What do you get someone who uses nothing? That’s my sister. You could give her all of the hair dryers, flat irons, curling wands and hair styling tools in the world and she would thank you and then likely banish it to a forgotten cabinet.
Get ready for this stealthy tip: This is the tool you gift all your low maintenance family and friends–and they’ll actually use it.
As someone who uses lots of hair tools in my beauty/personal care routine, I knew this wasn’t an issue of know-how, or even motivation; this was an issue of time.
I finally convinced her to let me treat her to my favorite hair stylist as a present and was delighted at how fun it was to see pampering happening. This was a life changing event with no looking back to the days before this hot hair tool revelation.
What are the chances, I thought, that she would use a tool to continue styling her hair? Slim to none was probable.
As my hairdresser (stylist) was starting to blow dry my sister’s damp hair, we discussed this lack of gadget use and what my sis would have to do to keep this voluminous look going–more importantly what WOULD she do IRL.
Queue the lightbulb and angels singing, we put aside the hair brush/blow dryer combo and introduced the hot air brush! She styled her locks with just this hot brush for a nice soft blowout. Hallelujah for such an earth shattering hair styling tip!
This was new tech for me too since we both have curly hair and never would’ve thought such a one-handed tool could accomplish a straight blowout for every hair type; a tool that actually does what it says with no additional help.
My sister and I have different hair types so she doesn’t need to add volume as I do. She has spiral curly hair so a curling iron is the last thing she wanted; I’m always complaining about my damaged fine hair where her issue is more about drying time and not wanting to spend that drying and styling time in the first place.
Luckily, the bed head look works for her. However, some of us that are not so fortunate are dependent on hot tools to leave the house without throwing on a hat or having a signature ponytail.
This discovery was so fun that we have now tested several hot air brush brands TOGETHER with varied heat settings and temperature settings. The ionic technology dryer brush is almost too good to believe.
Chi
Best for: Fine hair / heat damage
Brush Shape: Oval, Paddle, Nozzle Concentrator, Diffuser
Chi has 4 different brush heads you can choose from–perfect for someone with limited space in their bathroom. For $99 this 4-in-1 is a steal!
The evenly spaced out bristles with two lengths offer a full blowout that will lift at the root. Use the cool setting for an extra smooth frizz-free finish with the paddle brush. Works with negative ion technology. Not the favorite for my sister’s thick hair (FYI: the cool setting is really a warm setting, not cold), but I love Chi because my hairdryer will last forever and so will this hot brush.
Hot Tools Blow Dryer Brush
Best for: Normal-coarse hair types that need extra shine (too hot for fine and heat damaged hair)
Brush Shape: Oval
Hot Tools has a great cool air setting that works well on dry hair. For the price of $74.99 it is an awesome choice and a brand I’ve used for many years. I liked the hot brush a lot because it really did offer that shine, but my hair is too fine for the settings for me personally to use regularly. However, my sister’s hair was perfect for these settings and she has more normal-coarse curly hair (she needed the slightly hotter settings). The biggest drawback is it just didn’t have all of the accessories that come with some of the higher priced versions. It’s a one trick pony, but it’s a great styling tool. Use a heat protectant.
Dyson Airwrap
Best for: All hair types and damaged hair
Brush Shapes: Soft smoothing brush, Firm smoothing brush, Volumizing brush, Pre-styling dryer, and 1.2″ and 1.6″ barrels for air curls.
We both love the Dyson Airwrap complete styler set which has lots of attachments and moderate low heat that helps more than any other with eliminating frizz–temperature control for damage isn’t an issue with this one either.
This is quite an investment at $400-$500, but I expect it will last a lifetime and is a higher quality than the other less expensive brands. You truly only need this tool for all of your hair styling needs—this is the Kitchen Aid of the hair tools family…it does it all and will replace hair straightener brushes (though they did just come out with an actual straightener here) and even your curling iron. If you can afford this brush, you can ditch all your others for the Dyson and the attachments.
Amika
Best for: Towel dried hair
Brush Shape: Round
Amika hair blow dryer is a great quality option right at $100 which is good for all types of hair. If you want that round brush/blowdryer look, this is a great replacement for a ceramic curling iron, but to keep your hair damage-free, you’ll need to watch the heat temperature. Best part: It’s dual-voltage so you know it’s made to travel.
Drybar
Best for: All types depending on which brush you pick (single or double)
Brush Shapes: Single Shot (Round) and Double Shot (Oval)
A popular choice is Drybar Double Shot Hot Dryer brush which is medium priced and uses the ionic technology to reduce frizz and keep volume. They have 3 different blowout brushes for bangs and short hair (single shot), long hair (double shot) and paddle straightener. Downside is you have to pay for each brush individually. A lot of people love it for the sunny yellow color.
GHD
Best for: Short hair and bangs
Brush Shape: Round
GHD Rise volumizing Hot Brush is a skinnier version so not so good for longer or thick hair. You need to work in small sections with this one, so patience is a must unless you have short hair.
It has fewer bristles so you don’t get as much lift unless you hold the brush at the root for 5-7 seconds (then it’s mega va-va-vooom volume); as long as you work in sections and use it to blowout when you have time to do it right, it’ll give you salon quality results. This wouldn’t be my daily choice, but if you only blow out your hair once a week, the results are great and the temperature is consistent, which you can read about on my curling iron article about heat damage.
Conair
Best for: Dry
Styling with a cool shot
For shorter hair and bangs smaller and skinnier brushes are better like the Infiniti Pro by Conair (though I prefer the DryBar Single Shot). Not recommended for long hair or hair that breaks easily due to the nylon bristles, but the ceramic coating has a nice blowout finish.
Revlon
Best for: Thick hair, bangs, medium-long hair
Brush shape: Oval
For $59.99 the Revlon hot air brush is a great one step hair dryer and volumizer brush with a great hair grip. It comes in a lot of fun colors and is an easy one-step to use!
If you don’t have a big budget and don’t need it to do multiple looks, this volumizing brush creates a great overall blowout with no bells and whistles. Perfect oval shape for the ‘in a hurry’ look or the low maintenance person, or if you just want to blow out your bangs. Great for every kind of hair for a blowout that will last more than a day–almost as good as hair rollers. It just gets really hot for us fine hair girls.
Since I’m a stickler for damaged hair awareness, it is best to use a product while styling with the hot brush. I prefer a gel or oil especially on my ends to keep hair from getting damaged. I absolutely swear by the CHI silk infusion complex. It actually makes your hair look and feel like silk and the gloss effect is like glass.
A few other styling pro hot products are as follows:
Always follow up a blow-dry with some moisture! Best seller, Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum – spectacular for anti-frizz and smells like fresh apples.
There’s a super cool sustainable brand, Davines, that makes fantastic products like the OI Oil and for glamming out, A Shimmering Mist that sprays on like hairspray and is a perfect companion to Viktor&Rolf’s Flowerbomb since it complements perfectly…it’s my date night combo.
For the ultimate shine and body treatment, try L’Huile Legere by Kerastase, a treat for you and your hair.
Sidenote, there is a warning on all of these hot brushes that you will see a “smoke” come off the hair and a slight smell which is true but not a problem any more than any other hairdryer.
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