Shared motor, or shared box
An air styler — Shark, oudim, Dyson — uses one motor and one airflow to curl, smooth and dry, with the head deciding which. That is genuinely one tool.
A heated multi-styler — the Remington five-in-one at $135 — is one handle with five interchangeable heated heads. That is five tools that share a plug and a case, which is still useful and is a different claim.
What each combination covers
Curl and volume: any of them. Smooth and straight: the air stylers with a smoothing or paddle head, and the brushes with a straightening attachment. A full blow-dry: the two that publish a concentrator and a diffuser, which is the oudim and the Shark.
That pairing is the thing to check, because it is the one claim makers are loose about. The StyleVibe at $94 publishes no diffuser on a page that names coily hair. The oudim at $47 itemizes all six of its attachments, diffuser included, and is the cheapest tool here that does.
Where the attachments matter more than the motor
Two curling barrels turning in opposite directions, so both sides of a head curl the same way. Five of the nine air stylers here supply a pair; a single-barrel styler curls one side against its natural fall, and the two that do not itemize their attachments cannot be checked before it arrives.
What to check before buying one instead of two
Whether a glove is supplied, if any head is a wand — the Beurer and the StyleVibe both publish one. Whether a case is included, because five heads without one become three heads. And what the maker publishes about heat: three of the nine stylers give figures in degrees, and the hottest of those is 230 °F against 446 and above on a straightener. See what the temperature dial means for the rest of that comparison.
Prices quoted in this text were read on 2026-10-12. The live price is at the top of the page.
What people ask about this
Is a multi-styler a compromise?
Less than it used to be, on the air-driven ones — the same motor genuinely drives a curl, a smooth and a dry. On heated multi-stylers, the handle is shared and the heads are separate tools, which is a case rather than a compromise.
Do I still need a dryer?
Two of the nine [air stylers](/air-stylers/) here publish both a concentrator and a diffuser, which is what a styler needs to dry a whole head rather than finish a section: the [oudim](/reviews/air-stylers-oudim/) at $47 and the Shark. The rest style damp or dry hair and are not sold as replacements for drying.
How many give you two barrels?
Five of the nine — the oudim, the StyleVibe, the 7MAGIC, the Beurer and the Shark. Two more do not itemize their attachments at all, and the Dysons publish a count without saying what turns which way.
Last reviewed October 12, 2026
