dryer and brush we've tried is Revlon's Pro Collection One Step Dryer and Volumiser. This great value hot brush dryer may not be much to look at but it delivers on performance – drying our reviewer's medium-length, fine hair in three minutes and four seconds. As it's quite big, you can deal with large hair sections in one go, and you can even use it one-handed, saving you time and effort.
The temperature stays constant throughout and the design means it stays the same distance away from your head, drying your hair nice and evenly. Our reviewer was impressed by its overall performance, including the volume, shine and smoothness of her hair after using it.
On the downside, at 850g, the Revlon Pro Collection is quite heavy, but it's so quick at drying, you are unlikely to be using it for long enough to get arm ache. The various settings also seem a little redundant as our reviewer didn't notice any difference between them, apart from an irritating, loud sound on the fastest option.
Read more in our Revlon Pro Collection One Step Dryer and Volumiser review
The best straightening tool
The Dyson Airstrait uses an angled blade of focused airflow to dry and straighten at the same time. Its design has an 80s sci-fi vibe and swaps the usual straightener hot plates for unheated panels, with vents seeing to the air straightening.
At 1.18lb / 536g, the Airstrait is pretty heavy for straighteners, and has a rather unwieldy plug. The good news is that it makes light work of drying/straightening hair, with our reviewer able to achieve both in 10 minutes, less than half the time it would take to dry and straighten her hair usually (even with the likes of the Dyson Supersonic and Dyson's original straighteners, the Corrale). It has some neat features too: one that adjusts the volume of airflow when hair is in it, and another that cuts airflow when its arms have been open for more than three seconds.
Our reviewer found that there was little-to-no hair snagging or sizzling and that the Airstrait was able to dry segments of her hair with just one pass. Its results were natural-looking straight hair rather than pin straight, however, and the Airstrait can't get right up to the root, so may not be as effective for those with tight curls.
Talking of curls, what the Airstrait is not so good at is creating them – for that, you'll want the Airwrap or another multi-styler. And for those who have curly hair, traditional hot plate straighteners also seem better at holding than the Airstrait. Overall, if you have wavy or slightly curly hair and you just want to straighten it then the Airstrait may be for you. But if your hair is curlier or you want to achieve different styles, then the likes of the Airwrap or other multi-stylers on this list may be more suitable.
Read our full Dyson Airstrait review
The best mid-range multi-styler
The Shark FlexStyle is Shark's take on Dyson's Airwrap. It's a hair dryer that transforms into a multi-styler. There are a few variations available, like the 5-in-1 and the 4-in-1 and there's also a build your own version where you can choose the accessories included with it.
Options include a paddle brush (which our reviewer found to be particularly effective), plus an oval brush, two curlers, a styling concentrator and diffuser. These tools enable you to curl, straighten, add volume, smooth and define, and the FlexStyle employs the same Coanda effect technology as the Airwrap, attracting hair to its surface to make curling easier.
In practice, our reviewer found the FlexStyle to work well to dry hair and the brushes were intuitive to use. However, it wasn't very successful at curling hair, with a lot of trial and error involved, and any volume created didn't last.
When you add up all the attachments, the whole thing takes up a lot of space, and the 8ft cable has a large power pack about a third of the way down, making it quite unwieldy. This styler tool is best suited to those with longer, thicker hair, and those with the patience to learn how to use it properly.
Read more in our Shark FlexStyle review
The best budget multi-styler
The Revamp Progloss Airstyle 6-in-1Air Styler DR-1250, or the Revamp Progloss, is one of our favorite Dyson Airwrap dupes. This budget-friendly multi-styler comes with six attachments – a wide-bristle brush, a paddle brush and a rotating hard bristle brush, which is designed for creating soft waves. There's also a conical attachment for creating curls, a drying attachment and a diffuser.
The dryer works well, drying our reviewer's hair in just over four minutes. And in our tests, the smaller barrel brush and paddle brush were particularly suited to fine hair. The larger rotating brush worked well in that it was easy to wind hair around the barrel, but the barrel itself was too wide for clearly defined waves on shoulder length hair, suggesting this tool may work better with longer hair. Elsewhere, our reviewer found it hard to grip the air styler when creating curls, due to the length of the handle.
The Progloss was also rather noisy at 80dB. Saying that, we'd recommend the Progloss to those who want to create a variety of styles without spending big.
Read more in our Revamp Progloss Airstyle 6-in-1Air Styler DR-1250 review
How to choose a hair styler tool
When choosing a hair styler, you first need to consider what you want to achieve. Are you looking to create waves, straight locks or to enhance or define existing curls? If there's only one style you know you'll want to create most of the time then you may want to choose a hair styler dedicated to that function, or if you want to be able to mix up styles then a multi styler may be better for you.
Also think about your hair type – some tools are better suited to some hair types than others. We've indicated where this is the case in our list.
It's also worth considering design and portability, do you need something that will travel easily or will your tool likely stay in one place? Do you have the space to keep several accessories and a large hair styler tool or do you need something that's relatively compact? Is an included carry case important to you?
Budget will also likely play a key part in your decision. The price of hair stylers ranges from relatively inexpensive 2-in-1 hair brush dryers to multi-stylers, which vary in price, with Dyson being the most expensive.
What is the best hair styling tool brand?
There are a number of brands in the hair styling tool market. Dyson is top of the range in terms of price and quality, but elsewhere there's Shark, Revlon, Remington, BaByliss, plus GHD and T3.
