The thing about Shark is that they're a vacuum company that knows how to make a good beauty dupe.
Between the FlexStyle hair styler (aka the Dyson Airwrap in a slightly different font) and the HyperAIR (a Dyson Supersonic-esque hair dryer), the brand has come out strong in offering high-end hair tech at a more affordable price.
Which is why with the release of two new beauty tools on Aug.15 — the Shark SmoothStyle and the Shark SpeedStyle — our first question is can they Kirkland could these be new dupes? We took a closer look to find out.
What exactly is the Shark SmoothStyle?
We'll cut to the chase — the SmoothStyle looks like a leveled-up Revlon One-Step. Basically, it's a round hot air brush with some extra features, but it does retail for $99.99. Compared to the One-Step's $59.99 MSRP, this might not seem like a strong selling point for the SmoothStyle, but Shark does have an edge.
First of all, the One-Step will fry your hair without remorse. It gets hot, and that's why it's especially important to use it on mostly dry hair to finish off your styling (which is honestly the case with most hot air stylers). Basically, it's not the all-in-one dryer and styler we all thought it was when it first came out.
The Shark SmoothStyle, however, has specific "Wet Hair" and "Dry Hair" modes, for well, styling wet and dry hair. In other words, Shark seems to be trying to actually make the product we all thought the One-Step was.
Here's how it works: When you start with dry hair, the SmoothStyle has three preset air temperatures to take your hair from wet to dry. Once it's dry, the hot air's moment is over, and you'd use the SmoothStyle like you would a thermal brush, with the one preset heated smoothing comb setting. The comb has ceramic-coated plates, which are aimed at reducing heat damage (on flat irons, ceramic is the most friendly to damaged hair).
Basically, it's like hot air brushes, which can range from Revlon's $59.99 brush to Drybar's $155 brush, and the Amika Blowout Babe Thermal Brush (which retails for $100 and is almost always sold out) had a baby. While it may not be any brush's one-to-one dupe, it does give multi-functionality for just $99.99.
The Shark SpeedStyle might be the new reigning Supersonic dupe
Based on the looks alone, the Shark SpeedStyle looks like it might be going for a BioIonic 10X UltraLight Speed dupe this time around. Plus, both have "speed" in the name. Starting at $179.99, the SpeedStyle already has a dupe-worthy price to the BioIonic's $299, but there's more to the picture.
Yes, we're talking attachments. This is Shark, the best Dyson dupe artisan out there, after all — of course there are attachments. For that aforementioned $179.99, you can select your choice of two between the six distinct attachments Shark offers, which include the Express TouchUp brush, the DefrizzFast Diffuser, the Turbo Concentrator, the QuickSmooth brush, the Lift & Stretch Wide Tooth Comb, and the RapidGloss Finisher.
For $199.99, you can opt to buy the SpeedStyle for curly & coily hair or the SpeedStyle for straight & wavy hair — both come with three attachments best suited to those hair types.
As a reminder, the Dyson Supersonic retails for $429.99 and comes with five attachments. Compared to the Shark HyperAIR (one of our current top dupes for the Supersonic), the SpeedStyle's attachments look more like direct analogues to the Supersonic's. For instance, the RapidGloss finisher looks an awful lot like, and promises a performance similar to, the Dyson flyway attachment.
The SpeedStyle also retains the heat-adjusting IQ of the HyperAIR, has 1700 watts of power to the HyperAIR's 1680 watts, as well as five total heat settings and three airflow settings to the HyperAIR's four heat and four airflow settings. And it's $25 cheaper than the HyperAIR.
In addition to Dyson, Shark seems to have duped itself.
Where to buy the SmoothStyle and SpeedStyle
As of Aug. 15, both tools are available on Sharkbeauty.com. According to the brand, they'll be available at domestic and international retailers starting early fall 2023.
UPDATE: Aug. 16, 2023, 2:10 p.m. EDT This article mistakenly referred to the Shark SpeedStyle as the SmoothStyle in two instances. We regret the error and have updated to fix these inaccuracies.
Topics Beauty
