Shark FlexStyle: two-minute review
This is the product on review:
US: Shark FlexStyle (HD400)
UK: Shark FlexStyle
AU: Shark FlexStyle (HD440)
We tested the UK version. There may be minor differences between different countries' models.
The Shark FlexStyle – or to give its full name, the Shark FlexStyle Air Styling & Hair Drying System – is a tube shaped dryer onto which a variety of tools can be attached to achieve a range of styles. We tested one out to see how it compares to the rest of the best hair stylers on the market, and were pretty impressed.
This is Shark's answer to the perpetually popular Dyson Airwrap. Just like that multi-styler, the FlexStyle has the all-important auto-wrap curl barrels, shape strands of hair into coils as it dries them, without the need for the scorching heat of traditional curling tongs. Functionally, these work pretty much identically to the Airwrap, although here you'll have to swap over barrels when you want to move from clockwise to anticlockwise curls. That minor annoyance aside, this is one of the very best Dyson Airwrap dupes we've tested.
Overall, the design is balanced, comfortable to use, and feels well-built. It packs a good amount of power too – although not quite as much as one of today's best hair dryers. Beyond the auto-wrap barrels, there's a wide range of compatible accessories, which make this tool suitable for a range of hair types and lengths. In some countries you can pick the ones you want included with your FlexStyle bundle, so you're not stuck with a bunch of attachments you don't need, too.
On test, we found results varied by tool, with some impressing more than others. Note too that, while using the Coanda effect to create curls is undoubtedly better for your hair, it's fiddlier and the results tend to drop far quicker than when using a traditional curling tong. That's the short version; read on for our full Shark FlexStyle review.
Shark FlexStyle review: price & availability
- List price: $279.99 / £269.99 / AU$499.99
- Launched: 2022
The Shark FlexStyle launched back in 2022, and has a list price of $279.99 in the US, £269.99 in the UK and AU$499.99 in Australia. You can purchase direct from Shark or via a range of third party retailers. Shark is no stranger to a sale, so if you're smart about when you buy, you can avoid paying full price (keep an eye out for a Shark promo codes, too).
If you go direct to Shark in the US or UK, you can build your own bundle. You get the base model, and then pick four from the wide range of compatible accessories (the left and right curlers count as one, don't worry!). That's a clever system as it means you can choose only the tools you need for your hair type and routine. You can also purchase accessories individually from Shark.
You can pick up styling tools at any price, but you should expect to pay a bit of a premium for one that uses the Coanda effect for curling. The build quality here is good, and wide selection of compatible attachments and convenience of the auto-wrapping curl barrels goes some way towards justifying the expense.
The main competitor in this area is the Dyson Airwrap. The previous model (which it's still possible to get hold of... for now) comes with a list price of $599.99 / £479.99 / AU$849.99, and the newest iteration, the Airwrap i.d., is $599.99 / £479.99 / $849. So a lot pricier than the Shark. That styler does feel more premium, though, and does some useful things the FlexStyle cannot.
As time has gone on, we've seen more Airwrap dupes arriving on the market, and some are significantly cheaper even than the FlexStyle. For example, in the US there's the Sharper Image Revel 6-in-1 Multi-Styler for $269.99, and in the UK the Revamp Dynamic Radiance Pro Blow Dry 7-in-1 Ionic Air Styler for £179.99.
- Value for money score: 3.5 out of 5
Shark FlexStyle specs
Shark FlexStyle review: design
- Easy-to-reach and use controls
- Well-balanced and comfortable to hold
- Attachments are sturdily built, and come on and off easily
The design comprises a tube-shaped dryer with various attachments. The main barrel feels balanced and fairly lightweight, with a 5.5-inch circumference that fits neatly in the palm of your hand. On the barrel you'll find the controls – an on/off toggle, buttons to adjust windspeed and temperature (there are three settings for each, with indicator lights showing which mode you're in), and a button higher up the barrel for the cool shot.
The dryer itself looks and feels high quality, although not quite as premium as the Airwrap. We've tested both the gold and back colorways, and far prefer the latter – the beige attachments on the gold model look rather cheap, and become dirty easily.
The top section pivots and locks at a right angle, reducing the length from 11.3 inches to around 8.5 inches and making it very comfortable to use as a hair dryer.
Adding attachments makes it rather long – the 6-inch auto-wrap barrels take the total length of the styler to a somewhat cumbersome 17.5 inches – but it's a testament to Shark's engineering that it remains well balanced no matter which attachment you use. This, coupled with its light weight, makes even the most complex and long-winded styles comfortable to complete.
While it’s true the Shark FlexStyle can replace a number of your existing hair tools, don’t expect it to save you a lot of space in the process, as many of the attachments are rather bulky. One of our review samples came with a display box, which is large but looks smart and at least gives you somewhere to stash away all the various bits neatly. (The box isn't generally included as standard, but is one of the options in the build your own bundle.)
A minor complaint is that the cable is thick and has a power pack around a third of the way down. This makes it difficult to wrap or coil neatly for storage, and the power pack adds what feels like an unnecessary amount of bulk when lifting the styler above and around your head. Said cable is also slightly shorter than we'd ideally like, at 8ft / 2.4m.
Attachments
The FlexStyle initially launched with a relatively limited range of attachments, but in the years since has added more options. Now, it boasts one of the widest ranges of compatible attachments of any multi-styler... although the selection still isn't quite as comprehensive as the Airwrap's. (Note these may vary slightly by country.) For our review, we tested the following attachments:
- 1.25" auto-wrap curlers
- Concentrator
- Paddle brush
- Oval bristle brush
- Diffuser
Also available, but not tested here, are:
- 0.95" auto-wrap curlers
- Round bristle brush
- Wide tooth comb
- 'FrizzFighter' finishing tool (to rival Dyson's popular Flyaway tool).
These all snap on easily, and can be released by pulling down the lock button. They also have cool-touch areas so you can remove them without burning your fingers.
The auto-wrap curlers have a classy matte finish and are marked with arrows so you can see at a glance if it's a clockwise or anti-clockwise barrel. Both the oval and paddle brushes are on the large side, much larger than the size of a regular hairbrush, and certainly geared towards those with longer, thicker hair (it looks like the round bristle brush would be a better fit for mid-length locks). The diffuser is also rather chunky, and features a slider switch that enables you to extend the length of the prongs, making it suitable for longer hair.
- Design score: 4 out of 5
Shark FlexStyle review: performance
- Intuitive controls and easy to get started with
- Fast overall drying speeds
- Performance and finish vary depending on the attachment
Overall, the styler is well balanced, not too heavy, and comfortable to use. It's also easy to get started with, although mastering each of the attachments can take a bit longer – as we'll get into in a second.
The settings buttons are placed at the bottom of the barrel, rather than higher up where they might be accidentally switched while gripping the styler. They're easy enough to reach if you do need to make changes mid-style, and the fact they're on a flattened section means you can locate them fairly easily by touch. However, they do sit alongside the air vents for the motor, which means you can block airflow when switching between modes.
To set the styler into right-angled hair dryer mode, you pull down a switch on the barrel’s handle and twist the top section. In this mode, it's easy to direct the airflow precisely where it's needed. It also makes it comfortable to use with the diffuser or diffuser attached.
The hair dryer on its own is fast and effective. It took our fine-haired tester 2 minutes and 47 seconds to go from wet to dry hair, putting it on par with the original Dyson Supersonic. Her hair was a little frizzy and flat when dried in this way, but no more or less than when drying with other hairdryers.
To add attachments, turn and lock them into place and then use the unlock switch on the barrel to release them with ease. The use of an unlock switch may seem unnecessary, but it prevents the attachments from twisting and moving mid-style – a common complaint of other hair dryers and cheaper multi-stylers we've used in the past.
Auto-wrap curl barrels
Probably the biggest selling point of the FlexStyle is the promise of effortless curling with minimal heat damage using the auto-wrap curlers. To get the most out of these attachments, you should start by drying hair until it's around 80% dry – you can use the styler in hair dryer mode to take care of this. Achieving the optimum level of moisture in the hair requires a bit of trial and error – too wet or too dry, and the curls won't hold.
Mastering the Coanda technology also takes a bit of time, although once you've got it, it's fairly straightforward. You want to section off a bit of hair, switch the styler on and position the barrel in the bottom third of the hair. You'll see the strands start twisting around the barrel, and moving the wand backwards and forwards slightly will cause the rest of it to wrap too. The hot air then shapes the curl as it finishes drying the hair. For best results, you'll need to hit the cool shot button to set the curl before removing the wand.
Here, the matte finish on curl barrels adds slight grip on the hair, which one of our thick-haired testers found hindered the wrapping process a little, although those with finer, slipperier hair might actually find it helps.
It's not a perfect system. Swapping over the barrels when you want to change the direction of curl is annoying. The air can pull in hair from other sections, or blow it in various directions while you’re setting each curl, creating frizz and flyaways. All three of our testers found their curls dropped much faster than those created using a traditional tong (although our tester with thick, straight hair found that curls on day-old hair had more staying power than on freshly washed hair).
We will emphasize, though, that this is true of all Coanda effect curlers we've tried. You won't end up with perfect, long-lasting curls with this method, but you can achieve good body and waves with minimal heat damage.
If you opt to pay more for an Airwrap i.d., you'll get the convenience of not having to swap barrels to change from clockwise to anticlockwise, and there's a switch that kicks off a curl cycle (wrap, curl, cool shot) timed to your hair type, so you won't need to mess around with changing settings mid-curl. However, functionally the wrapping process and results will be very similar.
Brush attachments
If you're using the oval or paddle brush, you can expect drying times to be a little longer, because you're styling as you dry. These are both fairly intuitive in use, and require far less of learning curve than the auto-wrap barrels. The large size means they're best suited to longer, thicker hair.
To get real volume using the oval brush, you’ll need to spend time working on the roots, holding your hair straight up (or at right angles to your head), placing the brush on the underside of your hair at the base and running it up and through each strand multiple times. You can also hold the brush at the base while it sets the volume, before smoothing the rest of the hair, or rotating it as you move it through to create flicks or large curls and waves.
Our fine-haired tester found this method gave her hair decent volume to begin with, but the style fell flat within half an hour. The large size of the oval brush makes it much better suited to long hair than short.
The paddle brush is used for creating smooth styles, and to use it you simply run it through strands of hair like you would a regular hair brush, keeping it face-down to smooth the cuticles. If you want to add subtle volume, angle the paddle brush up and under your roots for a few seconds before each pass. On test we found this created a smooth finish, with very little frizz. Our fine-haired tester was particularly impressed, and noted that she usually had to resort to straighteners to gain such a sleek, straight look.
- Performance score: 3.5 out of 5
Should I buy a Shark FlexStyle?
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
How I tested the Shark Flexstyle
This review combines the experiences of three testers, with different hair types and styling preferences. All used the FlexStyle extensively over at least a couple of weeks, trying out all the supplied attachments. We noted how intuitive and comfortable it was to use, and how the results matched up to other styling tools we'd used. We also assessed how fast it was to style hair, and how long the results lasted.
