Hot Air Brushes...

For many years I’ve struggled with my thick, curly, frizzy Puerto Rican – Dominican hair. Taming it has been a lifelong process. However, a few stylists I’ve met along the way have always managed to get it straight, healthy and shiny looking. I’ve watched these stylists like a hawk and tried my damndest to learn from them so I can reproduce their work on myself. I’ve met with varying degrees of success. I’ve never managed to get my hair to turn out exactly the way Jesse from Le Hair Cut (the best my hair's ever looked) in Washington Heights does but I've come close on a couple of occasions.

The thing I figured out pretty quickly is that I can't blow dry my hair by myself. My arms get tired, my face gets hot. It's really disastrous. My hair is pretty long, past the shoulders and there's a lot of it. Trust me, I've been to countless "professionals" who basically complained that it would take too long to do my hair and then proceeded to do a less than adequate job. So I had to find a way to manage my own hair because I was sick of paying for crappy results.

When I first discovered that there was such a thing as a hot air brush, I immediately jumped on it. I figured if I could blow dry my hair while not needing to also hold a brush, I might stand half a chance at getting it done. So here's my review of the hot air brushes I've tried and which ones I like and/or would recommend.

First I tried the Revlon Thermalaire Ceramic Hot Air Styler/Dryer. The brush that comes with it is a joke. (Like most of the brush attachments included in hot air brushes.) The bristles fold and don't hold the hair. This is a complaint I can pretty much make across the board for most hot air brushes that cost less than $20. If you have thick hair, don't even bother.

Next I tried my absolute favorite brush.Conair's BC167X. I loved it so much that I even called Conair for a replacement when the first one broke. The second one just broke after several years and I've just ordered an experimental replacement because Conair has discontinued this model. :(

This brush was 1000watts and came with a hard plastic round brush which gripped my hair well enough so that I could really pull it straight. I was able to get a pretty straight blow dry on my own. If I wanted it straighter I would then move on to a flat iron. If you can find one, get it!!

The one I just ordered is a Wigo. I will review it when it gets here.

I bought the Vidal Sassoon VS433C for my mom. She has short curly, not very frizzy hair and it's normal thickness. For her, this was enough. She learned to make her hair look nice using it.

In the mix I'd also tried a Conair CD1600R. I bought this one thinking the larger barrel would be better than my fave. It was awful. It's only 300w so it mostly blew warm air at my hair and it took forever to dry. When it finally did dry it was frizzy. It too is discontinued, I believe.

I will be adding my review of the Wigo when it gets here but I wanted to basically give basic guidelines based on what I've learned in my hot air brush adventures.

Use the less expensive, lower wattage hot air brushes (under 1000w)...

1. If you have thin to normal hair.


2. If your hair isn't particularly frizzy.


3. If you have shorter hair.


4. If you aren't trying to get a straight look.

Use the more expensive, higher wattage hot air brushes (over 1000w)...

1. If you have thicker hair.


2. Frizzy and/or dryer hair.


3. If you have longer hair.


4. If you want to straighten your hair.

Tip: When trying to get optimal shine and straightening, allow the hair to cool on the brush before letting go. Styles are shinier and sleeker this way.

Hope this helps!