Caters for all hair types.
The Shark Glam is easily one of the most versatile hair driers and stylers on the market, aimed to assist all hair types. If you have curly hair and want the option to both enhance your natural style while embracing straight or wavy looks, then this is the styler for you.
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Lightweight and easy to hold for prolonged styling periods -
Multiple attachments for versatile styling -
Fast drying and heat-up times
Key Features
Introduction
Most hair tools are designed with just one purpose in mind. Sure, it’s easy enough to use your hair straighteners to create curls, but generally speaking, stylers don’t allow much experimentation. Enter the Shark Glam.
Equipped with five different attachments, the Shark Glam promises to cater to all hair types (from one to four) without relying on extreme heat, ensuring precise and efficient styling regardless of your desired hairstyle.
What’s more, the Shark Glam is fitted with plenty of features to keep your hair healthy, including Heat Sense and Scalp Shield Technology, all while relying on air, not heat, to dry and style hair.
So, is Shark Glam really any good in practice? Or is heat a necessary evil when it comes to hair styling? And, is it really possible to have such a versatile multi-styler, or are people who like to mix up their hair styles destined to need countless appliances lining their dressing table?
Design
- Generally lightweight to hold for extended periods
- Removing and attaching tools isn’t quite as seamless as the FlexStyle
- Comes in a useful travel bag
The SharkGlam is undoubtedly a fancy-looking device, especially as its gold finish makes the tool look more premium.
Like its predecessors, the SharkGlam can be used either paired with or without a styling attachment, with the latter designed to simply rough-dry hair and is enabled by pushing down the lever and twisting the dryer horizontally.
Shark has also conveniently placed the settings towards the bottom of the Glam, which means there’s less chance for you to accidentally press something while styling. These settings include a cool shot button, another button to control the airflow and a third for heat control.
You can also use the heat button to enable Scalp Shield technology, which Shark explains should help protect new hair growth from extreme heat by reducing air temperatures when drying your roots. Simply press the heat button for two seconds, and you’ll notice the light will flash blue to indicate Scalp Shield has been engaged.
Otherwise, this light will indicate when the styler is in wet mode (blue) or styling mode (green), the latter of which should only be used when your hair is completely dry. These modes can be controlled by the switch at the bottom of the styler.
Lastly, at around 373g (without attachments) the SharkGlam is even lighter than the Dyson Airwrap i.d, which means it comfortably supports hair styling for a longer period of time.
Features
- Five attachments to tackle all hair types
- Scalp Shield technology
- Option to adjust temperature and air speed according to your preference
There are two models of Shark Glam to select from: Straight & Waves or Straight, Waves & Curls, with the latter including a diffuser to help dry curls quickly without ruining their pattern.
Otherwise, both models include two 32mm auto-wrap barrels (one for the left side of your hair and the other for the right), a styling concentrator, Silki straightening tool and the Glossi blow-dry attachment.
While the Shark Glam uses heat-controlled ceramic and high-speed airflow to both dry and style hair, it is also fitted with plenty of technologies to help protect hair health. As mentioned earlier, there’s Scalp Shield technology, which helps protect new hair growth from extreme heat, and continuous heat regulation to ensure the tool never exceeds 150°C when in wet mode,
I should mention that although Shark does promise that there’s “no heat damage” when compared to air drying, I still use a heat protectant serum when using the Shark Glam and recommend this.
Performance
- Fast drying, although thicker hair may need additional products or styling to completely smooth out
- Dry mode styling with Air Straightener is incredibly useful and heats up quickly
- Glossi blow-dry needs some time to create the perfect bouncy blow-dry
As it looks just like a normal hair straightener, using the Shark Silki Tool on wet locks felt almost concerning at first, with memories of old-school wet-to-straight tools that frazzled your hair leaping to mind. However, when the Glam is set to Wet mode, the tool simply uses air to dry hair, while the straightening method keeps locks smooth. I divided my hair into six sections, and each section took about five or so minutes to properly dry and straighten.
Once I finished this initial process, although my hair was dry and straightened, it didn’t quite have as smooth or silky a finish as I’d ideally like. Perhaps a specialist product might have helped here, like hair oil, but I had only used my usual heat protectant serum.
Even so, I simply followed up by using the Silki attachment on Dry Mode, which works like a usual hair straightener but uses air too, and this enabled my hair to smooth out sufficiently.
I then tried the Glossi blow-dry attachment, which is a cone-shaped barrel designed to add volume while smoothing hair out. The beauty of this attachment is how quickly it deals with hair. In fact, I found it dried my hair into a reasonable state in just 20 or so minutes. However, to create the perfect bouncy blow-dry, I do think you need to take a bit more time to properly brush your hair.
When using both tools, you need to ensure your hair isn’t completely soaked and just “70% wet” according to Shark. A rough dry without any attachment should suffice here, but if you are prone to frizziness, I advise using the included styling concentrator to help guide your hair to smoothness.
Finally, the 32mm auto-wrap barrels were perfect at sprucing up day-old hair and creating soft curls. Unlike the Dyson Airwrap, you can’t curl your hair in any direction and need to make sure you have the correct barrel when dealing with the left and right sides of your hair.
If you’ve never used an air styler to curl your hair before, then be wary that it will take some getting used to.
Should you buy it?
Buy if you want a true all-in-one multistyler
Anyone who likes to experiment with different hair styles, or who sways from embracing natural curls to straightening, will appreciate how versatile the Shark Glam is.
Don’t buy if you only need one or two hair styling tools normally
If you usually just use a simple hair dryer or maybe just a hair straightener in your everyday life, then the Shark Glam is an unnecessary expense for you to make.
Final Thoughts
The Shark Glam multistyler is a brilliant all-in-one tool, which I think can more or less replace the clutter of other styling equipment. While I do think practice makes perfect, especially when it comes to using the auto-wrap barrels, and you may need to style your hair after it has finished drying, it’s a brilliant styler for anyone who likes to both experiment with hair and embrace natural textures too.
Considering it took me just over 40 minutes to completely dry, straighten and smooth my naturally thick, curly and quite damaged hair, the Shark Glam is also brilliant for those who don’t want to spend ages sitting in front of the mirror with a hefty hair dryer.
How We Test
We thoroughly test every hair styler we review. We use testing to compare features properly and we use the styler as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
- <strong>We use before and after photos to compare real-world performance.</strong>
- Used as our sole hair dryer and styler for at least two weeks
FAQs
Yes, just make sure you correctly set the Shark Glam to either Wet or Dry mode by using the switch at the bottom of the tool, depending on your needs.
In wet mode, the highest temperature is 150°C. In dry/styling mode (which should only be used when hair is completely dried) then the maximum temperature is 220°C.
To adjust the temperature, click on the red heat button and the LED lights will correlate to how high or low the setting is.
Press and hold the red heat button for two seconds until the LED starts flashing blue.
If you don’t have naturally curly hair, and therefore don’t need a diffuser, then you can purchase the Shark Glam Straight and Wavy bundle instead.
Slide down the latch button at the back of the tool, then rotate the nozzle to the left until it clicks into place.
Full Specs
| Shark Glam Hair Multi-Styler Review |
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