Shark speedstyle 5-in-1 hair dryer
- Number of attachments: 6
- Weight: 750g
- Power: 1700w
- Voltage: 220-240V (50-60Hz)
- Cool shot: Yes
- Max temperature: 110C
The first thing we noticed was how small yet perfectly formed the hair dryer was. Much more compact and so much lighter than a traditional one, our tester was a bit concerned about how well it would be able to dry her hair – especially considering she usually has to split her hair into three sections to ensure every strand gets properly dried. In the box with the dryer were five attachments:
- RapidGloss finisher – to smooth frizz and flyaways
- QuickSmooth brush – to dry, volumise and smooth at once using a combination of volumising and smoothing bristles
- Turbo concentrator – for quick, precise drying
- DefrizzFast diffuser – for fast, even drying from root to tip, with retractable prongs to suit different hair lengths and thicknesses
- Express touchup brush – to smooth and tame fringes, layers and ends, again, using a combination of volumising and smoothing bristles
Taking into account that our tester prefers to wear her hair straight, after much deliberation we opted to use the quicksmooth brush, followed by the rapidgloss finisher and then the express touch up brush.
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To start, we dried our hair to around 80 per cent as per the instructions – which, to be completely honest, our tester felt would be a little bit too dry, but she went with it anyway. After that, we popped on the quicksmooth brush, which was easy enough to do and it slotted right into place.
As usual, our tester split her into sections to dry. At first, there was a lot of frizz, but as the hair got dryer, the frizz levels seemed to reduce. The main takeaway, though, was how quickly it was drying her hair: it took around five minutes for it to go from towel-dried to 80 per cent dry, and then another five or six minutes with the quicksmooth brush. Once fully dry, our tester was super impressed with both how shiny and smooth her hair looked – there’s no way she’d be able to achieve that sort of finish with minimal effort using a regular hair dryer.
Following that – which, admittedly, did seem a bit faffy – we switched to the rapidgloss finisher, which made such a huge difference. It took some getting used to as the attachment itself doesn’t use bristles, instead it has Coanda technology to attract frizz and flyaways, so getting the knack of it took some doing, but once we got it, it really did help to smooth in seconds. It was really quite mind blowing to see it in action.
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Finally, our tester dried her (extremely grown out) fringe. Usually, she will use a Dyson Airwrap with the round brush attachment, pulling her fringe forward and then, once dry, parting it for a voluminous finish. Instead, we used the express touchup brush, which you can manually rotate to roll the hair upwards (like you would if you were using a roller) to dry it before pulling it out. It created impressive volume and really helped to define the layers that frame our tester’s face.
On the next use, we used the turbo concentrator to help rough dry the hair, which helped reduce the amount of frizz that occurs when getting it to 80 per cent dry. The only attachment that we probably won’t use is the diffuser, so if you’re thinking you won’t either, it’s worth noting that you can buy the SpeedStyle in a configuration that doesn’t include it.