Kelly Bertrand tries out the viral blowout brush, the Shark SmoothStyle and sees if it can earn a spot in her go-to haircare arsenal. Here’s her Shark SmoothStyle review!
We’re really in the era of the heated hairbrush, aren’t we. You can’t open your For You Page on social media without seeing someone else trying a new model out after seemingly ditching their beloved millennial straighteners we’ve been so wedded to for years.
It’s taken a lot to move our old souls away from straightening, and then curling, the life out of our hair (probably because for most of us 30-somethings, we’ve only just figured out how to properly curl our hair with straighteners in the last year or so).
As I’m pulling Shark Beauty’s SmoothStyle brush through my temperamental hair in Noosa’s 78-degree heat, there was a brief flash of longing for my OG tongs.
And then I looked in the mirror.
Full disclosure time here – I’m in Queensland with Shark Beauty for the launch of their latest haircare tool and Shark and their parent company have just come on board as a partner with Capsule (thank youuuuu guys for your support).
But the following review is completely independent and editorial (meaning it hasn’t been approved or edited by anyone at Shark, as all of our reviews are!)
So you’re going to just have to trust me (and look at the reel on our Instagram page for yourself) to see that this tool is the real bloody deal, and it’s shot straight to the top of my favourite hair tool list.
What is the Shark SmoothStyle Hair Styler?
Look, great question because I couldn’t quite get my head around a heated brush that’s so BIG in the first place.
The Shark SmoothStyle Heated Comb Straightener and Smoother is quite a nifty little tool that is designed to give you a salon-worthy blowout in a fraction of the time and quite crucially, with a fraction of the skill of a hairdresser.
This one is special because, unlike other blowout brushes, this has TWO modes – the wet mode, which, as the name suggests, takes your hair from wet to fully dry and styled with impressive amounts of volume, and the revolutionary dry mode, which straightens, de-frizzes and refreshes your hair with super shine.
Shark reckon they use less heat, which means less damage, and they claim this will cut your styling time dramatically down. But does it do what it says on the box?
My Shark SmoothStyle review
A bit of context – my long hair is on the finer side, but I have a lot of it. Translation: it is a pain in the arse. It’s getting thinner as I get older (any suggestions?!) and if I leave it to air dry it just kind of morphs into a frizzy pillow. So, a smoothing, speedy brush that makes it all nice and shiny and sleek WHILE injecting volume sounds like my dream come true.
Before – wet from the shower
So after watching the experts in Noosa have a play with the tool, including Shark ambassador Chris Hunter, I took my SmoothStyle home and tu-tued with it myself.
I was initially a bit intimidated by the size of the brush as I have tiny hands and even tinier skills, but it was actually quite comfortable to hold – I will say that I’m a bit better on one side than the other, but practice will level this out eventually!
The oval shape is actually perfect for getting super-close to the scalp (it’s not too hot) and the combination of the nylon and boar bristles means that it’s surprisingly easy to pull my hair sections through, while still providing enough tension that the hair wouldn’t slip out everywhere.
Seven minutes later on the highest ‘wet’ setting and she is already looking FANTASTIC
My goal with this hairdo is simple – speedy. I want to test this tool in the context of time because the gap in my haircare routine right now is a one-stop-shop every day tool that gets me out the door (ok fine, out my bedroom door and into the office down the hall) in as little time as possible.
How long did it take? Eleven minutes. ELEVEN. FROM WET TO DRY, STYLED.
It normally takes me 11 minutes just to dry my damn hair into a messy nest BEFORE I have to go back and tame it with a straightener or curler. So yet, it absolutely slaps on the time front. I could have done a ‘better’ job if I wanted to – e.g. smaller sections with more curls, etc – but I wanted to test this product in a real-world, time-poor environment to see if I could rely on it on those mornings where I can barely rely on myself.
Four and a bit minutes with the dry setting and we have THIS
It’s simple to use – depending on the look you want, you either glide the hair over or under the bristles, twisting the brush by using the cool-touch handle as you swipe the brush down your hair.
Because the brush is so big you can have massive sections (great for those two might have been, in their time, accused of being a bit ‘rip, shit and bust’ – me, everyday, by my fiancé). Patience is not my friend.
My hair looks like it’s been blow-dried properly – full of volume and movement – while also being impossibly shiny (I have no idea how that happened) and healthy-looking. Frizz has also been reduced remarkably which is impressive for my mop.
What didn’t I like about the Shark SmoothStyle?
The biggest drawback for me is quite a simple one – the 1.8m cord doesn’t seem long enough for me. I stand up when I do my hair, so if you do yours sitting down you might not have a problem. When we were being taught how to use the tool, Chris demonstrated the optimal way to get the most volume – by pulling your hair up at a 90-degree angle which, I can attest to, does help. However it is a bit tricky when you’re standing up, and the power point is on the base board – so if you can sit, it’s probably better. (I should say I’m only 161cm!).
It’s also probably worth noting that it is on the loud side – this doesn’t bother me at all because I subscribe to the theory that the louder/ more painful things are, the more they’re working.
Final thoughts on the Shark SmoothStyle?
I genuinely love this brush. It’s the only hair tool I’m taking on my upcoming Island holiday because it’s the only one I need, and in the two weeks I’ve had it, every other tool has been relegated to the cupboard, apart from one day where I wanted to do a special ‘do for Capsule co-founder Alice’s wedding (and YES it was a glorious day!).
It’s proven itself as my go-to, every day tool that tames my mane and I’m in love – and at $199, it’s a much more affordable option than other hair tools on the market that also use air to style.