Revlon One-Step Blow-Dry Multi Styler review: A formidable hot brush, improved

We’ve long been fans of the Revlon One-Step, which is one of the best-known hot brushes on the market, designed to deliver foolproof salon-style blowouts at home. 

The original One-Step was launched in 2016 and has since gained a devoted following, online and in real life, for the speed and simplicity with which the tool can create an Instagram-worthy soft and shiny finish. The One-Step received even more love in the lockdown years, when salon appointments were impossible to come by; the brush sold out online more than once. 

Despite salons being open again, the One-Step offers at-home convenience – and at a price that keeps the cost of living manageable. And this new version adds interchangeable styling attachments and increases the number of heat/airflow settings to three, offering an even quicker at-home blowout than its predecessor. So, could the One-Step Multi Styler offer the answer to all your hair-related prayers?

Revlon One-Step Multi Styler: Price and competition

The Multi Styler’s biggest competition is Revlon’s own One-Step Original (£50). The main difference is that the One-Step Original is a fixed tool with one oval-shaped ceramic brush, while the Multi Styler offers interchangeable heads for more styling options.

Electrical beauty brand BaByliss has a couple of competitors in the hot air brush market: the closest is the Hydro Fusion 4-in-1 Hair Dryer brush (£80), which comes with a quick-drying attachment to rough-dry hair before styling, a paddle brush for drying hair straight, an oval-shaped ceramic barrel for a more voluminous blow-dry, and a smoothing brush to reduce frizz and flyaways. BaByliss’s Hydro Fusion range uses the brand’s Advanced Plasma technology – a combination of negative and positive ions to break up and distribute moisture through the hair, which leaves it feeling shiny and hydrated. Also part of the same range is the Hydro Fusion Air Styler (£60), a rotating hot-air brush that delivers the same healthy and shiny finish. 

If you’re primarily looking for an air-based curling tool, Dyson’s ultra-premium Airwrap (£500) gives great results. Wrapping sections of hair onto one of its interchangeable barrels, it uses air instead of hot plates to style hair, reducing heat damage. In addition, its barrels of different sizes promise unrivalled versatility. The results are excellent, then, but Dyson’s £500 retail price is approaching eye-watering in these straitened economic times.

If the price of the Airwrap makes you wince, Remington’s Hydraluxe styler (£50) is a good alternative to the original One-Step with its similar ceramic oval-shaped brush. Like other hot brushes, it offers only one brush option, most suitable for creating a bouncy blowout.

READ NEXT: Best hot brush

Revlon One-Step Multi Styler review: Design and key features

The One-Step Multi Styler keeps the essential simplicity of the original tool with its single switch to control combined heat and airflow; simply select the heat/speed setting of your choice and brush through the hair. The additional heat setting allows fast styling on even the thickest hair, and when using the familiar oval-shaped ceramic brush, we styled a salon-smooth blowout into our mid-length hair in under ten minutes. The end of the brush has a cool tip to help avoid scorching your fingers when manoeuvring the brush around the hair, which is especially useful when positioning the brush close to the roots, where we tend to need two hands. 

To change the styling heads, simply twist the lock symbol at the top of the drying unit to the unlock position, and press the release button to safely remove your attachment. The next attachment then twists and locks into place with a gentle but reassuring click. 

The Root Drying Concentrator attachment is a handy way to start styling hair; those with longer hair may find it more useful to bring their hair to a tangle-free damp state. If you have shorter hair that towel-dries well, you may find the Concentrator an unnecessary extra step given that the ceramic brush works so well.

The vented ceramic styling barrel is the fiddliest of the three attachments to use. It has a tong on the side that gently grips hair, allowing you to wrap the hair into ringlets and style more defined curls using air, rather than the heated surface of a standard curling tong. On our mid-length hair, the 32mm barrel didn’t have much impact; but on longer hair, this should add a further styling option if you don’t always want a volumised blowout. 

As with many air-styling tools, Revlon’s ionic technology charges the airflow with negative ions to help lock in moisture, reduce frizz and leave hair looking healthy and glossy. In common with the original One-Step, we certainly found that hair was left looking and feeling soft and shiny, without dryness, frizz – or the slightly toasted smell that can sometimes result from heat styling. 

The One-Step Multi Styler is, like its predecessor, only available in one colour – glossy black with flashes of red, which is smart enough in a slightly 1980s retro way.

Revlon One-Step Multi Styler review: Performance

The original One-Step was super simple to use, and the Multi Styler improves on the original by allowing even faster drying and styling. We were able to complete a side-by-side comparison using our trusty One-Step Original on half of our towel-dried hair and the Multi Styler on the other half; the Multi Styler completed the task a full minute faster on its half of the hair. As with the original model, simply brush and roll the ceramic oval brush through the hair allowing the hair to pull gently taut for a straighter finish, or curling it under at the roots and ends for more volume and bounce. The smaller head on the Multi Styler feels easier to manoeuvre through the hair (in particular, close to the roots) than the original One-Step, and it feels nicely balanced in the hand.  

The curling barrel felt a little less intuitive to use in comparison to either a standard curling tong or the One-Step’s own signature oval brush. As noted above, we felt we could take or leave the Concentrator attachment – but this may be a more useful attachment for people with longer or thicker hair than ours. 

As is the case with the One-Step Original, results last well. We styled in a test blowout on a Sunday morning and hair was still sleek and smooth the following day.

READ NEXT: The best hair straighteners

Revlon One-Step Multi Styler review: Verdict

The Revlon One-Step pioneered the art of the easy at-home blow-dry, and the Multi Styler improves on its iconic predecessor. Even if you never use the other two attachments, the more compact oval brush in this version feels better and less bulky in the hand, and the additional heat setting reduces what were already lightning-quick drying and styling times. Of course, the two additional styling heads (and two further attachments available for separate purchase) mean the Multi Styler offers more options for daily styling, from a sleeker, straighter look to full-on spiral curls – all with a bouncy, voluminous and glossy finish. It might not be quite an Airwrap killer, but it’s certainly a triple threat in the curling and styling department. 

If you’re already a One-Step believer then this new and more versatile version may persuade you to upgrade; and if you’re not, then the Multi Styler may be the member of the One-Step family to finally convince you.