The Best Hairstyling Tools of 2023

My hair is medium in texture, naturally wavy-curly, and falls about 10 inches below my shoulders. So, when I say the BaBylissPro took my hair from wet and untidy to dry and styled in 20 minutes, know that it outdid itself. Before testing the dryer, I sopped up excess water from my shower with my microfiber towel for about 10 minutes until my strands were damp. I began drying on the medium heat and high power settings, circling my head and paying attention to my roots.

After about three minutes, my roots felt dry to the touch and the length of my hair was semi-damp—optimal for styling. I used a round brush to pull my hair taut and slipped the concentrator nozzle (something all dryers included) onto the barrel to dry and straighten my hair from roots to ends. Twenty minutes later, I had voluminous, straight strands that exceeded my expectations. (Read: Most dryers on this list couldn’t deliver the same results.)

In addition, I appreciated the tool’s lighter weight (0.9 pounds) and button placement, both of which contributed to this feeling comfortable to hold. The weight felt evenly distributed in the barrel and handle, making the dryer easy to maneuver with no undue stress on the wrist. The controls consisted of a cool shot button and two switches, each with three settings to toggle between—off, medium, and high for airflow as well as low, medium, and high for heat. Without looking, I could flip between settings while styling but also never accidentally pushed the switches without meaning to.

If you want a tool that dries your hair fast, this one has the power to do it. And if you’re like me and also use a hair dryer to straighten your locks, you’ll be impressed with BaBylissPro.

At a fraction of the price of many professional and high-end hair dryers, the Revlon dryer has a cheapish appearance that looks like you’re getting what you pay for, but don’t judge a book by its cover, er, light-up nozzle.

While it’s not as powerful as the high-end models we tested, the Revlon gives a great blowout in about the same amount of time. In fact, the comparatively weaker airflow made it easier to control the hairstyling.

The control panel rests on the back of the handle and has a toggle switch for warm and hot temperatures and another for low and high speeds (with “off” located in the middle of the toggle). Though we prefer the controls to be at the front of the handle for easier transitions while using, these switches are easy to maneuver.

When it comes down to it, the Revlon 1875W Infrared gets the job done just fine, at a fraction of the price of the high-end tools on this list.

See our complete roundup of the best hair dryers

For a hair dryer that gives you results more akin to a salon blowout, look no further than the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer. With this hair dryer brush, you don’t need a straightener or curling iron to leave the house with a sleek, finished-looking style. With minimal effort, you can dry your hair from root to tip and customize your 'do to have more or less volume and curls inward or outward at the ends. The tool feels a bit bulky to hold, as it is longer than a typical hair dryer and requires two hands to balance well, but it eliminates the juggling act of holding a dryer with a brush, which makes it overall easier to manage. The drying time on this hot air brush is half of what a routine used to be—going from 40 to 60 minutes to about 20 to 30 minutes.

See our review of the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer and our full roundup of The Best Hair Dryer Brushes

This Hot Tools iron moves through hair with ease to create and sleek and shiny ‘do.

Its temperature settings range from 205°F to 455°F and increase by 10-degree increments. The instructions suggested turning the iron between 355°F and 405°F for wavy medium-thick hair, so I opted for the low end of that scale and got to work. It only took about 14 seconds for the iron to heat up and when I decided to bump up the temperature to 365°F halfway through, it signaled that it was ready within a few seconds.

Instead of using buttons to control the temperature, you rotate a swiveling wheel at the base of the straightener and watch the temperature adjust on the digital screen. I’ve never seen this mechanism before, but it adds to the iron’s sleek look and it’s super easy to use—and as the dial has a slight resistance, you won’t accidentally turn it up or down.

Aside from looking and feeling like a high quality styling tool, one of our favorite parts of this flat iron is how it alerts you with a loud beep when it arrives at your chosen temperature. It’s a simple feature, but plenty of styling tools make you guess when they’re ready for use. Our other favorite part? The plates are 4.25 inches long to tackle larger swaths of hair at once—our Best Value pick is the only straightener to upstage this at 4.5 inches long.

Another great feature is the nine-foot-long cord this iron has, which is one of the longest ones of all the irons we tested and helps guarantee that you’ll have an outlet close enough to use this at your vanity, or wherever you typically sit for styling. This flat iron also comes with a glove, which is a great addition to prevent burns on your nondominant hand as you guide the hair into the straightener.

As an added bonus, the Hot Tools flat iron has rounded edges that, when the iron is clamped, can be used like a curling iron barrel to create curved ends or even loose curls for those who have mastered using a straightener for that, too.

This Remington straightener took our Best Value spot in our previous round of testing and continues to reign. It has a bargain price but it rivals expensive models in its performance. The iron has glossy, extra-long (4.5-inch) plates that smooth out the hair in no time with ease.

Like the Hot Tools, this iron has a digital screen for visual confirmation that it’s on the setting you want, displaying bars that flash as it’s heating up then remain steady once it's reached the selected temperature.

One con is that there’s no notification sound when the iron is ready—you have to watch the screen—but I found it heats up in 45 seconds, which is about average for a flat iron. The temperature settings increase in increments of 20°F, rather than the 10°F increments you get with the Hot Tools. Though, 10 to 20 degrees at those temperatures may not matter much to your hair.

Additionally, the iron feels cheaper due to its plastic exterior and lightweight build. The cord is also only six feet long, which isn’t bad, but doesn’t grant you the same maneuverability as appliances with longer tethers, like the Hot Tools. Nonetheless, it’s still a great pick that’ll give smooth results.

When we think of my ideal curling wand, it’s one that grants me room for creativity. The perfect wand is also intuitive, heats up quickly, and makes the sometimes painstaking process of styling my hair all-around easier. In every way, the GHD Curve Creative Curl Wand is exactly that. Whether I want to create soft, undone waves or make tight curls for a classic-yet-voluminous look, with the GHD, I can.

The GHD has a unique design, with the base starting as a round barrel that graduates to a flat oval at the top, tapering from 1-inch to 0.9-inch. Both of these traits keep the curls from molding into a strategically tapered curl, which can sometimes look too perfect and unnatural. The gradual taper and the gritty finish of the barrel keeps the hair from sliding down like it can do with a barrel that has a super-glossy finish.

The most impressive feature, though, is that it heats up in about six seconds—faster than any other iron I tested—and alerts you with a loud chime when it reaches 365ºF. The only downside is that the iron doesn’t have heat adjustability—it can only hold a steady 365ºF. That temperature is appropriate to give a great curl to pin-straight hair, but the option of adjustability for other hair types—you may want to turn the heat down if you have super fine hair or even turn it up for thick hair—is ideal. Another (smaller) bummer: It only comes in the one barrel size.

In terms of mechanics, the GHD has a single power button, which you have to hold down for a good two seconds, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally turning it off mid-style. The wand is lightweight and has a cool-tip end to keep you from burning your neck and forehead (we’ve all been there). It has a well-placed kickstand that prevents the hot iron from teetering or tipping onto your vanity. For safety purposes, the iron automatically shuts off after 30 minutes. Heat adjustability or additional sizes could improve this iron, but it’s a clear winner.

My first-ever curling iron was one from Conair. That’s no surprise: The brand makes quality products at reasonable prices, and they’re typically very beginner-friendly. All of this is the case with our Best Value pick, the InfinitiPro by Conair Nano Tourmaline Ceramic Curling Iron 1-Inch.

This iron features a long barrel with a clamp that spans the length of the iron. You can clamp the ends of your hair and spin the iron upward toward your head, wrapping the hair around the barrel to create a perfectly round ringlet, which can then be finger-brushed to look more tousled. Because the clamp is very thin, you can easily wrap your hair around the clamp and barrel, as if it’s a wand, if you prefer that technique. I find that I can work more quickly with a wand because it requires zero coordination (if this sounds silly to you, I’m guessing you’ve never accidentally curled the wrong way and ended up with a crimped ridge in your hair). I achieved the best curls when I used smaller sections of hair with this iron, which makes sense because it’s able to evenly distribute the heat to the hair when you use small amounts and place the hair flush to the ceramic iron.

The iron heats up quickly—Conair claims in 30 seconds, but there wasn’t an indicator of when the iron was done, so I couldn’t time it accurately—at the touch of a button and it has four temperature settings ranging from 310°F to 400°F, which is average for a hot tool. Conair claims that the iron shuts off automatically for safety, but it doesn’t specify after how much time—my curling sessions lasted about 30 minutes, and it was still going strong.

This iron became an obvious choice for the Best Value pick, as you can use it to your specific needs, like me mostly using the clamp during testing to see the iron’s capabilities but also using it as a wand when I struggled to achieve my desired look. And, of course, it’s priced reasonably for a hot tool, costing in the double digits.

The Dyson Airwrap Styler Complete is the unicorn of our curling iron and wand testing. The pricey kit includes the following attachments: two 1.2-inch Airwrap barrels (for spiraling curls), two 1.6-inch Airwrap barrels (for looser curls and creating volume), a firm smoothing brush (for a straight style), a soft smoothing brush (a blow-dry-like finish), a round volumizing brush (for volumizing blow-dry), and a pre-styling hair dryer to remove excess moisture when you intend to style just-washed hair that’s reminiscent of the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer—unlike other products, you may use the Dyson on damp hair. For this guide, I tested the 1.2-inch barrels, as they are the closest comparison to the other wands and irons on this list in size and promise to create voluminous curls or waves.

The kit includes two of the same size barrel because each creates curls that spiral in opposite directions—you switch attachments when you approach different sides of your head, depending on whether you want the curls to twist toward or away from your face. Unlike a heated curling wand, the Dyson uses a continuous flow of air (sort of like a targeted tiny hairdryer) to blow the hair around the barrel to form “voluminous curls and waves without extreme heat.” To an onlooker, it appears like the Dyson is sucking up your hair, like one of the brand’s beloved vacuums, but it’s actually pushing air out to create a current that your hair follows. While in use, the air is heated (to below 302°F degrees, which is less than the typical curling iron barrel) but there is a cool shot button, like on the hairdryer, that sets your curl into place. Using air instead of a ceramic barrel limits the amount of heat on your hair and greatly reduces the risk of burning yourself.

Despite creating beautiful curls, the Dyson is not our overall winner because it has a steeper learning curve than other products to achieve the same results and you have less control over the style and placement of the curls it creates. It also takes longer than I—and I’m sure others—would like to spend on their hair.

But if you are a hair tool enthusiast, a hairstylist, or someone who wants a lot of versatility in their hairstyling, this kit (with its variety of attachments) may be your dream.

See our complete roundup of the best curling irons and curling wands.

The Hot Tools Pro Artist 24K Gold 3 Barrel Hair Waver earned perfect scores in every category—build and durability, usability, and performance. From start to finish (and beyond), our experience with this hair waver was overwhelmingly positive.

For starters, the hair waver has a digital screen that allows you to see the exact temperature setting, so you can choose the right setting for your hair type between 200°F and 450°F and see when the iron reaches the temperature and is ready to use. The instructions provide clear guidance on the most suitable temperature ranges for different hair types.

Like the vast majority of hair wavers, the tool is bulky and tricky to maneuver on my non-dominant side, but the button placement—the side on this particular model—makes things as intuitive as possible. It even has a lock—a dial you simply press down—so that you don’t accidentally adjust the settings while you’re using it.

When it comes to results—arguably the most important aspect of a quality hair waver—this one outperforms the rest. A single clamp of a 3- to 4-inch section of hair held for less than 5 seconds delivered instant S-shaped waves that held steady all day long, even after a lengthy and brisk walk around the neighborhood—no hairspray needed! Repeating that action two to three times down each section of hair took about 15 minutes.

If there’s any downside, it’s that this hair waver doesn’t have a traditional kickstand, which means it sits relatively low to the counter when not in use—a potential concern if you have a vanity made of wood or another heat-sensitive material.

See our complete roundup of the best hair wavers.

This Urtheone brush immediately stood out because it’s the only wooden-handled brush in the pack. While that may not be great if you’re someone who likes to brush your hair while in the shower, our tester loved this attribute because it made the brush feel especially well made. It wasn’t too heavy or awkward in hand—instead, it felt durable and the extra weight seemed to help it through tangles in both dry and wet hair.

We're also fond of the rectangular shape of this brush. Because our tester has a lot of thick, wavy hair, she gravitates towards paddle brushes with a wider surface area—exactly what this brush has—although you can choose from a few other sizes.

This brush has a mix of nylon and boar bristles. This combination of bristles proved useful, as the nylon did most of the detangling, while the boar raked dry skin flakes and other small particles out of my hair better than the brushes that only contained nylon bristles. Boar bristles also supposedly distribute oil better than plastic ones (though I'm not sure how I would notice this).

If there’s any downside to the combination of bristles, it’s that the tiny boar bristles in between the nylon ones held onto hair and debris, making this brush more were difficult to clean.

Though this didn’t affect the scoring process, it’s worth noting that this brush comes with some fun extras, including a wide-tooth rat tail comb and some small, colorful hair elastics.

This oval brush scored close to our overall pick, but has one important difference: It’s prettier. While that may not matter to some, we loved this. The soft purple hue looks nicer on your vanity, plus it’s a bit smaller, which makes it easier to both store and tote.

Though the bristles are made of vegan and “cruelty-free” nylon, they look and feel just like traditional boar bristles. They also perform just as well—this brush scored less than a quarter-point behind the top pick. The soft ballpoint tips were gentle on my scalp and didn’t snag on wet or dry hair, curly or straight.

If there’s any downside, it’s that the surface area of this brush is smaller than others, so our tester had to make more passes through her hair to tackle it all. Certainly not a deal-breaker, but this adds extra time to the task.

Because the bristles are very close together, it’s also difficult to rid the brush of hair.

See our complete roundup of the best hair brushes