The 8 Best Blow Dryer Brushes, Rigorously Tested By Our Editors (2025)

Achieving a salon-quality blowout at home can be challenging no matter your hair type, but a well-designed hair dryer brush can make the process a lot easier. These multitasking styling tools harness the heat and airflow of a blow dryer with the styling prowess of a round brush to create bouncy, polished look—sans the inconvenience of trekking to a salon. In our extensive testing, we found the BaBylissPro Nano Titanium Oval Ionic Hot Air Brush to be the best overall for how lightweight it is and its effectiveness at creating a beautiful blowout with minimal effort. The Revlon Salon One-Step Volumizer is an excellent option for its value, and the Dyson Airwrap is our luxury pick thanks to its versatile styling abilities.

Over the course of several weeks, our panel of editors extensively tested and evaluated the most worthy contenders to determine the best blow dryer brushes. We also spoke with an expert stylist who shared the most important features to consider when shopping for the right one. After countless hours of styling, we’ve determined that these are the top picks for every hair type.

Heavier styling tools can be difficult to wield for extended periods of time, so the lightweight feel of this BaBylissPro hot air brush is one of the many reasons we named it best overall. “It feels a little big but is still lightweight and pretty comfortable to use,” says one tester. Also noteworthy is its multiple heat settings (there are three, including a cool shot) and its quiet noise level—the lowest out of all the other blow dryer brushes we tested.

“I’m really impressed with how soft, smooth and silky this brush makes my hair,” says our tester who has long, thick hair. “It took a little trial and error to figure out the right brushing method and the amount of hair to dry at once, but I’ve been really pleased with the results. And I haven’t had major issues with my hair getting tangled in the brush.” We also appreciate that this tool rings in at under $100.

The Revlon One-Step blow dryer brush is our top affordable pick thanks to how easy it is to use and how well it works against frizz and flyaways. “I’ve now been using the this dryer brush for at least six years, and it’s a total staple in my routine,” says one tester with wavy, medium hair that’s prone to frizz. “My at-home blowouts used to take me anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes, but now it’s a 5 to 7-minute process—it’s just that easy and intuitive to use.”

A combination of boar and nylon bristles works to grip hair and detangle strands while simultaneously creating a professional-looking blowout with polish. “Sometimes I’ll go over the ends with a curling iron to give them even more of a ‘finished’ appearance, but it’s not necessary—you can twist the brush a little and achieve the same effect,” she says.

Featuring a rotating arm that converts the tool into a standalone blow dryer, you can use this Shark device to dry and style your hair in a matter of minutes. It features powerful airflow with four temperature settings (heatless, low, medium, high) and three airflow settings (low, medium, high), making it great for a variety of hair types. “The dryer portion is on the slimmer side so it fits into my hands nicely,” says one tester. “It’s surprisingly lightweight so you can actually hold it when styling your hair.”

Its versatility makes it stand out: It comes with a pair of auto-wrap curling attachments, an oval brush for creating volume, a styling concentrator, and a smoothing paddle brush to help fight frizz. “It took some getting used to, but once I got the hang of it I was able to style my hair more quickly overall, and I like the finished product,” says our tester with long and thick hair. The curls don’t hold as well as when I use my curling iron, but it gives a nice wavy look on day two that I actually really like.”

The Dyson Airwrap is our top luxury pick for its quality, performance and innovative technology. I’ve had this multi-styling tool for a year now, and have seen firsthand all that it does—from smoothing strands to adding volume to creating perfect curls that mimic a professional in-salon blowout. Because of its effective yet accurately measured airflow technology, thin or delicate strands are better protected from potential heat damage.

It’s incredibly lightweight—the lightest on our list aside from our compact, travel-friendly pick—and comes with six attachments including two paddle brushes, a round brush, a flyaway smoother, and two auto-wrap curlers to create different styles for a variety of hair types. It features three speed options and three temperature options (one less than the Shark FlexStyle) for added customization.

The Airwrap does come with a learning curve. It can take some time to figure out how best to use the auto-wrap curlers as well as to determine which combination of attachments is ideal for your desired look. However, if you’re looking for a top-tier device in terms of appearance, performance, and how it feels in hand, I find it well worth the investment.

According to our testing, the Amika blow dryer brush has one of the most comfortable handles of all the tools we tested, making it an excellent choice for those with curly hair who tend to need more time to style their hair. “The design is a little chunky but I like the smooth, soft and matte-like feel of the handle grip,” says our tester. The base of the barrel is metal, which gets really hot, making it especially good for taking on thick or coarse hair that needs heavy duty smoothing power. There are three settings: a cooling fan, a low speed setting with low heat and a high speed setting with high heat which you can switch by using the control knob that’s near the bottom of the handle.

It’s worth noting how thick the barrel is—at 4.25 inches it’s almost double the width of others in this roundup—making it less ideal for those with short hair. “While it doesn’t have that many additional features, I love the blowout that it gives me,” says our tester with wavy, fine and slightly frizzy hair. “This is actually a blow dryer brush that I’ve purchased in the past, and I do think it’s well worth the price.”

Featuring a mix of boar and nylon bristles, Drybar Double Shot is ideal for taming frizz and smoothing out harder-to-manage strands, making it a great choice for those with thick hair. I love the no-frills rotating dial, which makes is a breeze to switch between the high, medium and cool settings (the tone-on-tone setting symbols are quite difficult to see, but I memorized these after a few uses). Using this hot air brush gives me a shiny, smooth blowout that mimics that of the its namesake styling salon.

It’s also a top pick of senior design stylist Sean Gispert of Fourteenjay in New York, who praises the tool for its quality materials at a decent price point. “The Double Shot is lightweight and has an impressive concentration of air flow,” he says.

Some blow dryer brushes can be harder on fine or delicate hair, but the T3 AireBrush features proprietary EvenFlow Technology, which is designed to create consistent airflow that works to minimize damage on vulnerable strands. The tool’s ceramic barrel doesn’t get too hot, either, which is also reassuring for those with fragile hair. And thanks to its sleek, white design, you won’t mind leaving it out on your bathroom vanity.

I like that while this brush dries my hair quickly and smoothly, I don’t feel it pulling too harshly on my damaged strands, which is not the case for some of the other blow dryer brushes I’ve used in the past. I also appreciate the four temperature options and the user-friendly rotating base (helpful for beginners).

This little tool is nearly as powerful as its full-sized counterpart and our best overall pick, the BaBylissPro Nano Titanium Oval Ionic Hot Air Brush. But at roughly two-thirds the size of the original, this version is great for throwing into a suitcase or under-sink storage, without compromising on performance.

There are three settings—low, high and cool—manipulated with a twist-style dial at the bottom of the brush. This is a fairly straightforward and basic brush that enables you to do one thing: create bouncy, soft curls. “One thing to note is that the bristles on this brush are very coarse, and they grab onto hair super tightly,” says our tester. This can be for better or worse depending on the condition of your strands. “I noticed that I inadvertently pulled out a lot of hair as I was drying, styling and curling it,” she says.

Our tester, who wears her thick, wavy hair in a long bob, wasn’t impressed by the staying power of her desired style after using this hot air brush. “It didn’t really create meaningful curls that stayed styled throughout the day—even with smoothing product and hairspray that I applied afterwards,” she says. “Especially in the winter, with dry air, my hair started off frizzy directly after drying, and sort of fell flat and decreased in volume significantly a couple hours later.”

Why Trust Forbes Vetted

At Forbes Vetted, we’ve researched and written dozens of haircare stories.

• Some related content includes tested roundups like the best hair dryers, in-depth product spotlights like our Dyson Airstraight review, and stories catering to specific hair types like hair dryers for curly hair and more.
• Author of this piece Kim Peiffer is a features director with extensive experience covering haircare, testing a multitude of styling tools over the years. She has two decades under her reporting on beauty, style, travel and more.
• This story was assigned and edited by deputy editor Jane Sung, who oversees the beauty and grooming vertical and has two decades of experience covering haircare products, skincare tools, makeup and more.
• Sean Gispert, the hair expert in this story, is a senior design stylist at Fourteenjay salon in New York City. He has 14 years of experience behind the chair and in styling education.

How We Tested The Best Blow Dryer Brushes

To determine the best blow dryer brushes, our panel of testers began by setting up the tools, noting anything difficult or inconvenient. Each tester recorded ease of setup and use and how heavy or bulky the tools were when handling from start to finish. Additionally, our testers considered quality of materials, efficiency of drying and styling strands, noise, weight and overall design.

Our testers used the blow dryer brushes to dry and style hair over the course of several weeks at minimum—with some having been testing for much longer over months and even years—on varying hair types. We also explored versatility, noting which tools came with additional attachments and which ones were more limited in creating just one style. Finally, we noted which ones were safer for more fragile hair types and which models were tougher on hair.

How To Pick A Blow Dryer Brush

When shopping for a blow dryer brush, details like air temperature, speed settings and weight of the device play an important role in the long-term health of your hair and the success you’ll have in mastering your style. Here’s what to consider.

Temperature

Blow dryer brushes usually have at least a high and low heat option (and a cool shot). It’s important to identify your hair type to determine how high in temperature you can for efficient styling with minimal damage. “Different types of hair textures and density of hair will require different heat settings,” says Fourteenjay senior design stylist Sean Gispert. “Thick, coarse hair requires higher heat, while finer and color-treated hair needs lower heat. A heat setting that is too high can cause breakage in all hair types.”

Airflow

Blow dryer brushes often have two or three speed options. For those with delicate hair, Gispert recommends keeping the airflow at a lower speed to avoid damage. Those with thicker hair can often handle higher speeds, he notes.

Brush Type

The bristles on a blow dryer brush are just as important to consider as the temperature and airflow settings. Nylon and boar are among the most popular on the market and on the versions featured in this evaluation. “You want to look for a mixed bristle brush for the best overall results,” says Gispert.