I tested the best Dyson Airwrap dupes under $300: The Shark FlexStyle is no longer your only option

Who it's for:

Multi-stylers may be all about the convenience of an all-in-one tool, but their storage solutions are often bulky (even in the case of the Airwrap). With the T3 Aire 360, T3 succeeded in not only making a multi-styler that performs very similarly to the Shark FlexStyle but also offers a smart storage solution.

The vegan leather storage case is pretty enough not to hide away, small enough if you do want to chuck it under your bathroom sink, and makes organizing your attachments easy. If you want a multi-styler but aren't sure if you have the space, T3 is likely to be your best option.

Why we picked this:

T3 has been a name in the hair space for some time thanks to its ever-popular curling and straightening iron, known to perform well and last forever. It felt only inevitable until the brand hopped on the multi-styler train, and it's done exactly that with plenty of grace.

With more and more dupes coming out, the gaps to fill are becoming less and less, but T3 correctly identified that the storage gap was wide upon. Before I get more into that: yes, the tool performs very well. Like any other multi-styler that isn't the Dyson Airwrap, you have to switch curling barrels for different curling directions, but the curls this tool produced were full and neater than I'd come to expect with testing multi-stylers. They also lasted more as a true loose curl than straightening out to a loose wave, as I'd experienced with the FlexStyle and Airwrap.

Styling time was on par with the FlexStyle, the tool maxed out at 203 degrees Fahrenheit to keep things healthy, and the round brush was easy to brush through my hair without snagging, with a size that was perfect for offering plenty of volume. This tool is also incredibly light, clocking in at 1.2 pounds, as compared with the FlexStyle and Airwrap, which both sit around 1.5 pounds.

Now, please allow me to gush about the storage case. The FlexStyle doesn't come with a case in its base kits. The Airwrap's case is an organized, but massive brick that is too big for me to want to actually use regularly. T3 hit the perfect happy medium with a leather pouch — it feels luxe but functional, with interior pockets so everything has its place, and the drawstring closure keeps your product out of sight. It's not an eyesore at all, so I happily kept it out in my room, making it easy to reach for and store.

My main gripe with this tool is that the attachment options are limited, but if you're looking for a fairly curated multi-styler experience, this might be a bonus for you. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we see some more variety in this area from T3 in the near future.

Read our full review of the Revlon One-Step.

Who it's for:

The Revlon One-Step is the original Airwrap dupe, launching in 2016 and going viral on TikTok in 2020. While there are better dupes these days, it's still one of the best ways to get an easy blowout for under $50 — just please use heat protectant, and only go in on mostly dry hair if you want to avoid major heat damage.

Why we picked this:

Honestly, it's kind of iconic that you can buy 12 One-Steps for the price of a single Airwrap. What keeps the One-Step on our list though, is that this large-barreled brush does deliver on bounce and volume, without a crazy learning curve. While I certainly didn't find it to be all that comparable to the Airwrap in terms of the variety of the results, and I felt that it generally ran hotter and put my hair through the heat-damage wringer more than the pricier alternatives on this list, I still liked this tool for an easy blowout.

However, it bears repeating — drying your hair beforehand is essential. You don't need to get it all the way dry, but at least to the 85 percent point if you want to keep this tool from giving you the fried look. This does knock some points off the convenience scale, as you will either need to air dry or use a separate hair dryer. I'd also recommend only using the low and cool settings if you can get away with it, as the high setting really does up the ante. While these are drawbacks, if you've never quite been able to figure out how to wrestle with a round brush and hair dryer at the same time (society needs to stop acting like this is easy), then the One-Step makes a blowout much more attainable, for a fraction of the price of not only the Airwrap, but the other dupes on this list.

Who it's for:

The amika Blowout Babe is the least like the Airwrap and its dupes on this list, but it has its place for anyone looking for the easiest possible blowout and doesn't mind starting with completely dry hair.

For people who don't get their hair wet in the morning, who are sensitive to the loud sound that's unavoidable with air-styling tools, or don't have a ton of storage space, a thermal brush like the Blowout Babe is a great option that still provides you plenty of volume, shine, and life to your hair.

Why we picked this:

Instead of using hot air to achieve your fresh-from-the-salon look, this thermal brush uses far infrared heat that radiates from the ceramic barrel to provide even heat that'll keep a sleek style locked in, without scorching your strands.

Of course, you'll want to use a heat protectant (as you would with any heat styling), as more direct contact with the barrel that styling with this brush requires can put your hair at a higher risk for damage than a hot air tool. However, you do get some pretty big pros in return: your hairstyle is likely to be locked in longer, a brush is less unwieldy to use than a tool blowing out air making touchups and the initial learning process easier, and a single brush is going to take up way less storage space than any of the other tools on this list.

Will you have less versatility than with multi-stylers? Yes, but not as much as you might think — for all their attachments, multi-stylers are basically tools to deliver slightly different blown-out looks. Against the multi-stylers, I found the 1.5-inch barrel of the amika brush to provide comparable volume and bounce, and with some practice, some more defined (and long-lasting) waves than I could achieve with the Airwrap. The brush also has a special negative ion mode that provided noticeably smoother locks than any blowout I got using hot air. And maybe the best thing about this TikTok-viral thermal brush? It retails for $100, making it one of the cheapest dupes I recommend.