Now that I have use both the Dyson Airwrap and Shark Flex Styler, I wanted to give you my review on both. Spoiler alert, I’m my humble opinion there is a clear winner.

For context, I borrowed my friend’s airwrap for a month or two when we lived in NC so I had the opportunity to test it out. It took a little trial and error mostly in terms of how wet your hair should be but overall I really liked it. It took me about an hour to do my hair which was a pain (compared to my 15 minutes using my flat iron to curl my hair), so while I really liked the look of the airwrap, it wasn’t worth the $600 for me. It took too much time out of my day, I liked how the curls looked but I wasn’t so obsessed that I needed to spend $600. I also always washed my hair at night and I feel like one of the best parts of the airwrap (and flex styler) is you can style and dry at the same time. Since I didn’t really need that feature/function, again, it wasn’t appealing enough to spend $600.

Fast forward to January of this year. We’re in Vail and apparently I left my flatiron in the hotel (whoops). For years and years I have curled my hair with a flatiron so needless to say I was going to need to replace it if I wanted waves in my hair lol. The flatiron I use (linked here) isn’t inexpensive so TBH, I was dragging my feet on purchasing a new one. It was just annoying purchase that I didn’t want to spend money on since I had one that worked perfectly but obviously needed to replace it at some point haha. So while I was procrastinating, I asked one of my friends if I could borrow her Dyson since she never really uses it (and she graciously let me use it for like 2 months lol). So during this time of playing around with the Dyson I began to really like it mostly because I started washing my hair in the morning after my workouts so the drying and styling simultaneously was really convenient. Also, now that my hair is longer, I liked how the curls were looking mores than when it was shorter. Still though, $600 is a lot of money for a hair tool hah. THEN the Shark Flex Styler started to become popular and I was like, okay, for something I’ve been using weekly, I can better justify the $300 (Stephen, if you’re reading this, this is what it costs to have great hair these days!!!).

So cue the Shark Flex Styler. I’ll now to try to keep this somewhat short since I’m given you all my hair history at this point, but overall I am a big fan of the Shark and personally like it better than the Dyson. Here is why I like it better:
-Shark feels much more powerful. It can hold larger pieces of hair and the hair wraps around the barrel much easier – regardless of whether it’s wet or dry. For the airwrap, if you’re end are slightly too wet, the hair has a lot of difficulty wrapping around the barrel in my experience. With the Shark Flex, I didn’t have any of those issues.

-Shark gets hotter. I feel like the Shark is able to get hotter which is a pro for me when it comes to styling.

-I prefer the size of the Shark barrels. This could be a con for some people -but hear me out. The Dyson is better in the sense that it comes with two different size barrels however, since my hair is longer and thicker, I always wish there was a barrel as long as the lowest Dyson but with more thickness. I feel like the thicker barrel gives the look of more of a blowout with loose waves/body but since it’s shorter, it’s harder to use when you have longer hair. The Shark just comes with one barrel but it’s slightly thicker and it’s longer. So for me, I prefer this size. I think it works better with my hair and the curls look better.

-Curls look better. So to my point above, this is again more of a personal preference based on my hair. With the width and length of the barrel, I just prefer the look/type of curl it gives to my hair vs. the Dyson.

-It’s half the cost. I’m totally fine with paying for/investing in quality products if it’s something I’m going to use all the time but when something is $300 cheaper and it works just as well (if not better) in my opinion it’s kind of a no brainer.

Really the only thing I don’t like as much about the Shark is that the power button and cool shot button are further apart so it’s not as seamless to turn on/off and do the cool shot but that’s such a minor detail. It was probably more so just because I’m used to the Dyson because now after using the Shark several times, I don’t really notice it.

All that said, I would recommend getting the Shark Flex Styler if:

-You wash your hair in the morning and/or are having to dry it before styling it. Using the flex styler will save you a lot of time in that regard.

-You can go at least several days between washes. I personally would not want to put that much effort into my hair several times a week (it takes me about 45 min). But the fact that I wash my hair every 5-7 days, styling it once will pretty much hold me over until my next wash. So I’m investing time up front, but then I’m done. It’s also easy to do little touch ups with it also. I also like how my hair naturally falls with the Shark Flex Styler – it just gives it some natural body as the days go on and the curls fall.

-You pretty consistently wear your hair the same way. For me, I pretty much always wear my hair in loose waves. So the fact that I’m consistently using this tool and styling it in the same way makes it worth the cost. If you’re just using it once every month or two, I don’t think it would be worth it.

-You’re willing to actually take the time to style it. If you know you realistically aren’t going to take the 45 minutes (my hair is long and think so it may not take you as long but it’s still not a super quick process), then I wouldn’t spend the money.

-Lastly, you can spend the $300. I know it’s not inexpensive by any means but as y’all probably know, I am a huge proponent of when you look good, you feel good and I genuinely believe you perform better in all areas of your life (just saying). And I know how great I feel when I’m having a good hair day/leave the salon, so if I can mimic that on a regular basis it’s worth the investment IMO!