Drybar The Brush Crush Heated Straightening Brush

Why it's worth it

Drybar built The Brush Crush for the whole spread of hair types that walks into a salon, from curly to fragile. Digital control up to 450°F and a generous 60-minute shut-off make it a flexible pick if one brush has to serve everyone in the house.

Drybar's whole business is smoothing other people's hair, and The Brush Crush reflects that. The company says it works across hair types from curly to fragile, which is a wider claim than most brushes make. The practical version of that claim is the temperature range. You can run it cool for someone with fine, color-treated hair and hot for someone with thick waves, using the same tool on the same morning.

The digital control is what makes it worth the money over a basic brush. You set a number on the display, up to 450°F or 230°C, instead of choosing between vague low and high buttons. Cosmopolitan's beauty tool coverage keeps returning to even heating as the thing that separates good brushes from cheap ones, and a readable target temperature is the first step toward that.

From our review of 5 hair straightening brushes

What we like

• +Drybar's whole business is smoothing other people's hair, and The Brush Crush reflects that
• +The digital control is what makes it worth the money over a basic brush
• +Ionic technology handles the finish

What to know

• –It costs considerably more than the TYMO without giving you a fundamentally different result on hair that isn't especially…
• –Drybar's listing doesn't mention dual voltage, so treat it as a domestic tool and leave it home for international trips