Shark FlexStyle review: the $370 Airwrap rival, tested on a frizzy bob and long curls

The question I got most after our Dyson Airwrap review wasn't about the Airwrap. It was, in about forty different emails and one very direct comment from my sister-in-law at a fish fry: "Okay, but is the Shark one just as good?"

Fair question. The Shark FlexStyle does the same basic trick as the Airwrap, curling hair with air instead of hot metal, and it doubles as a regular hair dryer when you twist the wand. The 5-in-1 set lists at $369.99, and it's often on sale for much less. The Airwrap Co-anda 2x I tested is $749.99.

So from August 1 to September 12, I used the FlexStyle on my own thick, frizzy, chin-length bob, 31 times. My downstairs neighbor Keisha, who has long, curly hair and very little patience for gadgets, used it 12 times. We timed everything, took photos at the same window and wrote it all down. Here's the honest gap between the two.

What you get, and the twist

The FlexStyle is a long black wand with thin rose-gold trim. Point it straight up and it's a styler: you click on an attachment and use it like a hot air brush or a curling wand. Press a button at the joint, twist the top 90 degrees, and it turns into a normal-looking hair dryer. That's the part the Airwrap can't do, and it matters more than I expected. When I just wanted to dry my hair fast, I could hold it like the dryer I've used for fifteen years.

The HD440 5-in-1 set I tested comes with two 1.25-inch auto-wrap curlers (one for each direction), an oval brush, a paddle brush, a curl-defining diffuser and a styling concentrator. Shark sells extra attachments separately, around $40 each. The motor is rated at 1,600 watts, the cord is 8 feet long, and Shark covers it with a two-year limited warranty.

Shark's big promise is "no heat damage." The tool measures the air temperature about 1,000 times a second and keeps it steady instead of letting it creep up. I checked with a small probe thermometer held one inch from the outlet: about 170°F on high heat, 138°F on medium and 102°F on low. My old flat iron is set to 400°F. That doesn't make the FlexStyle magic, but it's a very different kind of heat.

Pepper, our cat, has hated every hair tool I've ever tested. She hated this one too, but she waited until I turned it on. That's growth. On paper the kit is complete, so the real test was the thing I do four mornings a week: drying.

Drying: the stopwatch results

I wash my hair four times a week, so I timed eight identical wash days with the FlexStyle in dryer mode, towel-dry to fully dry, on high speed and medium heat. I used the same method I used for the Airwrap in July, so the numbers compare directly.

Almost six minutes faster than my old dryer, and less than two minutes behind the Airwrap. At four washes a week, that's about 23 minutes back every week. The finish was smooth too. My photo log at the window showed fewer flyaways at the crown on 6 of the 8 days compared with my old dryer, which I put down to the steadier, lower heat.

Noise was typical for a hair dryer: 84 decibels at arm's length on high, measured with a phone app. Not quiet. My husband Tom, reading downstairs through a closed door, said it sounded "like a very polite leaf blower."

Drying was the easy win. The curls were where I expected the FlexStyle to struggle, and on my short hair, it partly did.

Curls on a short bob

The auto-wrap curlers work like the Airwrap barrels: air flows around the curler, a section of hair gets pulled onto it and wraps itself. You hold it for a few seconds, then hit the cold shot to set the curl. The first time it grabs your hair on its own, you will say something out loud. I said "oh no," then "oh."

My first full head of waves took 41 minutes and looked uneven. By session eight I was down to 22 minutes. The rules I learned are the same ones that worked with the Airwrap: narrow sections, mostly dry hair to begin with, and a full five seconds of cold shot on each curl.

Here's the honest difference. On my chin-length bob, the 1.25-inch curler grabbed the longer pieces fine but sometimes let go of the short layers at the back before they wrapped. And the waves didn't last as long. By mid-afternoon they had softened but held. The next morning, about half the shape was left. With the Airwrap's 1.6-inch barrel I'd kept about two thirds. On a humid August day by Lake Michigan, the FlexStyle waves were gone by dinner unless I used mousse.

The oval brush was the surprise. For a smooth, bouncy blowout it was every bit as good as the Airwrap's round brush, and on busy days that's what I actually used. Five minutes over 80% dry hair and I looked like I'd tried much harder than I had.

A short bob isn't what most people buy these tools for, though. The loudest fans of the FlexStyle online have long, curly hair. So I went downstairs.

Long curls and the diffuser

Keisha lives in the lower half of our duplex. She's a 31-year-old ER nurse with long, springy curls past her shoulders, and her routine after a wash is either four hours of air drying or 31 minutes with a $40 dryer and a clip-on diffuser that she describes as "a sombrero for my hair." She agreed to test the FlexStyle for three weeks in exchange for me walking her dog twice. I think I got the better deal.

With the curl-defining diffuser in dryer mode, her average over 12 sessions was 22 minutes 30 seconds to dry, down from 31. The diffuser has long prongs that reach the roots, and the steady airflow didn't blow her curls apart the way her old dryer did. On her photo log, curl definition looked the same or better on 9 of 12 days, with less frizz at the crown.

"I thought it was going to be a fancy gadget that doesn't get curly hair. It gets curly hair. I'm keeping the diffuser, you can keep the curlers." Keisha, week three

She's right about the curlers. On her natural curls they were pointless, and she used the oval brush only once, for a stretched style before a wedding in Waukesha. For curly hair, the FlexStyle is really a very good diffuser dryer with extras. That's not a bad thing at this price. It also brings us to the things neither of us loved.

What annoyed us

The weight. The FlexStyle weighs just over 1.5 pounds, and with a curler on it the weight sits at the far end of your arm. The Airwrap is under a pound. On curl days, my shoulder felt it around minute 15. Keisha, who lifts patients for a living, didn't notice at all, so your mileage will vary.

One curler size. You get two 1.25-inch curlers and that's it. There's no wider barrel for loose, beachy waves and no smaller one for tight curls near the face. For a bob, a longer barrel would have helped. Shark's new FlexStyle IonCurl promises a stronger wrap, and I'll get to it below.

No case. Six attachments and no storage case in the HD440 box. They lived in a shoebox under my sink for six weeks, and I lost the concentrator twice. Some other FlexStyle bundles include a hard case, so check the box contents before you buy.

Buttons in the wrong place. The heat, speed and cold shot buttons sit on the handle, right where my thumb rests when I twist the wand into dryer mode. Three times I changed the heat setting by accident. Small thing, but it happened in week five too.

The filter. Air goes in through a filter at the base of the wand, and it fills with lint and hair. Mine was visibly gray after four weeks. Clean it every couple of weeks, or the tool gets louder and warmer.

None of this is a deal breaker. It just shapes the comparison everyone is really asking about.

FlexStyle vs. Airwrap, side by side

My summary: the Airwrap is better at curling, lighter in the hand and nicer to hold. The FlexStyle is almost as good at drying, better as a plain dryer and far better value. If I had to buy one with my own money for my own hair, I'd buy the FlexStyle on sale and spend the difference on a good haircut every six weeks for a year. The full Airwrap test is in our Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x review.

Is it worth waiting for Black Friday?

The FlexStyle is one of those gifts that goes on sale a lot, and the price moves more than people expect. I don't have a clean record of last Black Friday for the HD440, so I won't invent a number. Here's what we've seen, and how I'd shop.

• List price: $369.99 for the HD440 5-in-1 at Shark and Amazon at the time of writing.
• Prime member deal: we've seen the same HD440 at $229 on Amazon.
• Four-attachment versions (like the copper HD433): we've seen $199.99 at Amazon, about $130 off.

My rule: under $250 is a good price for the HD440, $229 or less is great, and the four-attachment sets are worth it at $200 if you don't need the paddle brush or diffuser. Please don't pay full price in November. The FlexStyle has been cheaper than $369.99 far more often than not.

As a gift, it's excellent for curly-haired teens and adults (the diffuser alone is worth it), for anyone who blow-dries daily, and for moms who want five minutes back. It makes less sense for someone with very short hair or someone who air-dries and likes it. Good additions:

• A heat protectant spray and a light mousse, because waves need something to hold on to
• A pack of sectioning clips, which make the curlers far easier
• A storage case or a drawer organizer if the set doesn't include one

One thing to know before the holidays: some stores treat opened hair tools as personal care items and won't take them back once used. Holiday windows help (Amazon's typically runs into late January for gifts bought in November and December), but ask about opened beauty tools and keep the box sealed until you're sure. Register the tool with Shark to use the two-year warranty.

Who should buy it, and who shouldn't

If there's a man in the house who's more interested in his beard than his blowout, my eight-week Philips OneBlade Pro 360 review covers the tool Tom now uses every morning.

Alternatives worth a look

• Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x ($749.99): better curls, lighter, more attachments in the set. For people who curl daily and can afford it.
• Shark FlexStyle IonCurl ($349.99 list): Shark's newest FlexStyle, launched in late August, with ion airflow, a stronger curl wrap and a high-shine finishing tool. We haven't tested it yet, so for now I'm reporting Shark's claims, not our results.
• Shark FlexStyle 4-in-1 (HD430 family) (seen at $199.99): same wand, fewer attachments. The smart choice if you only want drying, the oval brush and curlers.

Every styler we test gets the same stopwatch, thermometer and window-photo routine, as explained on our how we test page. You'll find our other beauty picks in the reviews.

Six weeks later, the FlexStyle lives on my bathroom counter and the old $60 dryer lives in the guest room. Keisha handed the test unit back with a long sigh and ordered her own that same night.

Questions people ask