Once only known for its household appliances, Shark made its debut into the beauty space back in 2021 with the launch of its first hair dryer. Then, in 2022, came the flexstyle – a more affordable (but arguably just as good) take on Dyson’s in-demand airwrap – which is what really put the brand on the map.

Since then, Shark beauty has really come into its own. As a brand, its aim is to democratise premium hair tools while creating products that promise to work across all hair types – and so far, so good. The brand has also recently announced hairstylist Chris Appleton, who counts Kim K and J-Lo as regular clients, as its first global ambassador, and there’s a whole host of new products in the pipeline.

The first of which is the Shark speedstyle, a does-it-all-dryer that claims to be the market’s lightest. It’s available to buy in a couple of different configurations, and there’s a total of six attachments (sadly they won’t work on the FlexStyle).

We tried the 5-in-1 kit, which includes the dryer, alongside the rapidgloss finisher, quicksmooth brush, turbo concentrator, defrizz fast diffuser and the express touchup brush (more on those later). The sixth, which we haven’t got, but is available to buy separately, is the lift and stretch wide-tooth comb.

But one question remains – is it any good? To find out, we got our hands on a pre-launch sample that we were able to put through its paces.

How we tested

Inside the Shark speedstyle five-in-one hair dryer box (Lucy Partington)

We used the dryer in place of our usual one, trying the different attachments in order to understand how they work, the effect they have and how easy they are to use. Our tester also paid attention to the speed of the dryer and how easy the attachments were to switch up. For reference, our tester has fine hair but a lot of it. It also has a natural curl to it, and she will rough dry her hair after every wash before using straighteners to smooth it out and get rid of frizz.

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.

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.

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.

Back to top

The verdict: Shark speedstyle 5-in-1 hair dryer

Overall, we are incredibly impressed with just how efficient the Shark speedstyler is. It really does stay true to its name, it dries hair super quickly and the fact the different attachments are able to create a super sleek finish is a real miracle, especially as our tester has never previously been able to achieve that without using straighteners.

However, to be completely transparent, our tester did end up straightening her hair a few hours after drying it, but that’s definitely more of her own problem than anything to do with the dryer – any other person would have just left it as it was, especially given it was straight, smooth and glossy. The size and weight of the dryer itself is a huge plus point because it’ll be easy for travelling with, alongside the fact that it doesn’t go over 110C, meaning it shouldn’t cause any heat damage.

For anyone less obsessed with having straight hair than our tester, there’s no reason why this dryer couldn’t replace every tool in your kit.

Looking for ways to keep your hair in tip top shape? Read our line-up of the best leave-in conditioners