The Best Thermal Brushes (and How They Work)
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.
Up Next
I'm testing the GHD Rise Volumizing Thermal Hot Brush ($209), Hairitage Thermal Round Brush ($50), and Mane It's Giving Body Medium Hot Thermal Round Brush ($98) for the next update to this guide.
Best Thermal Brush
- Courtesy of Wavytalk
- Photograph: Nena Farrell
- Photograph: Nena Farrell
- Photograph: Nena Farrell
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 Another Good Thermal Brush
- Courtesy of Sutra
- Photograph: Nena Farrell
- Photograph: Nena Farrell
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
An Honorable Mention
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
Others We Tried
- 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.
- 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?
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?
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?
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?
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.
How I Test Thermal Brushes
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.
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