Hi Wavy Friend! This post is all about the new Shark HyperAir Blow dryer with the diffuser attachment! The SharkHyperAir blow dryer is great on wavy hair, and you’ll learn a bit more about it, how to use it, and why you may want to incorporate it into your routine with pros and cons.
Pros and Cons of the Shark HyperAir
If you don’t want to read my full routine, instructions, nd results, here is the low down:
pros of the dryer
- much more affordable than the Dyson
- BIG diffuser – covers a great amount of hair in one go
- adjustable diffuser, with the standard and roots option
- cut dry time in half
cons of the dryer
- still $199 so not the most affordable option
- cool shot takes awhile to get to actually cool
- there isn’t a heatless setting like the Dyson offers, the level 1 is still warm (which I don’t mind but is worth mentioning)
What is the Shark HyperAir Blow Dryer?
The Shark HyperAir hair dryer is basically Shark’s dupe to the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer. At $199, the Shark model is significantly cheaper than the $429 Dyson.
The Shark HyperAir dry comes with 3 heat settings and 3 blowdry speeds. There’s also a cool shot button (that works better than the Dyson). This dryer comes with a large diffuser (We’ll talk about that soon!) and a nozzle if you like to blow dry your hair straight.
Wavy Hair Products to Use with the Shark HyperAir Blowdryer
Heat Protectant
You’ll want to use a good heat protectant and a styling product with hold when you use the Shark HyperAir Blowdryer. This is my favorite heat protectant, but I also like this less expensive option. My go to is the cream based because it seems to nourish my hair, help minimize frizz, and disperses over the hair really well.
Styling Product
A variety of styling products will work, but you’ll want something with hold. I’ve been using this curl cream for awhile and it seems to give decent hold, especially with this blow dry process.
How to use the Shark HyperAir wth Wavy Hair - Before Blow Drying
Before Blow Drying
After washing and conditioning my hair as usual (I squish/scrunch conditioner into my hair) and rinsing with warm water (barely above lukewarm), I gently raked through the heat protecting cream. Then I went in and did the same with my curl cream.
Your hair should be fairly wet, and you should be using a light rake through so your hair clumps, then scrunch the product in. When VERY little product is left in your fingertips, you can smooth it over the roots of your hair. Using a tiny amount of product here is key or you will get greasy roots even after a fresh wash.
To begin the drying process, I put my hair up in a wet tshirt. Either this or a microfiber towel turban will work well.
Diffusing Wavy Hair with the Shark HyperAir Blow Dryer
Hover Diffusing
After my hair was about 50% dry, I began diffusing. The HyperAir diffuser comes with two settings, a standard setting, and a “roots” setting. Basically the ends of the drying portion come out past the end of the bowl of the diffuser, which allows you to put this section into the roots.
I hover diffused all of the ends of my hair using the standard setting. I have tried using the roots setting but that seemed to start frizz, and the blow dryer worked faster on my ends this way.
Hover diffusing is what it sounds like, instead of touching the hair while drying, you hold it about an inch away and dry indirectly. I did this across my whole head until about 75% dry. I noticed a bit of frizz starting so I did a quick hairspray down to help stop the frizz and give hold. Then finished with the cold shot option overall to keep frizz awa.
Heat settings: Shark recommends to use level 1 dry speed and level 1 heat. The majority of the time I used these settings, but towards the beginning I did use level 2 blow drying because my hair was so wet.
The level 1 heat setting is still relatively warm and overall my hair dryed comparatively fast.
Dry time with old BlowDryer – 1hr-1hr 15 minutes
Shark HyperAir – 35-40mins
Blow drying my hair still took a long time, but since my hair takes 6+hours to air dry, it’s definitely a speedy option in comparison.
Wavy Hair Results
The overall results of my hair was a tighter wave/curl pattern than normal, and overall less frizz.
The images you see are of my drying results before crunching out hairspray (just lightly scrunch your hair to remove any cast/crunch).
The next image is the next day. I did NOT do a protective style at night, so overall I’m VERY happy with how my hair held up. I didn’t even need to do my 2 minute refresh routine!
I’m really happy about this purchase and think if you have the budget, that the Shark HyperAir IS worth the price.
