We tested 6 blow dry brushes —Here are the best for styling hair in 2023

What’s more, I’ve been product-testing a variety of hair products for years, including hair mousses, stay-all-day hair sprays, dozens of shampoos and conditioners, after-shower leave-in conditioners and more.

The Best Hair Dryer Brushes of 2023

Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed’s editors. Purchases made through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.

Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer And Volumizer

This hair dryer brush earned a perfect score because it’s well-made, easy to use, and delivers a super-sleek style in less than 15 minutes. Read More

Pros

• Dries hair fast
• Gives salon-like blowout
• Sturdy and balanced build

Cons

Drybar Double Shot Oval Blow-Dryer Brush

The dryer takes some getting used to because of its longer barrel, but has fantastic temperature and airflow for a fast, high-quality blowout. Read More

Pros

• Dries hair fast
• Great airflow
• Balanced build
• Attractive looking

Cons

L’ange Le Volume 75mm

This luxurious-looking brush isn’t as speedy as some of the others, but with some patience, it produces similar great-looking results. Read More

Pros

• Comfortable to hold
• Includes brush cover
• Attractive looking

Cons

Bed Head Blow Out Freak

If your hair is prone to tangles, you’ll love how effectively the long and flexible bristles on this dryer can work through snarls. Read More

Pros

• Well-balanced build
• Detangles hair well
• Attractive looking

Cons

Dyson Airwrap Complete

If you want a lot of versatility in your hairstyling, this kit, with its variety of attachments, may be your dream. Read More

Pros

• Includes a lot of attachments
• Can use on damp hair
• Great quality

Cons

Updated August 29, 2023

There’s a reason a salon-style blowout feels like such a luxury. Not only do you get pampered for a half hour or so, you walk away with a sleek style to rock for at least a couple of days. But if you’re anything like me, routine salon blowouts just aren’t in the budget and my coordination skills to wield both a hair dryer and hair brush are subpar. Read: No matter how many attempts I make, my hair ends up looking puffy and feeling straw-like, not straight and shiny—and I’m sure I’m not alone.

Luckily, there’s a type of hair appliance that’s seemingly designed just for me: round brushes that double as a blowout brush. Here are the best hair dryer brushes you can get for your precious locks.

The recommendations in this guide are based on thorough product and market research by our team of expert product reviewers. We scoured bestseller lists across retailers, beauty blogs, social media, and other best-of lists to find the top hair dryer brushes according to shoppers and experts. After examining user reviews, product specifications, and, in some limited cases, our experience with the specific products named, these are our picks for the best hair dryer brushes.

The Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer won our Best Overall spot.

The internet is flooded with glowing reviews of the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer, including one from Reviewed’s former beauty editor. Therefore, I wasn’t entirely surprised that this hair dryer brush stood out from the pack. This dryer has nylon and tufted bristles that help detangle your hair as you use it. It also has an oval-shaped barrel instead of a round one to help the brush smooth hair on the longer side and add volume on the shorter. It even has “ionic technology” that Revlon claims can condition, smooth, add shine, and reduce frizz on hair.

My hair was completely dry after 12 minutes using this dryer brush, but beyond that, it looked as straight as it does when I use my flat iron, the T3 Lucea ID 1-Inch Smart Flat Iron. To achieve straight hair, I usually allow my locks to air-dry and then painstakingly straighten each section of hair—an ordeal that takes both forethought (time to let hair air dry), extra effort, and at least 10 more minutes than using the Revlon.

Beyond the results I saw on my hair, I was impressed by the quality of the appliance itself. It feels sturdy and well-made, but it’s not too heavy, either. The weight felt balanced no matter the angle I held the brush—it didn’t skew towards one side or the other. The even weight also made it easy to pull my hair taught enough to get that sleek style I’m always after.

The one potential downside I see is that this hair dryer brush gets extremely hot. In fact, we recorded a temperature of 203°F in our lab testing—the highest of any of the dryers. This didn’t bother me both because I have a cook’s hands and the time the brush needs to be right up next to the scalp is minimal, but others may find it uncomfortable or worry about scalding sensitive skin.

For me, it never got so hot that I couldn’t continue on with my blowout, and I felt like the heat helped me achieve a sleek blowout faster (remember: It took just 12 minutes, total). I was careful about how close I got to my scalp and where I placed my hands when handling the brush and found it easy to avoid any discomfort from the heat.

Pros

• Dries hair fast
• Gives salon-like blowout
• Sturdy and balanced build

Cons

To style short hair, try the Drybar Double-Shot Oval Blow-Dryer Brush.

The Drybar Double Shot was one of the fastest hair-drying brushes I tested. It took just 11 minutes to completely dry my hair, which I attribute to the brush’s great airflow. Even an extra minute is a bonus for me, as I’m always running short on time.

It wasn’t just fast, though. The brush moved easily through both wet and dry hair, and was one of the only hair dryer brushes that made my hair as sleek as I like it to be, probably thanks to its very hot temperature, which we recorded in second place behind the Revlon at 197.6°F. The brush has decent weight to it and feels comfortable to hold, which helped me manipulate the tool to achieve the ideal tension necessary for a straight style.

If there’s any downside, it’s that the brush has a slightly longer, heavier handle than the Revlon and others, which makes maneuvering it awkward, particularly as you get acquainted with the tool.

Pros

• Dries hair fast
• Great airflow
• Balanced build
• Attractive looking

Cons

For fine-textured locks, reach for the L’Ange Le Volume 75 mm.

The L’ange Hair Le Volume 2-in-1 is the most attractive appliance I tested. The handle of the brush is a matte black material that feels silky smooth, and the barrel is a gorgeous rose gold. Unlike some other brushes, it also comes with a sleeve for the barrel to help protect the bristles when not in use—a nice bonus for those of us who shove their hair tools into their vanity, or for anyone who travels. You’ll feel like you’re using a luxe tool with this, but it’s priced in the middle of the pack.

The styling experience was a positive one, too. The brush was comfortable to hold and I had no trouble getting the bristles through both wet and dry hair. I was also able to achieve the right tension to get a straight style in the end. But the airflow felt weaker than other brushes I tested, which meant it took longer than I expected—18 minutes—to nail the style. With patience, though, the overall final look was comparable to the speedier top two dryers.

Pros

• Comfortable to hold
• Includes brush cover
• Attractive looking

Cons

To primp and perfect the curliest of manes, The Bed Head Blow Out Freak Brush works best for curly hair.

The standout feature on the Bed Head One-Step Hair Dryer is its bristle type. They’re very flexible, which means brushing through both dry and tangled wet hair is a breeze. It also has a nice weight that’s light enough to hold for long periods of time but heavy enough to produce adequate tension with the hair while pulling the brush through it.

The downside to this brush is its larger-than-most barrel size that makes it difficult to work with small sections of hair. Although this may not be a problem for someone with longer, thicker hair, it made it a challenge for me to style my mid-length hair because I inadvertently picked up additional hair when attempting to style in small sections. The end result after 15 minutes was wearable but fluffier than I’d like.

Pros

• Well-balanced build
• Detangles hair well
• Attractive looking

Cons

Thick hair types will fare best with the Dyson Airwrap Complete.

The Dyson Airwrap is one of the most hyped hair tools out there. It’s also one of the most expensive. I wanted to love it and had high hopes I would, not only because of the consistent praise it receives, but also because its brush attachment is smaller than the barrels on other dryer brushes. I thought this might work great for my mid-length hair.

Unfortunately, I struggled to use this dryer effectively because of how lightweight it is. The bristles slipped right through my hair instead of catching the strands and creating the resistance needed to flatten them. After 18 minutes of my hair blowing around haphazardly, the result was it looking so poofy that I opted to refine the style with my straightener before heading out for the day.

Though it may sound like my experience with this dryer brush was largely negative, it landed in the middle of the pack score-wise because of its objectively positive features. For example, it has more speed and heat settings than the average, plus it comes with additional drying and styling attachments and a storage case that landed this a Best Splurge pick when Reviewed tested curling wands. No, it’s not the best dryer brush, but these features set it apart—and above—others on this list and make for a comprehensive styling kit.

Pros

• Includes a lot of attachments
• Can use on damp hair
• Great quality

Cons

How We Tested Hair Dryer Brushes

We tested the hair dryer brushes in our lab to see how hot they got after 30 minutes of use.

The Tester

I’m Brigitt Earley, a lifestyle writer and editor with more than 10 years of experience testing all different types of beauty products. I have thick, slightly wavy brown hair that currently sits just below my collarbone. After years of trying to perfect an at-home blowout, I accepted that I simply don’t have the skills to pull off the look I’m after: a super-straight and shiny style.

As a busy mom of four kids under age 4, I’ve largely retired my blow dryer and instead let my hair air-dry before passing through it with a straightener. But I always hoped to one day find another solution for drying my hair into a salon-like blowout. When blow dryer brushes came onto my radar, I wondered if I’d finally found the answer.

The Tests

We scoured bestseller lists across retailers, beauty blogs, social media, and other best-of lists to find the top hair dryer brushes according to shoppers and experts. We put each one to the test, pitting the top-rated brands against one another to find a winner.

The first step of testing was sending each hair dryer brush to Reviewed’s labs. There, Chief Scientist Dave Ellerby placed a temperature probe on the surface of each brush near its air holes, turned on the dryer, and recorded the temperature after one minute, enough time for the temperature to stabilize. Each dryer’s sound in decibels was also recorded, though there was less variation in the readings. Neither of these attributes impacted scoring but were used as a way to make sense of my testing results.

The rest of the testing process was simple: I used each brush on towel-dried, wet hair. During the process, I evaluated characteristics like build quality, comfort, ease of use, effectiveness, and final style. When I finished testing, I teamed up with Ellerby to score and weigh the results on a calibrated rubric.

What We Look for in a Hair Dryer Brush

• Quality: Do the brush bristles bend or fall out after use? Does the appliance itself seem well-built?
• Comfort: How does the surface area of the brush feel against your head? How comfortable is it to hold? Is the weight balanced?
• Ease of use: How intuitive are the controls on the hair dryer brush? How easy is it to brush through hair? How easy is it to clean hair from the brush?
• Effectiveness: How does the temperature of the hair dryer brush rate? How does the airflow of the hair dryer brush rate?
• Final style: How good is the quality of the blowout? How is the overall experience with the brush?

What You Should Know About Buying Hair Dryer Brushes

Hair dryer brushes detangle, dry, and straighten the hair at once.

A hair dryer brush is designed to be a one-and-done solution for hair styling. You don’t need multiple tools—a hair dryer, a brush, and a flat iron—to get a sleek, professional-looking blowout at home.

But do these gadgets deliver on that promise? The short answer: It depends. To get the most out of a hair dryer brush, there are a couple things you should consider before making your purchase.

Hair length: As someone who has had both very long hair and collarbone-length hair, I think hair dryer brushes are better suited to those with longer hair. The barrels on most blow dryer brushes we tested are large. That said, for best styling results, the instructions all guide you to pick up small sections of hair at a time to make sure the hair gets enough air to dry it and heat to straighten it. People with longer hair will likely find it easier to use these large barrels on small sections because they can pull their hair taught against the brush and wrap the hair as they brush downward. But those with shorter hair like mine may struggle because there’s less hair to wrap around the barrel, which makes it difficult to get the necessary tension for a sleek style. It’s not impossible to attain sleek results—as evidenced by my experience—but I it may take more time to get used to styling with this tool.

Cost: The price of hair dryer brushes varies widely, with the most expensive model we tested costing 13 times more than the least expensive one. But our tests show you don’t need to splurge to get a quality product. In fact, our top pick is the second most affordable option we tested. What’s more, two of the most expensive models didn’t even make it into the top four spots.

More Articles You Might Enjoy

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.

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Meet the tester

Brigitt Earley is a freelance writer and editor based in NJ. Her work has appeared in a number of lifestyle publications, including Real Simple and Apartment Therapy. She’s a new mom, runs an Instagram account full of the most delicious food she can find, and loves to hate a good barre class.

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We tested 6 blow dry brushes —Here are the best for styling hair in 2023

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A quality blow dryer brush can make or break your hair — literally. Whether your hair falls more pin-straight or lion mane-curly, it’s important to have one of these on hand and at arm’s reach.

The multi-purpose tool is one I resort to frequently (about 99.9% of the time when I don’t air-dry my natural curls). Its two-in-one brush and blow dryer combo is exactly what makes styling convenient, user-friendly and salon-worthy at the end.

“A blow dryer brush is a combination hot air tool with a round brush bristle attachment designed to dry and style in one go,” Amy Abramite, creative director and hairstylist at Maxine Salon in Chicago, told the New York Post. “They are easy to grip and use for a one step blow dry that looks like a professional blowout.”

While blow dryer brushes have risen in popularity as of late, this isn’t a product I’ve picked up yesterday. In fact, I’ve been testing some of the best blow dryer brushes as early as three years ago — including ones from amika, Dyson, the new debut from Moroccanoil, and more.

What’s more, I’ve been product-testing a variety of hair products for years, including hair mousses, stay-all-day hair sprays, dozens of shampoos and conditioners, after-shower leave-in conditioners and more.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for: a comprehensive review of the best blow dryer brushes you can buy for efficient, easy styling (note: I also put together a comparison table at the end of this review so you can see all of them at a quick glance).

For more intel on blow dryer brushes and an expert-backed, step-by-step guide on how to use one, check out our FAQ section following our product picks.

Our top picks, at a glance

• Best Blow Dryer Brush Overall: Moroccanoil 4-in-1 Blow-Dryer Brush ($120)
• Best Budget Blow Dryer Brush: Revlon One-Step Volumizer and Hot Air Brush ($49)
• Best Splurge Blow Dryer Brush: Dyson Airwrap Multi-Styler Complete Long ($600)
• Best Blow Dryer Brush for Frizzy Hair: Drybar The Double Shot Blow-Dryer Brush ($155)
• Best Blow Dryer Brush for Curly Hair: T3 AireBrush Duo Interchangeable Hot Air Blow Dry Brush ($190)
• Best Blow Dryer Brush for Volume: amika Hair Blow Dryer Brush 2.0 ($100)

How we tested

While reviewing the top blow dryer brushes on the market (side note: my hair is naturally curly, sometimes frizzy and blow dries in loose curls, so you can say I’m a mutt of different hair types and textures), here’s the official New York Post Shopping criteria I ran through for each tool:

• Ease of use: When it’s time for me to style my hair, I don’t want it to be a production. I want to go from damp to dry on the fly, and with a tool that is just as easy to use as it is effective.
• Styling power: When using a blow-dryer brush, I look at how my hair feels as it’s being styled. Does the hair tool leave my hair dry? Frizzy? On the flip-side, does it leave my hair soft and bouncy? Smooth to the touch? These are all factors I take into consideration when reviewing.
• Lasting power: Arguably the most important factor in assessing a styling tool is how long the style will last. Can I go longer than two days without a wash, perhaps even skipping dry shampoo in the process?

Best Blow Dryer Brush Overall: Moroccanoil 4-in-1 Blow-Dryer Brush

Pros:

• Quickest blow dry time (only 10 minutes!)
• Even heat distribution for frizz-free, smooth locks

Cons:

I’ve been using the Moroccanoil 4-in-1 Blow-Dryer Brush for about a month now (it recently launched, so I had to get my hands on it). The brand is known for its much-adored smoothing hair products — like its Hydrating Styling Cream ($36) and All-in-One Leave-In Conditioner ($30), so I knew its stunning, new hair tool was on that same agenda.

The best part? Not only does the brush satisfy my hair-styling expectations (only 10 minutes to look like I came fresh out of a salon!) but it works well with frizzy hair, has impeccable heat distribution (so, it doesn’t feel like I’m using a “hot” tool at all) and has a sleek, durably made look. It also helps increase shine.

Not to mention, it’s fairly priced compared to others I’ve used — and my most-recommended hair tool to date.

Read our full review here.