I curled, straightened and diffused my hair with the Shark Glam styler, and I'm ready to give up my Airwrap

Shark has been hot on Dyson's heels for the title of best hair styler for a number of years, but its latest hair styler, the Shark Glam, may have finally taken the Airwrap's crown.

That's not a claim I make lightly. I've been using my Airwrap for a number of years now, but after testing the Glam for a month, I don't think I can go back. I've got a lot of fine, curly hair that's tricky to tame, but the Glam has made it easy for me to diffuse, straighten and even curl it, and it's slashed my styling time significantly.

Shark knows the Glam is good. That's why it's charging an eye-watering $449 / £369 for it. That's just shy of Airwrap pricing. I've spent a lot on various hair stylers over the years though; my wet-to-dry styler alone cost $300, my straighteners another $100, and the Glam can replace all those (plus my hair dryer and diffuser) in one handy carry case. Here's why I think this new styler is a five-star buy.

Shark Glam: Price and availability

The Shark Glam costs $449 / £369, but if you catch it on sale, you could expect to save a hundred bucks or so. It goes without saying that it's an incredibly pricey styler; Shark's most expensive hair tool to date.

As opposed to Dyson's Airwrap, which offers two variations (Straight / Wavy and Curly/Coily), Shark instead includes two base attachments with your unit: Glossi Round Brush, Silki Hot Tool + Air Straightener. Then, you can pick two of the following attachments: 1.25” Auto-Wrap Curlers, 0.95” Coanda Auto-Wrap Curlers, Oval Brush, Styling Concentrator, Curl-Defining Diffuser, Wide-Tooth Comb, FrizzFighter Finishing Tool.

As someone with hair that could probably be described (in Dyson's terms) as Wavy/Curly, I appreciate the ability to tailor your styler to your particular needs.

Shark Glam review: Performance

In the U.K., where I tested the Glam, I was sent the 'Drying System with Diffuser'. This includes the Silki brush tool, Glossi brush tool, Auto-Wrap curlers, concentrator and diffuser.

This actually means I got to try a bonus fifth attachment for this review, but I do think Shark should include the concentrator with every unit, as it makes the tool work as a basic hair dryer.

Diffusing

I'm a big fan of Shark diffusers. I actually bought Shark's first ever hair dryer about five years ago because of this diffuser. It comes with a toggle on top of the attachment which allows you to adapt the length of the prongs inside the diffuser, meaning it can sit closer or further away from your head, depending on how much hair you have.

With diffusers, you're technically meant to turn your heat and power right down and spend an age (ideally with your head upside down for part of it) drying your hair from a range of different angles and differences. To be frank, it's a routine I've not got much time for. Instead, I tend to ramp up both the speed and temperature and blast my hair 75% dry, which is what I did with the Glam.

It has three speed and temperature levels, as well as a cold shot. You need to press down on the cold shot button, so unless you want a sore thumb, you wouldn't be able to cold-dry your curls.

I was pretty happy with how my hair looked after 10 minutes of mid-heat, mid-temperature drying. Thanks to the range of settings, it's suitable for a variety of routines. If you're more patient than me, I think you'll still enjoy it.

Blow-drying with the Glossi brush

My life was forever changed when I bought Shark's original hot brush three years ago. It's since been replaced by the Glossi, which has a combination of ceramic and bristles for smoothing and shaping the hair as you dry it.

I got along very well with the Glossi attachment. It has both wet and dry modes which can be toggled on the handle of the styler. When used on wet hair, it can get incredibly hot. After first blasting my hair with the concentrator attachment, I was then able to finish my very thick head of hair using the Glossi in around 20 minutes, and managed to get some good shaping around my front pieces for a voluminous, blown-out look.

I also used the Glossi on its dry hair mode to reset these front pieces between washes. It mainly uses the ceramic plates to heat and smooth hair back into a sleek, styled finish. I was worried this might snag on tangled, but I didn't experience any hair getting stuck on the styler.

In terms of noise, this isn't a quiet styler. For that, you should check out the Dyson Supersonic r. I hit an ear-ringing 84dB when using the Glossi attachment, so don't expect to keep up with a podcast while styling your hair.

Using the Auto-Wrap Curlers

There are some slight visual differences between the U.S. and U.K. 1.25” Auto-Wrap Curlers, but they appear to be purely aesthetic. The ones I tried had a bubble texture, whereas in the U.S. they're more squared-off. Either way, they're very good, and definitely comparable to the Airwrap's curling barrels.

As someone whose hair naturally curls, I've never been one for using my curling barrels. It gives a totally different look to my natural hair, but I find that my hair is almost too willing to sustain the curl and I'm often left looking like a haunted Victorian doll. But, for the sake of this review, I revisited the haunted aesthetic.

The trick to making curls like this last is to pin them and let them cool down in a curled position. Unfortunately, I don't own bobby pins, so the back of my hair dropped significantly after styling. But below you can see the finished look once I'd used these curling barrels, before brushing out the curls with my fingers.

I was really impressed with just how well they picked up and held my hair, which made styling a lot less fussy. However, one thing I did miss from my Airwrap is the ability to toggle the direction of airflow in the one barrel attachment. Switching between the left and right attachments for each side of my head did get a little annoying when compared to the dial on top of my Airwrap attachments.

Using the Silki attachment

Surprisingly happy with my results, I headed out to see some friends for the evening. We were at a Christmas market, and it rained, so the next day (jumpscare) I woke up to an almighty cloud of frizz where my curls once sat.

On the left in the image below is what my hair looks like when I dry it straight and it then gets wet.

Fortunately, this also proved the ideal opportunity to quickly reset my hair. I had 15 minutes to rectify the situation before heading out to see the new "Wicked" film, and I wanted to channel less Scarecrow, more Glinda.

Using Shark's Silki hot tool as a straightener on dry hair, I was floored by how quickly it powered through my frizz and left me with silky tresses once more. I was even able to curl the front sections by twisting the straightener as I ran it through my hair.

Next wash day, I decided to use the Silki as a wet-to-dry styler. This uses a combination of heat and airflow to dry hair poker-straight, comparable to GHD's Duet Style or Dyson's Airstrait, but in a multi-styler.

As you can see above, it left my hair shiny and mostly straight, although I was able to get a little shape in the front pieces.

I prefer to use a round brush on my hair because I think it gives it more life and movement, but if your hair is less brittle than mine, I think you'll really get along with the Silki attachment. Equally, because it combines high heat and airflow, I think it'd do an excellent job on a range of curl types.

How does it compare?

The Shark Glam is begging to be compared to the Dyson Airwrap which, thankfully, we've also reviewed. The pros of the Dyson? It's quieter (74dB compared to Shark's 84dB), comes with more attachments (albeit it only two varieties, which isn't ideal for something-in-between hair like mine), its curling barrels have multi-directional airflow and just looks... cooler.

I mean, look at it.

The pros of the Shark? You can pick your own attachments (and buy bonus ones direct from Shark), it comes with a handy travel case, it's still expensive, but less expensive, and its Silki and Glossi attachments work on both wet and dry hair.

Dyson included a new straightening attachment with its recently-released Co-anda2x styler. I'm still working on getting that in for review, but it doesn't use hot plates, so may prove less powerful (and create less heat damage) than the Silki.

Should you buy the Shark Glam?

I don't give out five-star reviews very often, but it's hard to find fault with the Shark Glam. It's one of the most capable hair stylers I've ever tried. In fact, it is the most capable. I can basically get rid of every other hair tool in my styling arsenal now, because the Glam outpaces all of them.

At full price, it's probably more than most people would ever intend to spend on a Shark product. What started as a line of Dyson alternatives has now almost caught up with the Airwrap's pricing, forcing you to really take stock of what actually sets these stylers apart if you're choosing between them. Even at full price, I'd pick the Glam over my Airwrap Origin for sheer versatility, but if you happen to catch the Glam on sale, I'd recommend you snap it up.

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