The Best Hot Brushes in Australia for a Salon Blowout at Home (2026)

A hot brush is the closest most of us will ever get to a real salon blow dry without booking one. It puts heat and a brush in the same hand, so instead of holding a dryer in one hand and a round brush in the other and trying to coordinate both, you make one pass and your hair comes out smoother, with more volume at the root and a soft curve at the ends. For a first-home buyer kitting out a new bathroom, it is one of the cheapest upgrades you can make to your morning routine.

The catch is that "hot brush" covers three quite different tools, and the wrong one will disappoint you no matter how good the reviews are. We pulled the current Amazon Australia listings, cross-checked the real star ratings and review counts, and read through the Australian reviews on every pick so you can match the right type to your hair and your budget. Below are our eight picks, starting with the one most people should buy.

What is the best hot brush in Australia right now?

For most people the best hot brush in Australia is the Revlon One-Step Volumiser. It is a dry-and-style brush, which means you use it on towel-dried wet hair and it does the drying and the styling at the same time, the single most useful trick a hot brush can do. It runs on a genuine Australian plug, it has more reviews than any other tool here, and it costs around sixty dollars. If you want curls and waves instead of a smooth blow dry, jump to the TYMO STYLUX. If you are spending as little as possible, the VS Sassoon is the cheapest pick on this list.

Our quick verdict

• Top pick: Revlon One-Step Volumiser, the all rounder dry and style brush for beginners.
• Value pick: TYMO STYLUX Thermal Brush, the best price for curls and waves on dry hair.
• Budget pick: VS Sassoon Hot Air Brush n' Style, the cheapest way in and the highest rated of our three headline picks.
• Premium splurge: ghd duet blowdry, low-heat drying and styling if money is no object.

Last updated June 2026. Prices and star ratings move around on Amazon, so treat the figures here as a snapshot and check the live listing before you buy.

How do the best hot brushes compare at a glance?

The fastest way to narrow this down is to decide whether you want to style wet hair or dry hair, then look at price. Dry-and-style brushes (Revlon, VS Sassoon, BaByliss, ghd, GLAMUP, Thin Lizzy) work on damp hair and replace your dryer. Thermal brushes (TYMO, Wavytalk) are for hair that is already dry and are really about curls, waves and shine. The table below sorts our picks by price so you can see where each one sits. Every rating and review count is taken from the live Amazon Australia listing at the time of writing.

How did we choose these hot brushes?

NestPath is run for Australian first-home buyers, and we research products rather than run a physical lab, so we are upfront about our method. Here is how these eight made the cut.

• Australian availability first. Every pick is in stock on Amazon Australia with a price in Australian dollars, so nothing here is a grey-import you cannot actually receive.
• Real ratings, real reviews. We only included tools with a genuine star rating and at least a handful of reviews, then we read the Australian reviews to find the patterns behind the average.
• Matched to hair type and goal. We split picks by what they actually do, drying versus curling, so you are not sold a curling brush when you wanted a blow dry.
• Plug and voltage checks. Hair tools are a notorious category for European plugs slipping into Australian listings, so we flagged every pick where buyers reported a plug problem.
• Honest flaws. For each pick we list the real complaints from owners, because a tool with no downsides usually just means nobody has used it yet.

We update this guide as listings change. If a pick goes out of stock or its rating drops sharply, we swap it.

Which hot brush is best for beginners and everyday blow drys?

The Revlon One-Step Volumiser is the best hot brush for beginners because it removes the hardest part of styling, which is coordinating a separate dryer and brush. You towel-dry your hair, pick a heat setting, and brush in long strokes from root to tip. The oval head smooths the sides of each section while the rounded back lifts the roots, so you get a blow dry with body in one pass. At 1100W it has enough power to dry medium hair without taking all morning, and crucially it ships with a real Australian plug rated for 220 to 240 volts.

What earns it the top spot is not just performance, it is proof. With more than 27,000 ratings across Australian and global listings it is the most reviewed tool in this entire guide, by a margin that none of the others come close to. Australian owners with fine, flat hair describe instant lift, and one reviewer with thick 4C hair said it cut her straightening time down thanks to the big barrel. It is also one of the more affordable picks at around sixty dollars, which is why it is the default recommendation for anyone buying their first hot brush.

It is not a curling tool. If you want defined curls or beachy waves, the round edges will give you a soft flick at the ends but not a tight ringlet, and you should look at a thermal brush instead. It is also on the bulkier side, so if you have a short bob you may find the head a little large to angle around your jawline. For a smooth, voluminous everyday blow dry on medium to long hair, though, it is the one to beat.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

A handful of owners reported the unit losing heat or dying inside six to twelve months, so register any warranty and keep your receipt. The head is bulky for very short hair, and the grip can feel slippery with damp hands. There is no separate medium heat setting, just low and high plus the cool shot, which is fine for most people but worth knowing if your hair is fragile.

What is the best value hot brush for curls and waves?

The TYMO STYLUX is our value pick because it nails the look the Revlon cannot, soft curls and a 90s bouncy blowout, at a price well under most rivals. It is important to understand it is a thermal brush, not a dryer brush, so you use it on hair that is already dry. You wrap a section around the heated barrel, pull down and rotate, and the tourmaline ceramic barrel sets a curve. The 1.7 inch barrel is sized for volume and waves rather than tight curls, and it heats to around 200C, which gives it the grip to shape thicker, coarser hair that gentler tools leave limp.

At under seventy dollars with more than 1,400 ratings, it is the best mix of price and proven results among the curl-focused tools here. Dual voltage makes it a genuine travel tool, and the digital light shows when it is up to temperature. Australian owners with long, frizzy or curly hair report smooth results that hold until the next wash, and several were planning to buy a second one for their travel bag. The learning curve is real but short, and TikTok is full of tutorials for the wrap-and-roll technique.

The honest caveat is hair length. TYMO designs it for hair from chin-length up to around thirty inches, and the most common complaint comes from people with short or shoulder-length hair who could not get the wrap to work, ending up with a kink rather than a curl. A minority also felt it ran cooler than the stated 200C. If your hair sits at or below the shoulder and you want curls, read the technique guidance carefully or consider a smaller-barrel tool.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The barrel is too large for very short hair, and the wrapping technique takes practice, so do not judge it on your first attempt. A few reviewers felt the heat was weaker than advertised. It does not dry wet hair, so you still need a dryer first. It also gets genuinely hot to the touch, which is normal for a thermal brush but worth respecting around your scalp and ears.

What is the cheapest hot brush worth buying?

The VS Sassoon Hot Air Brush n' Style is the cheapest pick in this guide and, at 4.4 stars, the highest rated of our three headline picks. For under forty dollars you get a dry-and-style hot air brush with two interchangeable heads, a 38mm thermal brush for general drying and volume and a 25mm bristle brush for shaping fringes and shorter sections. The ceramic tourmaline coating keeps the heat even and helps cut frizz, and there are two heat settings plus a cool shot to lock the style.

It punches above its price for fine and short hair in particular. Reviewers with very fine hair that normally falls flat call it a game changer for the lift it adds, and at 550g it is light enough to hold up through a full style without your arm aching. One owner with carpal tunnel singled it out for being so much easier than juggling a dryer and brush. Because it is from VS Sassoon, a brand Australians have trusted for decades, it also feels like a safer cheap buy than an unknown import.

The trade-off for the low price is power and polish. It is a light, slightly plasticky tool, and a few owners noted that wrapping a lot of hair tightly around the barrel can cause tangling. It will give you a tidy, voluminous blow dry, but it will not deliver the dramatic, magazine-cover curl you might see in Instagram tutorials. For an everyday lift on fine or shorter hair at the lowest price here, it is excellent.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The body feels lightweight and a touch flimsy, which is the cost of the price. Hair can tangle if you wrap too much around the barrel at once, so work in smaller sections. It is best suited to short and fine hair, and people with very long or thick hair may find the airflow underpowered. There is no travel case in the box.

Is there a good Dyson Airwrap alternative under $200?

Yes, and the GLAMUP 6-in-1 Hot Air Styler is the one Australian reviewers keep reaching for. It is a multi attachment air styler built around Coanda-style airflow, the same wrap around effect that made the Airwrap famous, and it comes with a high speed dryer, a round brush, a volumiser, left and right wrap curl barrels and a straightening nozzle, plus a storage case. The 16cm barrels are longer than many rivals, which genuinely helps if you have long or thick hair that shorter barrels leave half-curled.

At around two hundred dollars with a 4.4-star average, it is the strongest middle ground here between a basic hot brush and a flagship multi-styler. One owner who already had a genuine Dyson Airwrap said the GLAMUP curled more tightly and held longer, and another who returned a Shark FlexStyle for poor suction found this one gripped her long thick hair far better. The gentle, lower-temperature airflow is a selling point for anyone worried about heat damage from a daily-use tool.

It is a bigger commitment than our top three, both in price and in learning curve, and the curl technique with the wrap barrels takes a few goes. One reviewer reported a curling barrel that began to smoke after light use, though they noted customer service resolved it, and a couple felt the airflow was not strong enough to auto-wrap their hair the way the videos show. If you want one tool that genuinely replaces several, and you have longer hair, it is a smart buy.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The wrap-curl technique has a learning curve, and a minority found the suction too gentle to auto-wrap thick hair. It is a heavier, bulkier tool at around two kilograms with the case. One isolated report of a smoking barrel is worth noting even though support handled it. At two hundred dollars it is a step up in price from the everyday picks.

What is the best premium hot brush in Australia?

If budget is not the deciding factor, the ghd duet blowdry is the premium choice. It is a 2-in-1 dryer brush that, like our top pick, dries and styles wet hair in one pass, but it does so with ghd's Heat-Air Xchange technology, which senses the temperature hundreds of times per second to hold a low, hair-friendly heat while still drying efficiently. The promise is a 24-hour, frizz-resistant blow dry with no heat damage, and it comes with a travel case and a cleaning tool.

The reviews from owners are some of the most enthusiastic in this guide. People with long, slow-drying hair describe it cutting their styling time dramatically and saving their arms, and several who already owned expensive blow-dry brushes called it the best one they had used. The build quality and the controlled, even heat are the recurring themes, and it is the tool most owners say they reach for instead of their normal dryer.

The obvious downside is price. At several hundred dollars it costs many times more than the Revlon, and while the engineering is real, the gap in results is not always proportional to the gap in cost for everyday styling. One Australian buyer also received a faulty unit that smelled of burning rubber out of the box, a reminder to check yours carefully on arrival and use the return window. For a heavy daily user who values low-heat styling and is happy to pay for it, it is the splurge that makes sense.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It is expensive, far more than the everyday picks, and the result gap over cheaper dryer brushes narrows the less often you style. The barrel is large, like most dryer brushes. As with any tool, the occasional faulty unit slips through, so inspect it on arrival. Its review count is still small because it is a newer release.

Which hot brush is best for a quick TikTok-style blowout?

The Wavytalk Blowout Boost Ionic Thermal Brush is the viral pick, and for good reason. It is a heated thermal brush, used on dry hair, with five temperature settings from 150C for fine or damaged hair up to 215C for thick or coarse hair, an LED display and ionic technology to seal the cuticle for shine. The 38mm barrel is aimed squarely at that quick, bouncy blowout look, and dual voltage makes it travel-friendly. With well over 700 ratings it is also one of the most reviewed thermal brushes on Amazon Australia.

Owners love how fast and easy it makes a glossy at-home style, and many bought it specifically because they saw it all over TikTok, then found it lived up to the hype. The range of heat settings is a genuine advantage over single-temperature tools, letting you dial the heat to your hair rather than blasting everything on high. For adding shine and a soft shape to medium-length hair in ten minutes, it is a strong, affordable choice.

The same caveats apply as with any thermal brush. It is explicitly not a hair dryer and cannot dry wet hair, the barrel can be too large for very short styles, and the most negative reviewers tended to have long or tightly curly hair that the brush struggled to shape. One reviewer also flagged no obvious auto shut-off, so treat it like any hot styler and unplug it when you are done.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It only works on dry hair, so it does not replace your dryer. The barrel suits medium hair best and can be unwieldy on very short or very curly hair. It runs hot, and there is no clearly documented auto shut-off, so unplug after use. Results take a little practice to get consistent.

The competition: hot brushes that nearly made the cut

Two more tools are worth knowing about, with caveats that kept them out of our headline picks.

The BaByliss Shape and Smooth AS82E is a well-rated 800W hot air brush with a 38mm ceramic brush and a 20mm bristle attachment, two heat settings and a cool shot, and it carries thousands of ratings. On paper it is a great budget dry-and-style brush. The reason we hold it at arm's length is plugs. Several Australian buyers reported receiving units with a European plug and a German-language manual, which makes the tool unusable here without an adapter. If you buy it, confirm the listing explicitly states an Australian plug before you order, and be ready to return it if the wrong one arrives.

The Thin Lizzy 5in1 Hot Air Brush is an affordable five-attachment air styler from a brand Australians know, with a dryer nozzle, a round volumising brush, a smoothing paddle and left and right curling barrels, plus ionic ceramic heating and universal voltage. Reviewers like the versatility and value, and it makes a reasonable budget alternative to pricier multi-stylers. The recurring complaint is that the curling barrels are short, so they struggle on longer hair and the body can get hot during heavy use. For shorter hair and an all-in-one travel tool it is fine, just temper your expectations on long curls.

How to choose the right hot brush for your hair

Answer these questions before you buy and you will avoid the most common mismatch.

Do you want to style wet hair or dry hair?

This is the big one. A dryer brush or hot air brush (Revlon, VS Sassoon, ghd, GLAMUP, Thin Lizzy, BaByliss) works on damp hair and replaces your dryer. A thermal brush (TYMO, Wavytalk) is for hair that is already dry and is really a curling and shine tool. Buying the wrong type is the number one reason people are disappointed.

What is your hair length and thickness?

Fine and short hair does well with lighter tools and smaller barrels, like the VS Sassoon. Long or thick hair benefits from more power and longer barrels, which is where the GLAMUP and ghd pull ahead. Very short bobs can find big oval brush heads awkward to angle.

Does it have an Australian plug and the right voltage?

Hair tools are a high-risk category for European plugs appearing on Australian listings. Look for an explicit AU plug and a 220 to 240 volt rating. Dual-voltage tools like the TYMO and Wavytalk are the safest bet for travel.

What temperature control do you need?

More heat settings means gentler styling for fine or coloured hair. A cool shot helps set the style and add shine. If your hair is fragile, prioritise a tool with a low setting and a cool option over raw wattage.

How do you use and care for a hot brush?

Good technique and basic care make a cheap brush perform like a dear one and help any brush last.

• Start at the right dryness. For a dryer brush, towel-dry until your hair is damp, not dripping. For a thermal brush, make sure hair is fully dry first.
• Always use heat protectant. A spray before styling is the single best thing you can do to limit heat damage, especially on coloured hair.
• Work in small sections. Smaller sections dry and shape faster and tangle less. Clip the rest of your hair out of the way.
• Finish with the cool shot. A blast of cool air sets the style and locks in shine before you move to the next section.
• Let it cool before storing. Never wrap the cord around a warm tool, as that strains the cord where it meets the handle. Wait until it is cold.
• Clean the brush and vent. Remove trapped hair from the bristles and, on dryer brushes, brush out the air intake so it does not overheat. Many tools have a removable grille for this.

What else will you want with your hot brush?

A hot brush is happier with a few companions. These are the extras worth adding to the same order, each available on Amazon Australia.

• A heat protectant spray is non-negotiable for daily styling and protects colour and condition.
• Sectioning clips make working in small sections quick and keep stray hair out of the heat.
• A wide-tooth comb detangles damp hair before you start, which means smoother, faster styling.
• A microfibre hair towel gets you to the damp-not-dripping stage faster than a bath towel.
• A heat-resistant mat or pouch protects your benchtop while the tool cools down.
• A finishing serum or shine oil tames flyaways and adds gloss to the ends once you are done.
• A lightweight hair dryer pairs with a thermal brush, since those tools need dry hair to start. See our best hair dryer in Australia guide.

Hot brush questions Australians ask

Which brand of hot hair brush is best?

For a dry-and-style brush, Revlon is the safe default thanks to its huge review base and proven results, while ghd is the premium choice. For curls and waves on dry hair, TYMO and Wavytalk lead the thermal-brush field. The best brand for you depends on whether you want to dry and style, or curl and add shine.

What is the difference between a thermal brush and a hot air brush?

A hot air brush blows heated air through the bristles, so it can dry wet hair and style it at the same time, replacing your dryer. A thermal brush has a heated barrel but no airflow, so it only works on already-dry hair and is used for curls, waves and smoothing. Pick a hot air brush to dry and style, and a thermal brush to curl.

Are hot brushes bad for your hair?

Any heat tool can damage hair if used too hot or too often, but hot brushes are generally gentler than a flat iron because the heat is spread across a brush rather than clamped onto a strand. Use a heat protectant, choose a lower temperature for fine or coloured hair, and avoid styling soaking-wet hair on a thermal brush, and the risk stays low.

Can a hot brush replace my straightener and dryer?

A hot air brush can replace your dryer and give you a smooth, voluminous blow dry, but it will not get hair as poker-straight as a flat iron. If dead-straight hair is your goal, you may still want a straightener for the finish. For everyday smooth, bouncy styles, many people find a hot brush is all they need.

Do hot brushes work on short hair?

Yes, but the tool matters. Smaller-barrel and bristle attachment brushes like the VS Sassoon suit short and fine hair well, while big oval dryer brush heads and large thermal barrels can be awkward on a short bob. For very short hair, look for a 25 to 30mm attachment rather than a 38mm or larger barrel.

More guides to finish your bathroom and routine

If you are setting up a new home, pair your hot brush with the rest of your personal-care kit using these NestPath guides.

• The best hair dryers in Australia, the partner tool for thermal brushes.
• The best hair straighteners in Australia for when you want dead-straight hair.
• The best curling wands in Australia for defined curls and ringlets.
• The best hair diffusers in Australia to dry curls without frizz.
• The best makeup mirrors in Australia to finish your getting-ready bench.
• The best epilators in Australia for the rest of your grooming routine.

About the author

Anish Puri founded NestPath in 2026 after going through the Australian first-home-buyer process himself. NestPath focuses on Australian first-home buyers because the existing review sites are American, generic, or both. Anish handles editorial selection across the homeowner hub. Reach out: hello@nestpath.com.au