Amika Blow Dryer Brush review: we try the 2.0 version of this tool

Blow dryer brushes are ideal for those who aren’t super skilled at styling their hair but still want to look like they’ve been for a blow dry, so this Amika Blow Dryer Brush review is a must-read for those weighing up their options before they take the plunge and buy one.

With credentials that suggest it could be one of the best hair dryer brushes on the market, Amika’s 2.0 Brush is the newer improved version of their popular hot brush. Not only that, but as blow dryer brushes go, it’s not wildly expensive, falling into the '100 / £100 and under' price bracket.

So how well does it dry and style hair in reality? To give you a beauty editor’s take on this tool, I took it for several spins to put together a detailed Amika Blow Dryer Brush review that breaks it down for you. 

Our beauty editor's Amika Blow Dryer Brush review

Amika Hair Blow Dryer Brush 2.0 design

Those who appreciate simplicity when it comes to their hair tools will appreciate the Amika 2.0 Blow Dryer Brush’s design. In a similar vein to my Hot Tools Blow Dryer Brush review, I found Amika's color scheme is about as understated as it gets for a styling device – an all-black design with the logo written at the base of the handle. You alternate between the three heat and speed settings by twisting the dial around the base of the handle.

The brush head is nice and large, with a good number of evenly distributed diagonal vents. It also features multi-length bristles to help catch and smooth out every strand of your hair, while the tourmaline-coated barrel generates negative ions to counter frizz and add to the polished finish. And weighing just 0.85lbs/380g, it’s incredibly light. Other than that, it’s pretty standard in design shape-wise, making it nice and easy to use. 

What attachments come with the Amika Blow Dryer Brush?

As you may have guessed by now, Amika’s Blow Dryer Brush is an all-in-one affair. The tool comes as it is; there are no other attachments – either in the box or available to buy separately – that you can switch in and out here. I actually enjoyed this simplicity, and for shoppers who just want a one-and-done tool the fact that what you see is what you get can be a good thing. You don’t have to spend any time getting to grips with different styling heads and experimenting to find what works best for you.

How well does the Amika Blow Dryer Brush perform?

Even before I started styling, my impressions of this tool were pretty good. I’m not fussy about how tools look but I liked the simple all-black design and was struck by the 2.0 Blow Dryer Brush’s low weight upon first picking it up. It’s always nice not to go into a styling session dreading sore arms at the end. 

I’m somebody who likes their blow dryer barrel to have a big brush, so the XXL oval head ticked my boxes, and it’s well-vented. The brush is covered in multi-length bristles, which I find helps keep hold of all the hairs in a section when styling, and it didn’t snag or catch and lead to any unplanned painful ripping out of my hair. Always a good thing. Noise-wise it’s not especially loud, nor is it especially quiet, and I found the sound to be pretty standard. 

As for the results? I’d say this is everything you’d hope for from a good hot air brush in that my hair was left sleek, and had a nice amount of volume (I wasn’t trying to add tons and tons here, but a decent bouncy blow dry is easily achievable with the large brush head), and seemed to have gotten a nice shine boost to boot. I also found this brush made a nice job of giving my dry hair a touch-up in the days afterward – some tools say that they work well on both wet and dry hair but don’t always play nicely with the latter. This one really delivered on both fronts, no hair disasters here!

What's not good about it?

As a nice segue from the above, the fact that this tool isn’t customizable would be seen by some as a downside. Many blow dryer brushes, like this one, are all-in-one tools and don’t come with multiple attachment options, which does limit what it can do in terms of styling somewhat.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as some users will appreciate the simplicity and ease of use, but for those looking for a tool with more variety, it's worth reading my Dyson Airwrap review, as this is probably the most versatile option, while the T3 AireBrush Duo and Hot Tools Volumiser both come with two brush heads (and much smaller price tags than the Dyson). 

Amika Blow Dryer Brush review: my verdict

Taking this entire Amika Blow Dryer Brush review on balance, I can recommend this tool for its nice, smooth, and shiny results. Apart from being impressively lightweight, there’s not a lot that sets its results apart from other great blow dryer brushes, but there wasn’t anything significantly bad about it either. If somebody had their heart set on buying this I definitely wouldn’t discourage them from doing so.

What does set it apart from the many pricey iterations out there somewhat is its price tag; at $100 (or £90 in the UK) it’s certainly mid-market, but more affordable than several blow dryer brushes on the market, and does its job nicely. Sure, there are cheaper hot brushes, but not many of them don't perform anywhere near as well as this one. In a nutshell, it’s a definite contender for your next hot brush purchase.