First, let’s talk flavor. When you’re shopping for coffee you’ll see a lot of different words thrown around, we’re just going to focus on a couple: light, medium, and dark roasts. Each roast type is produced a little bit differently, though the longer they sizzle, the darker they get. There are other variables in there like roaster temperature, but for our purposes, we’re sticking with the basics. Every second your beans are in the roaster, they’re changing. Their aromas, their flavors, their color profile.
Light roasts come out of the roaster a light golden brown. These are usually roasted at a lower temperature or for less time, and the result is a bean that produces a lighter color and a lighter flavor. Light roasts often taste a little floral, a little fruity, almost like you can taste the coffee cherry the bean used to be nestled inside. Light roasts always taste like spring mornings in Portland to me. If light roasts had a playlist, it’d lead off with “Murder on the Dancefloor” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor for sure.
Medium roasts are what I drink almost every morning. Medium roasts tend to come out of the roaster a rich earthy brown. They taste like warm spices, caramel, and toffee, with gentle notes of chocolate. A well-brewed medium roast tastes like a relaxing fall morning to me. Because they’re right in the middle of the roast spectrum, they produce delicious coffee no matter how you brew them so they’re a great pick for their versatility, too. The medium roast playlist is the kind of thing you could listen to in the morning as you’re starting your day, or at night while you get ready to go out—filled with songs like “Pink Pony Club” by Chappell Roan.
Dark roasts are my second favorite for everyday drinking. No other roast produces the rich, deep, chocolatey, toasty complexity you get from a dark roast. Dark roasts are often used in “espresso blends” but to my palate, they make some of the best pour-over or AeroPress coffee. Either method lets those warm background flavors shine and brings out some of the spicier flavors too. For the dark roast playlist, I’d probably start with “Moonlight Magic” by Ashnikko.
2. Source Locally
Photograph: Grit
Time is important for coffee beans. Time spent in shipping, time spent on the shelf, time spent on your shelf. The longer it sits, especially after roasting, the less fresh it will taste. Eventually, around the one-week mark, you’ll start to notice a decline in quality. By two weeks, it’s still drinkable but makes a much less flavorful cup of coffee. To make sure you have the longest amount of time to enjoy your coffee, your best bet is to buy local.
KitchenAid is a brand that’s had a place in every home kitchen I’ve ever had, even growing up. When I bought my own KitchenAid stand mixer for the first time after college, my apartment finally felt like a place where a grown-up lived. My affection for that stand mixer cannot be overstated, so naturally my ears perked up when KitchenAid announced it was revamping its espresso machine lineup.
There are three new fully automatic espresso machines: the KF8, KF7, and KF6. Then there’s the KitchenAid Semi Automatic Espresso Machine, plus a 2-in-1 with a built-in burr grinder. I love a good fully automatic espresso machine for its expedience and ease, but there’s a part of me that just craves the practiced ritual of brewing your own espresso at home. The first of these machines to make their way to my doorstep was the Semi Automatic, so here we are. Keep an eye out for my review of the automatics soon.
Considerate Counter Footprint
I’m a lifelong apartment-dweller, and one of the many lessons I’ve learned from a life spent apartment-hopping is the value of counter space. When I set the KitchenAid Semi Automatic Espresso Machine on my counter for the first time, I couldn’t help but smile.
This is a fully-featured espresso machine with a built-in burr grinder, and it fits in the area previously occupied by my rice cooker—a strip of counter too narrow for other practical uses. This machine is narrow, clocking in at about 13 inches wide and 15 inches tall. It fits comfortably, with room to spare, underneath my somewhat low-hanging kitchen cabinets.
Photograph: Jaina Grey
Because of the tight space in my kitchen, it’s sometimes hard to access the water tank on the back of espresso machines I test. Usually, I have to either wrestle to remove the tank and bring it to the faucet, or resign myself to filling it by carrying cup after cup from my sink to the machine. The KitchenAid Semi Automatic effortlessly navigates that little stumbling block by having wheels on the bottom. I can just pull the machine away from the wall, turn it sideways, and fully remove the water tank.
I initially worried the machine would be too slippery with wheels, making it hard to tighten the portafilter into place without the whole thing sliding all the time. Thankfully, the wheels are smooth but they do require a little muscle to move—a good thing. To twist the portafilter in place, you still have to brace it with one hand, but you typically have to do that with small espresso machines anyway.
The wheels also make it so much easier to clean under and behind the machine. I’m currently testing another espresso machine on my other countertop, and it’s so heavy that moving it to clean up any spilled grounds or ultrafine coffee dust that’s accumulated behind the machine is a huge pain. A literal pain, given my chronic back issues.
Whisper Quiet
This KitchenAid machine features a certification from Quiet Mark, meaning it’s been tested to ensure it’s as quiet as possible (there’s a cute little Q sticker on the front of the machine). I was skeptical because even quiet grinders can get pretty loud. I was wrong. This Semi Automatic just might be the quietest espresso machine I’ve ever tested.
Grinding the beans produces only a little mechanical whirr sound. It’s quiet enough that you can continue to have a conversation while it grinds—a test every other grinder that’s come through my kitchen has failed, even the quiet ones. The grinder is also remarkably consistent. It produces grounds fine enough for espresso and coarse enough for other brewing methods. I think it can fully replace a countertop coffee grinder, no matter what kind of other coffee you like brewing.
The Cherry MX switch is, arguably, one of the most important mechanical keyboard switches of all time. Some might argue it’s one of the best mechanical switches ever. No other switch has quite the same legacy. It’s been around for decades and is one of the few switches that run the whole gamut of keyboards. You can find it in everything from point-of-sale systems, office cubicles, and police cars to gaming setups and even premium, limited-run custom keyboards.
Until recently, nearly every mechanical gaming keyboard shipped with MX Reds, Browns, or Blues. For a long time, Cherry’s switches were the best option—mechanical switch or otherwise—for building a keyboard, and they had a reputation for their outstanding typing feel and longevity when compared to their rubber dome and scissor-switch contemporaries.
I have a love for the original Cherry MX switches. They still have a personality and charm no other switch has been able to replicate. I type on them regularly, almost every day, and always find them a treat to use, despite their shortcomings. So it came as a surprise when Cherry announced a successor with the MX2A. How could one of the most beloved and long-lasting mechanical switches suddenly change so drastically? Could these changes make the MX better?
Photograph: Henri Robbins
Cherry’s Legacy
The Cherry MX Black is the mechanical switch. It’s a fairly heavy linear switch made entirely of Cherry’s proprietary blend of plastics and has been in production since 1983 with only minimal changes until now. Cherry rates its MX switches for 100 million keypresses, and it’s not unheard of for MX Blacks to be in operation even after two decades of near-constant use. They eventually became a signifier of quality: If you saw a keyboard with MX switches, you could be pretty sure that it would be both reliable and enjoyable to type on.
As the custom keyboard scene started to form in the early 2000s, people realized something interesting—the longer you used MX switches, the smoother they were to type on. This was true for all of them but most noticeably for MX Blacks. They were the most common in high-use office and point-of-sale systems and had a heavier spring that required more force to be pushed down, resulting in the plastics seeing large amounts of wear.
These “vintage” MX Blacks—which had to be desoldered from older keyboards—became incredibly sought out by enthusiasts for their smoothness, and their scarcity increased demand even further. At the time, Vintage MX Blacks were the best switches possible for a custom-built keyboard kit.
It’s worth noting that these worn-in switches are fairly scratchy by today’s standards. Modern switches, made from higher-end materials and lubed from the factory, are leagues ahead of MX switches in smoothness. However, many keyboard hobbyists today see the MX Black as having a “good” scratch compared to the scratchiness of other switches. It’s consistent, subtle, and rather charming as long as you don’t expect perfection. There are no sudden bumps or catches, but instead a consistent friction that feels more “real” and satisfying than something engineered for perfect smoothness.
While enthusiasts are still fussing over tube amps and drooling over effects pedal collections, gigging musicians are in the midst of a digital revolution. Offerings from brands like Kemper, Line 6, Fractal Audio, and Neural DSP all allow musicians to model tube amps digitally, with results that come astonishingly close to the real deal.
These new digital modeling amps are easy to set up, reliable, and much lighter and more compact than previous rigs. These days, the sounds are also remarkable. Unless they’re in the studio, many modern musicians are using digital options for their sounds, and many of those options are making their way onto hit tracks.
Fender has competed in the digital amp space for decades, but its new $1,700 Tone Master Pro, which launched late last year, is the first truly pro-tier option that we’ve seen from the brand in recent memory. It’s also one of the most intuitive I’ve ever laid eyes on. With classic models of iconic amps and effects, a touchscreen, excellent onboard controls, and a shocking amount of digital processing power, it’s essentially a portable guitar studio. It also has a four-channel audio interface and hundreds of microphone modeling and cabinet modeling options that easily compete with the real deal—even in the studio. It’s even pretty awesome for karaoke.
If I were shopping for an all-in-one guitar solution that works both in my bedroom and on stage, especially if I didn’t want to fuss around in menu screens forever, this is the one I’d pick.
Photograph: Parker Hall
The New Black Box
The Tone Master Pro looks nearly identical to most of the other all-in-one amp/pedalboard solutions I’ve seen. Essentially, it’s a black slab that is supposed to sit in front of you while you play, either on the floor or on a desk. A 7-inch touchscreen sits between two silver knobs on the top of the device, flanked at the bottom by 10 pedal switches and associated LED screens. It’s all very clean and modern, easy to hide while you play on stage.
One quirky and familiar thing I love is that Fender included its classic red power light on the back of the device, so you can easily tell it is on like a “normal” Fender amp. The rest of the rear of the Tone Master is a smorgasbord of inputs and outputs the likes of which I’ve never seen on a guitar amp.
There are stereo outputs in both quarter inch and XLR; four separate effects sends and returns (two stereo) for using outboard pedals and effects with the device; two expression pedal outlets; a mic/line and instrument input; as well as a foot switch control, 3.5-mm aux in, headphone output, MIDI in and out, USB-C, and MicroSD. And also, Bluetooth. If you need more, you probably need a mixing board or a patch bay.
The browser is part of a bigger project to keep internet browsing anonymous: Use Tor and you use the Tor Project network, a complex, encrypted relay system managed by the Tor community, making it much harder for anyone else to follow your activities online.
As well as this additional layer of anonymity, Tor Browser is super-strict on the background scripts and tracking tech that sites can run. It also blocks fingerprinting, a method where advertisers attempt to recognize the unique characteristics of your device.
At the end of each browsing session, everything gets wiped, including cookies left behind by sites and the browsing history inside the Tor Browser app itself. In other words, private browsing that leaves no trace is the default—and indeed the only option.
Brave gives you a clean, speedy browsing experience.
Brave via David Nield
Brave comes with all the tracking protection features you would expect: Ads are completely blocked, there are tight restrictions on the data that sites can gather through cookies and tracking scripts, and you’re always kept informed about what’s happening.
The browser comes with an optional built-in VPN, though it costs extra ($10 a month). You can also, if you want, use Brave to access the Tor network we mentioned with the Tor browser and take advantage of its anonymizing relay service that hides your location and browsing data.
There’s no doubt about the effectiveness of Brave’s tracker-blocking technologies, and getting around the web in Brave is quick and snappy. It’s a comprehensive package and one that strikes a well-judged balance between simplicity and power for the majority of users.
Brave has regularly pioneered features related to innovative web technologies, including cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and (most recently) artificial intelligence; there’s actually a new AI assistant built into it. In other words, it’s not exclusively focused on security and privacy.
Firefox is part of a suite of privacy products from Mozilla.
Firefox via David Nield
Firefox has long been at the forefront of online privacy—blocking tracking cookies across sites by default, for example—and it continues to be one of the best options for making sure you’re giving away as little data as possible as you make your way across the web.
For those of us who can’t stop listening to music on the go, the past decade has been a whirlwind. We’ve seen the rise of AirPods—and the associated loss of the headphone jack—in addition to a vast array of microphone, noise-canceling, and other feature improvements that make listening on the go more convenient. One thing we haven’t really seen? A big jump in audio quality.
With its new solid-state drivers, California-based xMems has finally offered us a real leap in how earbuds generate sound. Using the same technology pioneered for producing microchips, these silicon earbud drivers provide a flatter, cleaner overall signature, in addition to significantly added robustness when compared to previous technology.
We first tested xMems’ tech inside a ludicrously expensive (and awesome-sounding) pair of milled titanium earbuds from Singularity Industries, but that felt akin to trying a new eco fuel inside a Ferrari. With two new pairs of earbuds (confusingly named the Aurvana Ace and Aurvana Ace 2, despite simultaneous releases), the folks at Creative Audio have made this brand-new tech accessible to all. In essentially the same form factor, and for the same price as Apple’s standard AirPods, you can now hear the drivers of the future. When it comes to audio quality for the money, there is no contest: Solid state is the future.
Twinsies
Both pairs of Creative’s new earbuds appear almost identical from the outside, sporting familiar elephant-trunked designs in black with copper-gold accents on the outside of each bud. You can tell which pair is which from the charging case. The standard Ace come with an opaque black shell, whereas the Ace 2 come with a see-through gray that reveals a shiny gold interior to the clamshell.
Photograph: Parker Hall
Under the surface, they both get the same xMems driver technology, but the Ace 2 get better processing. The Ace 2 also support lossless Bluetooth audio and come with adaptive noise canceling rather than the non-adaptive, non-lossless technology inside the regular Ace. Both rounded cases offer 18 hours of battery reserve and Qi wireless or USB-C charging, in addition to the six hours of playback inside the buds. For the purposes of the rest of the review, I’ll focus on the Ace 2, which have the same drivers as the Ace but have the aforementioned higher-end chipset. At just $20 more (MSRP), they’re a better buy.
Touch Type
Touch controls on the outside of each bud allow you to tap twice to play or pause music, or hold the outside of each bud to increase or decrease volume (the left side turns it down, right turns it up). These buttons weren’t easy to use; I tended to use Creative’s headphone app and my phone’s controls to mess with the buds when I needed to, which worked fine.
One thing I do like is their simple, easy-to-understand code for telling how much battery is left in the charging case. A red light means 0 to 30 percent, yellow 31 to 70 percent, and green 71 to 99 percent. It’s simple, and it’s helpful for those of us who leave buds in bags for gym time and rarely take them to the charger.
Speaking of gym time, you’ll have no problem breaking a sweat in these, or at least I didn’t, thanks to an included IPX5 rating for water resistance. I used them for many trips to my gym and even some time in the sauna with no issues.
In other anecdotes, onlookers have reported birds that stop singing, crickets that stopped chirping, or bees that return to their hive, reduce their foraging, or suspend their flight during total darkness. But there are also studies that deny that some of these behaviors occur or can be attributed to the eclipse.
Therefore, NASA scientists plan not only to systematize observations but also to document what people hear and see under the shadow of the moon.
“The Great North American Eclipse”
NASA has created the Eclipse Soundscapes citizen science project to collect the experiences of volunteers. It was inspired by a study conducted nearly 100 years ago by William M. Wheeler and a team of collaborators. At that time, the Boston Natural History Society invited citizens, park rangers, and naturalists to report on the activities of birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, and fish during the summer eclipse of 1932. They collected nearly 500 reports. In their final report they note that some animals exhibited nocturnal behaviors such as returning to their nests and hives or making nighttime vocalizations.
The current NASA study will add observations made during the annular solar eclipse of October 14, 2023 and the total solar eclipse of April 8. The latter will be visible first in Mexico in Mazatlan, then in Nazas, Torreon, Monclova, and Piedras Negras. These localities will be located directly in the umbra of the eclipse and, therefore, their inhabitants will perceive it as total. In nearby regions it will be experienced as a partial eclipse, with less darkness. It will then enter the United States through Texas, passing through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Finally, it will travel across Canada from southern Ontario and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. Astronomical estimates point to the Mexican port of Mazatlan as the best place to observe the 2024 event, which will experience totality at about 11:07 am local time.
A sparrow experiencing a partial solar eclipse in Jize Country, Hebei Province, China, June 21, 2020.Future Publishing/Getty Images
How You Can Help
In the United States, 30 million people live in the area where the eclipse will be perceived as total. If you add in the Mexican and Canadian public, the potential for collecting experiences is immense. That’s what NASA wants to take advantage of.
The project foresees several levels of volunteering: apprentice, observer, data collector, data analyst, and facilitator.
Testing done by ADEM, Butler said, also did not assess water samples taken from sites closest to the dump. And while PFAS compounds are certainly common, he said, experts have concluded that elevated levels in the human body can be a warranted health concern.
At this month’s meeting, many residents agreed with Butler, expressing a lack of confidence that ADEM—or any government officials—are looking out for residents in and around the Moody site.
Courtesy of Lee Hedgepeth/Inside Climate News
Jeff Wickliffe, chair of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences, told those gathered that he believes more data is needed to fully understand what impacts the site could have had on those living nearby.
Because there are no natural sources of forever chemicals, Wickliffe said, it’s difficult to believe claims that only vegetative material was burned at the site given the levels present in the water. Other waste was likely present, he argued, in order to produce the levels of PFAS compounds present in discharge from the Moody site.
Questions around the source of PFAS in residents’ blood, if present, can be addressed by taking background measurements of individuals who weren’t exposed to the impacts of the fire and resulting pollution, for example, Wickliffe said.
Testing residents’ blood or urine for the presence of such compounds, then, may allow locals to document at least one avenue of potential impacts from the Moody site on their health, he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), increases in exposure to PFAS compounds can increase cholesterol, decrease birth weight, lower antibody responses to vaccines, and increase risks of pregnancy-induced hypertension, preeclampsia, and kidney and testicular cancer.
The risk of health impacts from PFAS is determined by exposure factors like dose, frequency, and duration, as well as individual factors like sensitivity or disease burden, according to the federal agency.
Other than rejection of the organ, one of the most common transplant complications is infection. Doctors have to strike a balance when prescribing immunosuppressive drugs: too low a dose can lead to rejection, while too much can make a patient vulnerable to infection. Immunosuppressants are powerful drugs that can cause a range of side effects, including fatigue, nausea, and vomiting.
Despite the deaths of the two pig heart recipients, Riella is optimistic about Slayman’s transplant. For one, he says, Slayman was relatively healthy when he underwent the surgery. He qualified for a human kidney but because of his rare blood type he would likely need to wait six to seven years to get one. The two individuals who received pig heart transplants were so ill that they didn’t qualify for a human organ.
In addition to close monitoring and traditional immunosuppressants, Slayman’s medical team is treating him with an experimental drug called tegoprubart, developed by Eledon Pharmaceuticals of Irvine, California. Given every three weeks via an IV, tegoprubart blocks crosstalk between two key immune cells in the body, T cells and B cells, which helps suppress the immune response against the donor organ. The drug has been used in monkeys that have received gene-edited pig organs.
Photograph: Massachusetts General Hospital
“It’s pretty miraculous this man’s out of the hospital a couple of weeks after putting in a pig kidney,” says Steven Perrin, Eledon’s president and chief scientific officer. “I didn’t think we would be here as quickly as we are.”
Riella is also hopeful that the 69 genetic alterations made to the pig that supplied the donor organ will help Slayman’s kidney keep functioning. Pig organs aren’t naturally compatible in the human body. The company that supplied the pig, eGenesis, used Crispr to add certain human genes, remove some pig genes, and inactivate latent viruses in the pig genome that could hypothetically infect a human recipient. The pigs are produced using cloning; scientists make the edits to a single pig cell and use that cell to form an embryo. The embryos are cloned and transferred to the womb of a female pig so that her offspring end up with the edits.
“We hope that this combination will be the secret sauce to getting this kidney to a longer graft survival,” Riella says.
There’s debate among scientists over how many edits pig organs need to last in people. In the pig heart transplants, researchers used donor animals with 10 edits developed by United Therapeutics subsidiary Revivicor.
There’s another big difference between this procedure and the heart surgeries: If Slayman’s kidney did stop working, Riella says, he could resume dialysis. The pig heart recipients had no back-up options. He says even if pig organs aren’t a long-term alternative, they could provide a bridge to transplant for patients like Slayman who would otherwise spend years suffering on dialysis.
“We’ve gotten so many letters, emails, and messages from people volunteering to be candidates for the xenotransplants, even with all the unknowns,” Riella says. “Many of them are struggling so much on dialysis that they’re looking for an alternative.”
The Mass General team plans to launch a formal clinical trial to transplant edited pig kidneys in more patients. They received special approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for just one procedure. For now, though, their main focus is on keeping Slayman healthy.
A few times a year, Sephora discounts nearly its entire stock, and that includes some of our favorite hair straighteners, blow dryers, and hot brushes. The caveat? You need to be a Sephora Beauty Insider, which is free to join, and the percentage off the sale price is based on which membership tier you fall into. Some brands aren’t included in the sale, like MAC and The Ordinary, and there are some limitations, like how you can buy only one Dyson and one Shark product.
Be sure to enter code YAYSAVE at checkout or mention it in-store. All the prices listed here are 20 percent off for the Rouge portion of the sale. We’ll update it when the next tier discounts start. Here are the details on the various tiers:
Insider members: This is the base tier, which doesn’t require you to spend any money. You’ll get 10 percent off from April 9 through 15.
VIB members: This is anyone who spends $350 in a year. You’ll get 15 percent off from April 9 through 15.
Rouge members: If you spend at least $1,000 per year, you’ll get 20 percent off from April 5 to 15. This means you also get first access to the sale.
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Dyson has mastered air manipulation, and WIRED writer Brenda Stolyar loved the Airstrait (8/10, WIRED Recommends), saying it halved the time she spends on her hair routine. Instead of hot plates, the Airstrait uses air flow to dry and straighten hair in one go—you can lock the plates closed and use it as just a hair dryer, but it shines in its straightening abilities. You may need to play around with it to see whether it works best on wet or damp hair, which will vary depending on your hair type. It’s also available in a really cute limited-edition rose-gold color.
T3 makes great hair tools, and this flat iron is among them. It uses what T3 calls HeatID Technology to set temperature based on hair texture, length, and whether it’s color-treated. Refresh Mode lets you touch up already straightened hair at a lower temperature based on the previous settings. It’s a small but mighty feature.
I’ve been testing this flat iron for the past few weeks, and it’s become one of my favorite straighteners. It’s a classic that I somehow had never tried before, but it seriously straightens my course curls quickly. There are five heat settings, but the buttons are right where my hands want to rest, so I often accidentally change the temperature.
GHD Platinum+ Styler Flat Iron
Photograph: Amazon
You’ll either love or hate this iron from popular tool brand GHD. There’s no heat control, so it’s always at 365 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s great for some hair types—it straightened one writer’s hair in one pass—and prevents people from needlessly frying their locks, but courser or curlier hair might be a struggle.
Like Dyson’s Airstrait, the GHD Duet uses air to dry and smooth hair, and some hair types will get pin-straight styles from just this step. But if you need more help to straighten it, you’ll still need to turn on the hot plates once your hair is totally dry. That means it might take a little longer than the Dyson, but it also cuts out having to have two tools.
WIRED contributor Victoria Woollaston-Webber says this is one of the best dryers she has tried, quickly getting her hair dry and shiny without burning her scalp. But the buttons are exactly where you want your hand to go, so you may end up changing the settings while styling.
The Dyson Supersonic is a solid hair dryer with accessories like a wide-tooth comb and flyaway smoother. It may even cut your drying time down. But no one needs to spend $400 on a dryer unless you really won’t miss the money. Like the Airstrait, it’s also available in a pretty rose color.
Photograph: Sephora
The version for curly and coily hair is discounted to the same price. This model took a bit longer to dry my hair than the brand’s HyperAir, but it worked and takes up less room. Its RapidGloss Finisher attachment did the impossible and actually tamed some of my frizz.
We haven’t tested this dryer, but it’s included here because we typically love and trust T3 tools. I tried the Aireluxe, which was super light and worked well but was lacking a diffuser. This one looks nearly identical but is more compact and has the diffuser I missed, plus other attachments. If you need something light, it may be worth a try.
T3 Switch Kit Wave Trio Interchangeable Curling Iron
Photograph: T3
T3’s Switch Kit tops of list of best curling irons. It’s one handle with three barrels for achieving different styles. This one comes with half-inch and 1.25-inch wands and a 1.5-inch clip barrel. If you don’t need something as small as the half-inch, the Wave Trio swaps it out for a 1-inch wand.
We have cheaper wand recommendations, but we like the SinglePass because its tapered barrel goes from 0.75 inch to 1.3 inches. It gives long hair nice beachy waves and allows you to make smaller curls around your face.
If you’re a GHD fan, you’ll like this curling iron with a 1-inch barrel that works for short and long hair. It uses a clamp, which takes some getting used to if you primarily use wands, but our writer suggests testing it out while it’s off so you can become accustomed to the movement. It also has a cool tip that’s larger than others we’ve tried, so you can safely control the tool without singeing your fingers.
Blow-Dry Brush and Multi-Tool Deals
Shark FlexStyle Multi-Styler
Photograph: Shark
If you’ve been eyeing the Dyson Airwrap but can’t fathom spending the money, you simply don’t have to. Shark’s FlexStyle (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is nearly identical, letting you dry your hair, blow it out, or curl it. The Airwrap barrels attracted hair a little better, but for the money saved, it was manageable. The curly and coily hair bundle comes with a diffuser.
Want to stick with Dyson instead of the Shark? This set comes with the new barrel that can create curls in both directions instead of the need for two—it’s the bigger one for longer hair. It also has other curl tools like a comb and diffuser. There are other bundles and accessories available, including the long barrel without the curly tools and a regular set in rose gold and blue and orange.
I have too much hair to figure out how to efficiently use a blow-dry brush, but people love them. This one comes from a brand we like and has both a paddle brush and round brush attachment for whatever style you’re trying to achieve.
GHD Rise Thermal Hot Brush
Photograph: GHD
This hot brush made our list of best curling irons because even though it’s meant to lift your roots for volume, it made effortless waves and tight curls, too. Like other GHD products, its only setting is 365 degrees.
You’ve probably seen Revlon’s blow-dry brush all over social media. The newest version is great for a fraction of this price, but our tester found that the Double Shot gave her smoother, straighter hair. It just required a little bit more work given the smaller air-flow openings.
