Want to DIY a ‘90s Supermodel Blowout? You Need One of These Hair Dryer Brushes (2025)

Hate having to blow dry and then heat style your hair? Meet Shark's blow brush. It uses hot air to dry and style wet hair, just like a classic blow dryer brush...but it also has a dry hair mode with a heat comb to smooth, curl, or add a sleek finishing touch to your look. You can even use the dry mode the next to touch up non-wash-day hair and revive your hair in less than 10 minutes.

• Heat settings: Four
• Attachments: None
  
• Weight: 1.56 lb

One Cosmo editor says: "In just 10 short minutes, my hair looked like something out of a hair commercial. This one gadget made my hair bouncy, sleek, and so incredibly shiny. Using it felt like I was operating a straightener almost because of how effective it was and how silky it was making my hair. It didn't feel like it was frying my hair though, which is a plus!"—Meg Uy, associate shopping editor

If you reaalllly want to look like you just left a luxe hair appointment, opt for this blowout brush from Bondi Boost that has a two-inch barrel. The smaller barrel makes it easier to create tighter curls, and it's also ideal for styling shorter hair, layers, and curtain bangs. Plus, it has a cool shot setting so you can set your gorgeous curls into place.

• Heat settings: Three
• Attachments: None
• Weight: Not listed

One Cosmo editor says: "I've tried many blow dry brushes in my life and I always come back to the Bondi Boost one. Because it has a smaller barrel, it's ideal for twirling my hair into bouncy curls. It makes my hair look just as good as a $100 salon visit, if I must say so myself!"—Jasmine Hyman, assistant beauty editor

Let’s be honest: If you’ve got a spare $600+ lying around, then yes, the Dyson Airwrap is the best hair dryer brush to fulfill all your wildest hair dreams. Aside from the fact that it comes with two wand-like barrels to curl your hair and a Coanda dryer head that simultaneously dries and smooths, it also comes with three different brush heads (a soft smoothing brush for fine hair, a firm smoothing brush for frizz, and a bristled round brush for volumizing) to give you the exact customized look you want.

• Heat settings: Three
• Attachments: Six
• Weight: 1.5 lb

One Cosmo editor says: "While the Airwrap can do a whole buncha things, I believe its best attachment is the round brush, especially for fine hair. It's so gentle—even on my fragile, damaged hair—and is the perfect in-between circumference that it works on both my bangs and all over my head."—Beth Gillette, beauty editor

In an ideal world, we’d all be able to go to a Drybar every other day for a professional blowout, right? Dreams. The next best thing? This blow dryer brush, which has three heat settings (cool, medium, and high) along with an ionic base that helps seal your hair cuticle and smooth flyaways to achieve that shiny blowout on your own.

• Heat settings: 3
• Attachments: None
• Weight: 1.3 lb

One Cosmo editor says: "I'm typically whipping this bad boy out during a time crunch. So, given how aggressively I use it, I cherish how gentle this blow dryer brush is. It causes virtually no breakage, and it can help me get my mane fully dry in 10-15 minutes. I'm eternally grateful for her."—Annabel Iwegbue, associate editor

This is a must-try if you love a blowout with a lil curl. The Aire 360 comes with two attachments for blow drying (one that rough-dries and another that smooths just as well as any round brush) and then two ceramic curling wand attachments so you can easily give your hair some curls, waves, or bends too. Cosmo's beauty director says that, unlike many blow dry brush kits that come with superfluous attachments, the four that come with this one have very specific and clear uses, so there's no fumbling with parts that you don't actually need.

• Heat settings: 3
• Attachments: 4
• Weight: N/A

One Cosmo editor says: "I’m terrible at maneuvering a round brush and blow dryer at the same time, which is why I’m obsessed with T3’s Aire 360. It makes DIYing a bouncy blowout super easy (see below for my sister and I's results!) no matter your skill set. And I love the curl attachments for revamping a second or third-day style too."—Lauren Balsamo, beauty director

This paddle brush dryer is a Cosmo 2024 Holy Grail winner and lemme tell you why. It uses ion technology for optimal shine, has three heat settings including a cool shot, and the paddle design means there's no tugging or awkward maneuvering required to get a sleek, salon-worthy style.

• Heat settings: Four
• Attachments: None
• Weight: Not listed

One Cosmo editor says: “I am shocked with how quickly this straightened my hair. The ion feature made it super sleek too! My hair routine just completely changed for the better.” —Tamara Fuentes, entertainment editor

Yes, you can use a blow dry brush on wet hair. That's actually how you use a blow dry brush: to simultaneously dry and style your hair. Although to prevent excess damage, it’s always best to let your hair air dry a bit before going in with your blow dry brush. Trying to dry your sopping hair requires a ton of unnecessary heat and tension.

And if you’re blowing out natural hair or tight, curly hair, know that you won’t get the same exact super-sleek results that you’d get from a traditional blowout or silk press, but it definitely does a pretty good job.

Hair dryer brushes, like all hot tools, can be a bit damaging for your hair strands if used excessively (and without heat protectant). The heat from the brush, combined with the potential tugging and pulling of the bristles through your hair, can possibly cause some breakage throughout your hair.

Luckily, a bunch of our favorite ones have advanced airflow technology and specifically designed bristles to minimize heat damage and breakage.

To mitigate damage further, make sure that your hair is approx. 70-80 percent dry before using a blow dry brush, so that you're not running this hot tool with rough bristles through sopping wet hair (remember: Your hair is the most susceptible to damage while wet). Also, make sure your hair is fully brushed and smoothed out with no knots before you use it, so the bristles aren't tugging at your hair as you pull down.

First, know how to use a hair dryer brush

"Make sure you're using maximum tension with the hair dryer brush and move slowly down the shaft of your hair in a 'C' shape motion," says hairstylist Andrés Melendez. If you want extra volume near your face (hi, curtain bangs and layers), direct sections of the hair out and away from the face. It will probably take you a few times to truly ~nail~ the technique, but trust me, it gets easier.

Choose the bristle type

A hair dryer brush with boar-style bristles will help smooth out flyaways and give your hair a sleek look. Meanwhile, if you want to help detangle coarse hair or quickly dry it, look for bristles with pins on the ends, a combo of pin-tipped nylon and tufted, boar-style bristles is ideal.

Assess your hair goals

Think about what styles you want to achieve with your hair dryer brush, like a smooth blowout, major volume, or fluffy bangs. For bangs, you might want a round-brush style that's smaller in width (think around an inch) to help style short hairs. Volume, though, will require a wider round brush (between 1.5 and 2 inches).

But you should also know what a hair dryer brush will not do. A hair dryer brush is generally used for creating a smooth blowout. Though some believe you can use it to add curls to the hair, the most you can typically create is a soft body wave, says Melendez. Though some hair dryer brushes may have specific features for curling the hair, your best bet is to stick to a curling iron.

Consider the heat settings

Make sure your hair dryer brush has a handful of heat settings, especially depending on your hair type. For example, if you have fine, damaged, or color-treated hair, you'll want one with a low-heat option to help cut down on some damage. But if your hair is thick or coarse, you'll probably need higher heat (think: between 350 and 400 degrees). And of course, if you plan to use your hair dryer brush on a few different hair types (i.e. you're the best roommate ever), having a handful of heat settings will be key.

• Andrés Melendez is a hairstylist at Whip Salon, and a colorist at the Benjamin Salon in New York, NY. Melendez splits his time accommodating clientele along the East Coast, NY, CT, and FL.

Jasmine Hyman is the assistant beauty editor at Cosmo where she writes all about haircare, including everything from hair growth devices to hair wax sticks. Her guilty pleasure is a salon blowout, so she knows a thing or two about the best blow dry brushes to achieve that same volume and bounce. She also tapped the rest of team Cosmo for their insight and recommendations on the best hair dry brushes.

Beth Gillette has been the beauty editor at Cosmopolitan for more than a year and has nearly six years of experience writing about hair, including volumizing shampoos and wavy hair products. She tests nearly every hair dryer brush that crosses her desk for efficacy and ease of use, which helped her write this story.