Dyson’s new straightener will save your hair but break your wallet

The engineering pros at Dyson have turned their heads to ours for the brand’s latest product debut: the Dyson Corrale hair straightener. 

Yes, a Dyson straightener! Apparently, Dyson isn’t a company that just makes things that suck or blow anymore.

The Corrale is the third hair care product from the brand best known for vacuums. It follows the 2016 release of the Supersonic hair dryer, and 2018’s Dyson Airwrap styler — both excellent products sold at eye-popping prices. 

The Corrale appears to follow the same mold. Dyson says its design of flexible copper plates both prevents flyaways from escaping, and efficiently conducts heat. That combo means you need to use the product for less time at lower temperatures, which would ostensibly mitigate any hair damage and increase the shine of someone constantly ironing their locks at 400 degrees-plus. 

Another draw: It’s cordless. That’s a boon for stylists or other hair care power users who want a high quality straightener they can use on the go (for example, to fix flyaways on set).

As with their other beauty products, that Dyson engineering — and consistently appealing branding — will cost you. The Corrale, on sale Tuesday, goes for $499.99.

I got to try out the Corrale in February and, no surprise here, but it did seem to be a great straightener. A celeb stylist, Matthew Collins, showed me how to use the Corrale to straighten my hair or employ the controversial but popular “curl your hair with a straightening iron” method. 

The idea of the flexible plates is that the sides of the piece of hair you clamp don’t escape as you apply pressure, because the plates flex to encompass every millimeter of hair. That theory seemed to prove out in practice: I didn’t have to go back over a piece of hair to remove the waves multiple times, as I would normally have to do with other straighteners.

In the wave-creating demo, I didn’t need to keep a vice like grip to retain the control over the straightener. With just a light grasp on both ends, I was able to create natural looking waves, sans the irregular and awkward kinks that can sometimes occur with this method. Pretty nifty!

Dyson says the product should work just as well for people with much kinkier hair than my generally easy-to-manage locks, although I didn’t have a way to verify that for myself. You can adjust to one of three different heat settings — 330°F,  365°F, and 410°F — depending on how much power you need. Dyson boasts that it monitors the accuracy of those temperatures with “intelligent heat control,” claiming that the heat from other straighteners is not always accurate, as they lose power over time.

Collins mentioned that, as a stylist working on set, his favorite thing about it was the cordless functionality. He sees that as a useful feature whether you’re a professional or just someone who wants to be able to spruce up your look on the go. The lithium-ion battery can last for 30 minutes at a time, and charges fully in 70 minutes. Dyson suggests docking it or using the magnetic charging cable in a hybrid capacity for longer sessions. 

Consumers will be able to purchase the Corrale in the dark nickel/fuschia color combo. The purple model (pictured above) will be available to influencers, and professional stylists can get one in a black/purple combo.

The biggest question about the Corrale is whether it’s worth the price. Many YouTube beauty vloggers soundly mocked Dyson for the Airwrap’s price tag, which originally sold for $550. But consistently good reviews for the results it can achieve at lower temperatures have also made it much coveted and frequently sold out.  

Additionally, unlike curlers and blow dryers, straighteners can be a much more expensive proposition. Top of the line models sell for $200 or more — and some even boast the power to fry your hair at temperatures above 450 degrees. Still, for an already expensive product, Dyson Corrale is on the very high end of the spectrum. 

Dyson poured $129 million into its “Hair Laboratories” to develop the Corrale over seven years. Does that justify the $500 price tag? That will be up to the flat ironers of the world. Burnt, fragile strands might just depend on it.