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WIRED
20-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- WIRED
The Best Thermal Brush, Tested by a Blowout Addict
Skip to main content Jun 20, 2025 10:33 AM Curious about thermal brushes? Here's what they can and can't do for your hair, and which ones are worth buying. All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links. You've seen thermal brushes before, maybe touted as a blow-out brush or an infrared brush. The best thermal brush for you will recreate a blow-out type of look on your dry hair—different than a blow-dry brush, which is designed for wet hair but has a similar look. It reminds me of how I would use a curler in my youth to straighten while adding a little body to the roots and a little curl to the ends. If that's your preferred hairstyle too, then these are the devices for you. Thermal brushes use a different type of heat than your usual hair tools. Rather than blowing hot air or pressing heated plates onto your head, a thermal brush uses infrared heat to warm the hair from the inside out. That style of heat does a good job of locking in moisture compared to other tools, but it can give different results depending on your hair type. It can also be tricky to nail the motion with these devices to create blow-out volume. Even if you don't get the volume you hoped for on your first try, these brushes are great for smoothing out and controlling day-two hair while you learn the method. The best thermal brush I've tried is the Wavytalk Heatwave Pro ($80), which comes with three different heads you can switch out, allowing for the most styling flexibility. It has five heat temperature settings, too, making it easy to achieve your perfect brush size and heat level for your hair type and intended style. My personal favorite single brush is the Amika Blowout Babe Thermal Round Brush ($100), since I like the easy toggle control, but the Sutra Infrared Thermal Styling Brush ($110) is a good choice for a single brush with five heat options to choose from. Curious for more information about thermal brushes? Head down to the Frequently Asked Questions section below to learn how the technology works, how to get the best blow-out look with them, and more. Looking for more hair tools and tips? Check out our guides to the Best Blow-Dry Brushes, Best Hair Straighteners, Best Hair Dryers, and Best Heat Protectant Sprays. The best thermal brush I've tried is actually a set. The Wavytalk Heatwave Pro comes with three different thermal heads you can switch out to choose the best size for the hairstyle you want. There's a little digital screen on the handle, with a power button and temperature button that lets you toggle between the five temperature settings. It ranges from 300 degrees up to 420 degrees Fahrenheit, with most of the heat options in the 300 range. The thermal heads come in the following sizes: 1.2 inches, 1.5 inches, and 1.75 inches. Each one has different strengths. The smallest size is great if you want a curler effect, while the larger sizes are good for smoother blow-out waves or a clean C-shape to your hair. Even with shoulder-length hair, I've been able to take advantage of the different sizes to get the exact results I'm looking for. It's a great set, and it's often on sale on Amazon, often also including a carrying case and some extra accessories like a heat glove and hair clips. Settings Five heat settings between 300 and 420 degrees Fahrenheit What's included Brush base and three thermal heads (1.2 inches, 1.5 inches, and 1.75 inches). Amazon set comes with case and accessories Warranty One-year warranty 02 Sutra Infrared Thermal Round Brush Sutra's Infrared Thermal Styling Brush has a design similar to our top pick, the Wavytalk, but instead of having two buttons, there's a single power button that you can hold down to turn on and off, or tap to toggle between the five heat settings. The button is easy to tap while you're using it, but it won't change the heat settings right away, so it's not the worst thing if you find yourself accidentally pressing it. It reaches the highest heat level of the thermal brushes I've tested, making it a good choice for unruly hair that needs higher heat to corral it. It does a good job smoothing my frizzy, curly hair after I air dry it, or reviving my DIY blowout the day after I use a blow-dry brush. I would prefer better controls, but it's worked well for me for months. I have the 43-millimeter option (which is about 1.7 inches), which has been a nice oval size for a classic blowout look, but Sutra also has a smaller, rounded 32-mm brush ($110) if that's more your style. Settings Five heat settings between What's included One 1.7-inch thermal brush Warranty One-year warranty 03 Amika Blowout Babe Thermal Brush I love that the Amika Blowout Babe has a single switch to turn it on. There's two options with the switch: the first will turn on a red light, to tell you the thermal brush is heating up. Click it one level higher and the light will turn green, telling you the negative ion generator is on, which gives smoother and shinier results, but means there's less volume. I did see less volume when switching between the two, but I also saw less frizz. I only use heat protectant in my tests, but in the future I'll probably skip the ion generator and just add a serum to corral the frizz (my go-to has been this one from Davines ever since I had postpartum flyaways a few years ago). There's no heat adjustments with this one, unlike the two models above. It switches on to the set 356 degrees Fahrenheit when you turn it on. There's also no indicator of when it's finished heating up, though Amika says to wait a few minutes for it to reach Settings One heat setting (356 degrees Fahrenheit) and a negative ion generator option What's included One 1.5-inch thermal brush Warranty One-year warranty BondiBoost Infrared Thermal Bounce Brush ($98): This is a popular thermal brush that you'll find recommended all over TikTok. It's a solid thermal brush, with easy controls to turn it on and to adjust the heat level, which has eight settings that range from 275 degrees to 450. It's one of the biggest temperature range options you'll find among these brushes; most only offer around five, while some offer no adjustments at all. It delivers nice results, but there are many reports and reviews that mention the device breaking, and BondiBoost primarily only offers a 30-day return window. There are mentions in comments about a one-year warranty, but BondiBoost's site doesn't confirm any warranty beyond the return window. It's no longer available on Amazon, and hasn't been for a few months now. It takes a long time to ship too. This is a popular thermal brush that you'll find recommended all over TikTok. It's a solid thermal brush, with easy controls to turn it on and to adjust the heat level, which has eight settings that range from 275 degrees to 450. It's one of the biggest temperature range options you'll find among these brushes; most only offer around five, while some offer no adjustments at all. It delivers nice results, but there are many reports and reviews that mention the device breaking, and BondiBoost primarily only offers a 30-day return window. There are mentions in comments about a one-year warranty, but BondiBoost's site doesn't confirm any warranty beyond the return window. It's no longer available on Amazon, and hasn't been for a few months now. It takes a long time to ship too. FoxyBae Hottie Hot Round Brush for $45: Though this brand is well-known for its tools and styling aids appearing in subscription beauty boxes like FabFitFun and Ipsy, most FoxyBae items are also available à la carte at Amazon. Though it looks like a blow-dry brush, this tool is advertised as both a curler and a straightener—'get a blowout without the hot air,' the website copy says. The fact it heats up to 430 degrees Fahrenheit was also promising. I have 3a curls that I regularly blow dry and straighten with a flat iron, so I wondered if a heated brush with a ceramic barrel might in fact be quicker and less harsh on my hair than a flat iron. I'd like to say definitively whether or not this was the case, but the weirdly stiff nylon bristles of this brush got so tangled in my hair that I wasn't even able to complete one pass. You might have better luck if you have only slightly wavy or even straight hair that you're looking to curl, but if you're looking to go from curly to straight, this is not the way. —Kat Merck Frequently Asked Questions How Do Thermal Brushes Work? AccordionItemContainerButton Thermal brushes might look like a blow-dry brush, but they work differently. Instead of blowing hot air, thermal brushes use infrared heat to style dry hair. Infrared heat is also different than your usual hot tools. Instead of just heating the surface of your hair to style and control, infrared will heat the hair from the inside out rather than outside in. I interviewed a handful of hair stylists and beauty experts, and nearly all of them confirmed that this style of heat is gentler on your hair. 'Infrared heat works differently than traditional hot tools. Instead of heating just the surface, it penetrates the hair shaft, styling from the inside out. That means better moisture retention, less frizz, and way less damage over time,' says Vito Esposito, founder of Vito Esposito Salon in Beverly Hills. Are Thermal Brushes and Blow-Dry Brushes The Same? AccordionItemContainerButton You might have seen two different kinds of brushes while shopping that promise blowout results. While the thermal brushes are designed for dry hair, there's also blow-dry brushes that are designed for wet hair. These aren't interchangeable devices, since they use different types of heat and are designed for different states of your hair. If you're looking for a device to both dry and style wet hair, check out our guide to the Best Blow-Dry Brushes. What's the Best Way to Use a Thermal Brush? AccordionItemContainerButton The trick with thermal brushes is to take the time to brush the hair in a way to create volume. There's no air flying out of this device to create volume like a blow-dry brush, and instead you need to manually create the volume by teasing the root of your hair up as you style it. I usually find I need a few passes of these brushes over a section of hair to smooth it out and style it as I intended. Make sure to start with a heat protectant first. There's a lot of videos with tutorials on how to use these brushes that can show you the popular motion to use with these brushes. Personally, my hair is shorter than most folks who make a demo video, so I find it easier to flip my hair out than to curl and twist it in while using these brushes. You should play around with your new tool and your hair to figure out what works best for you. The infrared heat is also good at helping your hair retain moisture, but that also means folks with oily or finer hair (like me!) might find that their day-two hair (or three or four, whatever wash day schedule is working for you) feels a little slick after using a thermal brush. I like to add a pinch of Bumble & Bumble Pret-a-Powder ($34), my favorite dry shampoo, on those days to keep my roots from getting too oily. Do You Still Need Heat Protectant? AccordionItemContainerButton Short answer: yes! Even though thermal brushes heat your hair from within, you still need to treat the exterior of your hair with a heat protectant of some kind to protect your hair. You can shop our guide to the Best Heat Protectants if you're looking for one. I test every thermal brush on both air-dried curls and a day-two blowout to see how well it can recreate a blowout look on my hair. I usually test on the highest setting for the most consistent results, since some thermal brushes don't have adjustment features. I also always use heat protectant—I use the Bumble and Bumble Hairdresser's Invisible Oil ($25), which is our top pick in our best heat protectants guide—and I have found that using a heat protectant helps make my hair a little more malleable to a thermal brush.
CNN
15-05-2025
- CNN
I tested the viral Wavytalk thermal brush. I didn't love it, but here's why you might
The Wavytalk Blowout Boost Thermal Brush has been a fixation on my social media lately, but it's been making waves on TikTok for a couple of years now. It's one of those viral beauty products that seems too good to be true, just because some of the hair transformations using the tool seem that unbelievable. After stalking it on TikTok for a while, I was left with questions that I wanted answered. How is it different from a blowout brush? Can it curl my hair? Will it replace other styling tools in my routine? Here's what I found out once I got my hands on the thermal brush. Wavytalk Blowout Boost Thermal Brush This heated round brush smoothes and styles hair, giving you a blowout effect with minimal effort. The thermal brush has five heat settings and works on all hair types, although we found it most effective on textured hair. With thousands of TikTok videos of Blowout Boost hair transformations and tutorials on different hair types, it really seems like a miracle styling tool. One of the most convincing videos, which has 21.5 million views, shows a girl using it on her super-long, curly hair. The thermal brush glides through her hair with surprisingly little effort and you immediately see a difference with just one pass. With two passes, her hair is smooth and straight, with a bit of a curl at the ends. In other videos on straighter hair, it achieves bouncy volume and relaxed curls. For $60, it's also relatively affordable, and you'll most likely find it on sale on Amazon, according to our price tracking. Yes and no. After a month of testing, I think the Wavytalk Blowout Boost is a nice tool for smoothing and giving a bit of volume, but it's better suited for wavy and curly hair (types 2 and 3). Although it looks like a blow-dryer brush, it doesn't circulate hot air, instead simply heating up like a curling iron. This means you'll want to use it on dry hair only, and you can treat it like any other hot tool and prep your hair with heat protectant. For naturally straight hair like mine, it was difficult to get enough tension to build up the curls. Most of the time, I ended up with a bit of a curl toward the ends only. My hair is also a mix of medium and thick strands, and I often struggle with getting curls to last. I used the Blowout Boost on the highest heat setting (it has five total, ranging from 300 to 420 degrees Fahrenheit), and my style would typically last most of the day but fall out within a few hours on humid days. As someone who has tested a bunch of blowout brushes, it was easy to use the same technique with the Wavytalk thermal brush. I also like that it is lightweight, heats up within a minute and has dual voltage for traveling. The placement of the buttons on the handle is a bit annoying, however, and I found myself accidentally changing the heat settings often during my styling. Since I wasn't totally convinced that it was worth the hype, I asked my colleague and associate testing writer Carolina Gazal to try it on her plentiful curls. Seeing it in action on her hair was a different story. Similar to that mega-viral video, the Blowout Boost required a couple of passes on each section of Gazal's curly hair but smoothed it out surprisingly well. With the tool on the highest heat setting, it took her about a little over half an hour to style all her hair. She was left with plenty of volume and a classic blowout effect. Gazal said she was impressed with the tool and thought it was worth the hype. While the Blowout Boost might not be the best fit for my hair, I have plenty of other recommendations for hair styling tools that can achieve a similar effect. Here are five tools I've personally tried for an at-home blowout. Revlon One-Step Volumizer Plus 2.0 Revlon's original blow-dryer brush, along with this newer model, are both CNN Underscored favorites for fast and effective blowouts at home. The oval-shaped brush dries and styles hair simultaneously. With the newer version, you get less high-heat exposure, a slimmer handle and a detachable head for a slightly upgraded experience. Plus, it's often on sale for the same price as the our review Shark SmoothStyle Heated Comb and Blow-Dryer Brush A heated brush that does a bit more, Shark's SmoothStyle tool has settings for wet and dry hair. I recommend it for curly hair types since you can use the blow-dry setting to start the smoothing process and then follow with the heated comb mode to really set your hair in a sleek blowout. The heated comb setting is also great for touch-ups between wash days. Wavytalk Cool Curl Airflow Styler For naturally straight hair like mine, I would go with Wavytalk's Cool Curl over the Blowout Boost. Since straight hair doesn't need a lot of extra smoothing action, the styling is really in the curl when it comes to the blowout effect. With this curler, you can create a range of volumized styles and have a bit more control than with the Blowout Boost. T3 AireBrush Round Hair Dryer Brush Many blow-dryer brushes have oval-shaped heads, but this one is round, making it a closer comparison to the Wavytalk Blowout Boost. The wet-to-dry styler has a larger 2.5-inch round brush and gives a similar bouncy, voluminous effect. Dyson Airwrap Multi-Styler Complete Long The multi-styler that every other brand has tried to compete with, Dyson's Airwrap is truly at the top of its class. It's a hair dryer, blowout brush and curling iron in one, giving you the most range for achievable styles. Read our review If you're after a beginner-friendly styling tool that won't break the bank, Wavytalk's Blowout Boost is a great option, especially for wavy and curly hair types. The magic of this tool seems to be in its smoothing power, which was evident when Gazal put it to the test on her curls. You won't get as dramatic of a transformation if you have straight hair, but it will still give you a blowout effect. Can I use a Wavytalk thermal brush on wet hair? Can I use a Wavytalk thermal brush on wet hair? No, it is not a wet-to-dry styling tool like a blow-dryer brush. It should only be used on dry hair. How hot does the Wavytalk thermal brush get? How hot does the Wavytalk thermal brush get? The thermal brush's highest heat setting is 420 degrees Fahrenheit. Does the Wavytalk Thermal Brush turn off automatically? Does the Wavytalk Thermal Brush turn off automatically? No, it does not have auto-shutoff. CNN Underscored has a team of skilled writers and editors who have many years of experience testing, researching and recommending products, and they ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. We talk to top experts when applicable to make certain we are testing each product accurately, recommending only the best products and considering the pros and cons of each item. For this story, beauty and fashion editor Sophie Shaw tested the viral Wavytalk Thermal Brush and enlisted the help of associate testing writer Carolina Gazal to see how well it works on different hair types.
