1Shark flexstyle
- Attachments: Four
- Suitable for: All hair types and lengths
- Heat settings: Three
- Why we love it
- Powerful hairdryer function
- Quick and easy tool for sleek styles
- Natural looking curls
- Take note
- The barrels are fiddly at first
- Takes practice to perfect hairstyles
With two barrels (one for each airflow direction), a hot brush-style rounded bristle brush, and a flat smoothing brush, Shark’s flexstyle by all appearances rivals Dyson’s for styling versatility. But where the Shark tool really comes into its own is its hair dryer function. By rotating the nozzle, you can snap Shark’s tool into a more traditional-looking hair dryer, complete with a curl-defining diffuser and styling concentrator.
These attachments, four heat settings, and three airflow options offer a far more powerful blowdry experience than Dyson’s airwrap – and even some fully-fledged hair dryers from other brands. Plus, the diffuser attachment is adjustable for short or longer-length hair, just like the larger version in Shark’s hairdryers.
Shark gets extra kudos for the rounded bristle brush attachment, which I found offered more grip and volume compared to the smaller size brush attachment that comes with the new Dyson airwrap. The flat paddle brush attachment, however, had less grip on my hair and caused more frizz than Dyson’s equivalent.
Now, onto the all-important barrels. Shark deploys the same Coanda effect as Dyson, meaning curls are created with air in the 1.25 curling barrel rather than heat – helping to reduce heat damage. But unlike with the airwrap, I found my hair needed a little coercing to wrap around the barrel.
There is a cold-burst setting that helps set your curl, but there are two separate barrels for each airflow, meaning you’ll have to switch barrels for each side of your hair. Once I got to grips with the barrels, the curls created were just as defined as Dyson’s, but I did find they fell out more quickly.