'I'm sorry I'm washing my hair' has to be the most overused cliché excuse in British culture to not make an event but you'll be mistaken if you think styling or cleaning your hair doesn't take that much time.
I spend a fair amount of money, and time, on my hair at the salon but when it comes to upkeep at home I absolutely detest it because I know the work I'll have to put in. Who wants to spend hours on end blow-drying, straightening or curling, or de-tangling all those hair strands? Not me.
If I can get away with popping my hair up in a ponytail for the third day running and not having to wash or blow-dry my locks I will. It all sounds incredibly lazy but I am.
So of course, I've been wondering about the latest craze of air stylers that promise to dry and style your hair at the same time. Dyson has its Airwrap which attracts and wraps the hair without using extreme heat. But it's a big risk at £499.99, especially if I'm too lazy to even use it.
Whereas rival brand Shark has the likes of the Style iQ Ionic hair dryer and styler which combines rapid air power with next-generation intelligence, generating high-velocity heated ionised air for fast drying with no heat damage, priced at £179.99.
Their brand new FlexStyle 5 in 1 hair styler caught my attention though. It promises to do all the things the Dyson Airwrap can do but for less, with it being priced at £299.99. I decided to give it a go in the hope that it would spark some effort and life into my hair styling at home.
Unboxing and setting up
The black and rose gold styler came in a black, zipped storage case which contained the main unit, one paddle brush, one oval brush, two curlers (left and right barrels), one styling concentrator and one curl-defining diffuser. There's also a style guide and safety instructions inside.
Setting up was fairly straightforward once I had a quick scan of the safety instructions and style guide. The main brushes and curlers clip and slot into the unit at the top. If you just want to use the hair dryer you rotate the top of the unit nozzle to the left until it clicks into place to transform into the dryer.
The styler also has a lock which you slide down to unlock when clipping and unclipping the different brush heads to the top. Having the style guide in the box is also handy as it gives you the best recommendations for curling, blow-drying with volume, blow-drying and straightening, and defining curls.
Once I figured out which look I wanted to go for it was time to follow the steps.
Using Shark's FlexStyle 5 in 1 hair styler
I have bleached-blonde hair that sits just below my shoulder and the most adventurous I'll ever get with my hair is a bit of a wave or curl, if I can be bothered...which is never. To give myself some credit though I do use Olaplex to reduce the damage the bleach does, and to keep my locks in silky, moisture condition.
Before this first trial I made sure I used the Olaplex Number Three hair protector the night before so my hair wouldn't get too damaged from the testing - but I didn't need to worry as this styler has various temperatures, air flow options and a Cool Shot button which blasts your hair with a cold breeze during styling.
Let me start off by saying the hair dryer is super powerful. For a small opening at the top of the unit, the hair dryer produced a lot of force and dried the majority of my hair within minutes.
With the Shark FlexStyle you are required to dry at least 80% of your hair before you begin to use the other brush heads or curlers. I was annoyed when I first read this but it makes sense, you don't want your hair ringing wet and then to stick a hot curling iron on it while it also gets blasted with heat from the dryer.
It was a plus that the hair dryer dried the majority of my thick locks within minutes. For the first trial of this, I chose the Oval Brush which comes with a recommended setting of two out of three for airflow and two out of three for temperature.
The Oval Brush is designed to smooth and defrizz, while adding volume and bounce at the same time. It grabbed my hair easily and it was great at detangling my damp hair as it dried and straightened it out at the same time. The whole process took me about 30 minutes which is less time than it would have taken me to dry and straighten my hair separately.
The Oval Brush head and styler did give me a bounce and my hair felt that little bit different, in a good way. I appreciated the effort I put in because the overall look was sleek and bouncy. I was also impressed that I didn't have too many fly-aways either which I get a lot of due to the bleach in my hair.
The Auto-Wrap Curlers promise to deliver hassle-free curls in seconds. I was a little nervous about using these as I'm not the best when it comes to curls, I've only just got used to using my GHD straighteners to curl my hair.
Nevertheless I stuck it out and found that the curlers use the air power to automatically wrap hair around the barrel from ends to roots. You get given two curlers, a left and a right, so you can have curls in both directions on each side of the head.
I started off with drying 80% of my hair and I also applied Dr Paw Paw's 7-in-1 heat protection this time before drying and curling. I separated my hair into sections and followed the styling guide.
The one thing I did notice this time was the amount of time it was taking to work my way around my head. The barrels were also a bit temperamental too. One section of hair would curl beautifully while other sections didn't take or the curler couldn't handle the amount of hair in that section.
I did find the way the curler picked the strand of hair up automatically really useful, as there's no need to twist the wand as you curl. However, the whole process was a bit too time consuming for me.
By the time I got to the other side of my head some of the previous curls were beginning to drop out, and I think they were being affected by the intense drying from the curls on the other side. The Cool Shot worked well here though and locked the curl further into place at the root.
I wasn't that impressed with the end result of the curlers compared to the other brush heads. I found the curlers gave me more of a bouncy wave and didn't curl the strands of hair as tightly as I would have liked, so they didn't drop out. The finished look still gave me a nice bounce and it was obvious that I had used the styler and put effort in once more, but it wasn't as curl-defined as I would have liked.
My favourite brush so far though is the Paddle Brush which straightens and smooths your hair all at once. It has made my hair feel more shiny and smooth too despite not doing anything differently with my hair products.
Verdict
The Shark Styler is good value for money when you take into account the amount you are getting in one machine. I love that there are various brush heads so you can either achieve a straightened or bouncy blow-dry look. The hair dryer alone is powerful enough to achieve a salon-look, especially when pairing it with the Styling Concentrator.
If you're after a styler that will dry your hair and give you defined curls at the same time though, I don't think the Shark FlexStyle is for you. It's good at drying and styling other looks but when it comes to curls it's more of a wave.
For a lazy person like me though who isn't too bothered about whether her hair is curly or not, it's a winner. I will be using the FlexStyle more often, especially when I can't be bothered to dry and then straighten my hair, at least this does it all in one.
You can buy the Shark FlexStyle on the official website here or you can get it from John Lewis, Boots, Currys, Very and Argos.
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