There are some products you just hate to love. The Dyson Airwrap, a multifeatured hair-styling tool, is a prime example. I wanted to hate it for price alone—a cool $500—so that I didn't have to yearn for it. And yet, like all the Dyson products I've tried thus far, I quickly warmed to it. That's good for Dyson, bad for my pocketbook.
When it comes to hair gadgets, there are many gimmicks that claim to make styling easy and effortless (the Air Curler, anyone?), and if you weren't aware of Dyson's reputation for making quality products for the home, it would be easy to write off the Airwrap as something out of a late-night infomercial. I mean, it uses air to suck strands of your hair around the curling barrels and somehow produces a lasting result without subjecting your hair to too much damaging heat? It's a tough sell, but I've used it enough times now to know that it works, even though it takes some getting used to.
The Airwrap isn’t new; it was released in 2018, but a reputable competitor has yet to present itself. It would probably cost you less to buy a hot-air brush, a curling iron, and a hair dryer separately, but no company has been able to combine all three of those products into a system that works as well. Plus, with this machine, you don't need any real hairstyling skills to get a polished look. It does most of the hard work for you.
The Airwrap styler is a 10.5-inch wand with different attachment heads that click in to the top. The wand is light, and the power button, fan speed, and heat settings are all within reach of the grip, so you can easily maneuver the wand for one-handed styling. It comes in three versions: Volume and Shape for fine and flat hair, which comes with 1.2-inch curling barrels, a soft smoothing brush, a round brush, and a hair dryer attachment; Smooth and Control for frizz-prone hair, which comes with 1.2-inch and 1.6-inch curling barrels, a firm smoothing brush, and a hair dryer attachment; and the Complete set, which comes with all of the above accessories for about $50 more than the base price. The Complete option makes sense if you're a hairdresser or if you're intending to use the Airwrap in a home with several people and different hair types. Each of the attachments can be bought separately. You can also buy longer curling barrels and smaller versions of the smoothing brushes.
It's a multifunction styler, but the Airwrap really shines as a curling iron. Its secret is in its air flow. It employs what's called the Coanda effect. Using its internal motor (remember, Dyson is famous for its powerful vacuums), it creates a vortex of air inside the hollow barrel powerful enough to draw your hair to it. All you have to do is place the end of your hair near the barrel, and the machine does the gripping and wrapping for you, so you don't have to worry about touching a hot curling barrel.
Heat can damage hair of all types, and traditional curling irons typically heat to over 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The Airwrap uses less direct heat, and it continuously measures the temperature so it never goes above 302 degrees.
The Airwrap is designed to be used on damp hair, which is unusual for hair gadgets. Most flat irons and curling irons need to be used on dry hair, or you run the risk of them frying your strands. But the Coanda airflow safely does the drying and styling in one, without singeing any hairs. After washing your hair, you can use the dryer attachment (which has the same open design as Dyson's larger Supersonic hair dryer) to get your hair from soaking wet to damp before going in with the curling barrel. Jon Reyman, Dyson’s global styling ambassador, told me that coarser hair can be mostly dry before using the Airwrap, but softer hair should be left damp.
I found it worked best for my coarse hair after a few strokes through with the hot-air brush, which left it just slightly damp to the touch while smoothing out my natural frizz-prone curls enough to make nice large waves that didn't need touching up at the roots. To get more of a beachy wave, I wrapped the hair around the barrel myself and then turned the Airwrap on, which helps to manipulate the hair into a wave pattern rather than a spiral. Like I would after using any curling device, I let the curls set and then run my fingers through my hair so I'm not left with super-tight princess curls.