Fancy curls for an even fancier price

It’s long, and it’s pink. It comes in a leather-bound box, has a powerful motor, and it… hums. Nope, it’s not that. It’s a Dyson.

The is the latest entry in a line of wind-harnessing hair-care innovations from Dyson — a company better known for its vacuums and air purifiers. It follows , which really did find to be a marked improvement over the previously undisrupted traditional blowdryer market.

Since Dyson gave us a , we’ve been wondering if it could do for hair styling what the Supersonic did for hair, um, drying. It’s designed to dry, curl, straighten, or create waves for multiple hair textures, all the way from fine and straight to thick and kinky. 

Plus, it uses warm wind, not potentially hair-damaging hot metal plates and rods as other hair stylers do. For hair curling and straightening, have we been harnessing the power of the sun when we really should have been tapping into the power of the wind!? Fools!

The Dyson Airwrap is easy to use and versatile. Most importantly, the technology behind the wind-powered suction creates a great ‘do. The fact that its multiple attachments allow the product to become a blow dryer, straightener, curler, and wave-creator — all in one, sort of — is extremely handy. And as a product that works from wet hair to a dry style, it’s extremely fast: on my medium length, medium body hair, curling took under 30 minutes, and straightening took a truly impressive seven.

But the Airwrap has one huge drawback: the price. It costs $499.99 for a wand with five styling attachments, and $549.99 for the “Complete” version (which I reviewed) with all eight available attachments. 

Whether this product is right for you all comes down to how much you take a high-heat curler or straightener to your hair. For me, I rarely style my hair, and the Airwrap wouldn’t replace occasional visits to the blow dry bar, so the price isn’t worth it. But if you iron or twist your locks on a regular basis, as a highly efficient and gentle device, the Airwrap could just be your follicles’ saving grace.

Presentation, preparation… innovation?!

The Dyson Airwrap certainly presents itself with a sense of occasion. It comes in a two-foot-long tan leather trunk that my colleague remarked looked like Paddington Bear’s luggage case. After that, I couldn’t see it any other way.

But you really do need all that space to handle what’s inside. The core of the Airwrap is a rod that houses the device’s motor. The Complete set has eight different attachments, which include four barrels, three brushes, and one dryer. They all click in to the top of the rod, connecting to the engine and the wind power that’s the heart of the Airwrap (read more about how it works ). The cord for the rod is long, thick, and heavy. No wonder Paddington lent Mr. Dyson his suitcase!

The trunk looks nice, but there’s an obvious drawback here: if you live in any sort of city, in an apartment that has limited storage space, and a bathroom the size of a closet, where the heck would you put this thing? My small hair curler and straightener are all currently loitering dangerously below my bathroom cabinets, probably creating a hazard with all the dust, rust, and ambient water they’re gathering. I’d hate to think what would become of the nice leather Airwrap case under there, if it would even fit.

When you open the box, you get a nice little instructional diagram, and directions to go to a website with more how-to videos. It features a lot of serene models doing their shiny hair, but the videos are actually really helpful. We are reinventing the curling iron, after all!

A big difference between the Dyson and a traditional curler and straightener is that you style on damp hair. Now, as any cosmo girl knows, styling on damp hair with heat is a HUGE no-no. It can break and fry your hair like an egg.

But the Airwrap needs your hair to be wet to work its magic, since it styles with warm (and then cool) wind. Is that a status quo I hear getting disrupted?

This could be a drawback or a huge asset. If you’re someone who likes to shower and then get ready all at the same time, this saves you the step of going from wet to totally dry hair: you can begin styling while you’re still damp. Plus, the hair dryer works incredibly fast, as Mashable found in our . My hair (again, medium length, medium body) went from towel-dried to damp in literally two minutes.

On the other hand, I usually shower at night. So if I wanted to style my hair in the morning, or in the afternoon before an event, I would have to get it wet again, which is kind of annoying. Again, to each her own.

After watching the videos, showering, and unpacking the Dyson luggage, it was time for my Airwrap adventure to begin.

The Airwrap in action

Before letting my hair dry, I usually put in hair oil and a texturizing cream. To be frank, I am not sure if these products do anything, but I like how they smell and it’s part of my routine, so I included them.

Let’s start with my curling experience.

I decided to go for classic bouncy curls, not curls that I shook out into waves. I didn’t opt for tight, small curls, either. So I chose the larger of the two barrel sizes. The barrels come in two sizes, and each size has one that rotates clockwise, one counter clockwise, so you can create symmetrical curls by switching barrels from one side of your head to the other, if you wish.

Here’s how curling is supposed to work: you hold out a strand of hair, and grasp it a few inches from the end. Then you place the barrel next to the hair, on high heat and high wind. The barrel sucks your hair around it, and as you slowly move it in towards your scalp, it continues to wrap the rest of your hair around its motorized barrel, thus creating ringlets. This air and moving barrel situation is the best part of the design: no dreaded wand twisting! No burning! No creating awkward kinks at the end! No faint sizzle as you wonder when to release!

To set the curl, you give your hair a blast of cold air by pressing up on the power button. And the you turn off the air, pull down on the wand, and release, leaving a curl. 

Here’s how it worked in reality, for me.

At first, I tried just going for it. But as I selected a random strand, I found that the wind was whipping up my hair all around the piece that I had selected, creating a messy effect near my scalp. Plus, the curl was soft, so it was difficult to select the next piece of hair for curling without messing up what I’d already done. 

I needed to section. 

I put my hair up using a clip, and left only the bottom layer around the base of my scalp. Working from this smaller portion of hair, with the rest of my mane pulled away and not in danger of getting mussed by the gale, creating curls was fast and easy! 

However, the barrel didn’t just magically suck up my hair like it was supposed to. But that wasn’t a big deal. I found that it was helpful to sort of wrap the end around once, guiding it. Just a little helping hand for the wind sucking wand. Then, moving it in, and out and back in a bit sometimes to tighten the wand’s grasp, helped easily create curls, quickly.

The curling function has one big plus and minus about it: you can’t force it to take any more hair than it wants to. I tried feeding the curler big chunks of hair, and it would drop whatever it couldn’t suck in. This meant that my curls were uniform, and looked good. But it also meant I had to be more patient, and not force the process along, like you can sometimes do with a traditional curler.

I continued to work in sections, sometimes returning to the back of my head to look for pieces I might have missed. Finally, I finished off with a big curl off to the side, and I was surprised that the process had taken less than thirty minutes! I finished off with a hardy dose of hairspray to ensure staying power. And there I was, a hair care goddess, ready to hit the holiday party with festive curls galore.

I stayed out for multiple hours and took a lot of opportunities to ask people about my hair. Everyone liked it. Hoorah! By the end of the night, my hair had gone back to its natural waves, but some extra bounce and curl remained. This is honestly ideal, and, in my experience — the best result someone can ask for from a curled ‘do.

A few days later, high on my Airwrap curl success, I decided to try out a new function in the morning. I bucked my tradition and took a morning shower; my hair was dirty anyway. I was going to a work event, and wanted to look polished, so I decided to go with a straight-hair look. 

First, I ever-so-briefly blow-dried my towel-dried hair. Then I switched attachments for the soft brush. What this attachment does is deliver a jet of warm air from the inside of the brush attachment while you’re essentially brushing your hair.

This was my dream set-up. I always felt like a straightening iron created too extreme of a look. But the Airwrap made my hair straight, but still voluminous and full of body. I air-brushed in all directions to create more lift at the roots, and ultimately settled with a side part. 

Unlike the curl, this style lasted all day. My hair never returned to waves or flatness. If I could buy a more reasonably priced version of the Airwrap, just with the brush head, I would. 

Is it worth it?

Disclosure: My hair is unusually compliant and rather easy to deal with. I don’t style my hair most of the time, mostly because I’m just not that polished of a person. But I have the luxury to behave in this cavalier way because my hair is super easy to deal with. I usually let it air dry, and it’s fine. And when I do style it, it usually accepts whatever I throw at it with few problems.

The Airwrap worked really, really well for me… but most products do. I will say that the biggest impediment to my own hair styling is usually my inability to effectively wield a curling iron and see the back of my head at the same time. But the Dyson was easier to use and created prettier curls than traditional hot rods do.

Then again, my experience may not be representative. I had some friends try the curling function. One person with fine hair got a pretty, loose curl out of the operation, but it didn’t look at all like my large ringlets. My friend with long, very thick hair, got curls that looked initially more like mine, but she said that it fell out within 30 minutes. Given this variety of experiences, I can’t guarantee that the Airwrap will work wonders for you. I would say that if your hair can or cannot usually hold a curl, or usually does or does not respond to hair straightening, the Dyson will probably work in the same way.

In other words, I don’t think this product is a magic solution for unwieldy hair. But I do think that it’s a useful all-purpose tool. And the technology almost makes it a smart straightener, forcing me to create better curls or kinkless-straight hair, with the power of the wind.

But let’s talk about price

I have spent probably around $150 on a straightener, curling iron, and blow drier over the last several years. They are all working fine. A high-tech hair styler is not something I really need.

Then again, I’ve already said that the Dyson curls look better than curling iron-produced ones, and there’s a value to that, certainly. But $350 of worth? I don’t think so.

Another way I thought about how to justify this price is whether this product could replace the cost of getting my hair done. When I want my hair to look really nice — for a wedding, say — my best option is to go to a blow-dry bar. A wash and blow dry at Drybar costs $45, plus tax and tip, so let’s say $60 to be conservative. If I got a blow-out once a month, this might be worth it — that would run me $720, while the AirWrap would be $500. And some women do get blow-outs at least once a week. If the Airwrap was able to replicate a professional blow-out, that definitely would tip the balance in its favor.

Alas, for me, it didn’t. My curled hair still didn’t look as uniform or photo-ready as when the pros at the salon do it. But perhaps with some practice and a good three-way mirror, it could eventually fit the bill.

But what if you’re someone who likes to have a polished look every day, but doesn’t like to drop money to have your hair done by a professional? Repeatedly exposing your hair to high heat can damage it. And I do think the forced uniformity of the Airwrap curls look better than those created by less high-tech wands. 

So who is this for? For whom is the $500 — potentially $550 — price tag worth it?

If you: Shower in the morning before work, do your hair regularly, like to look polished, don’t like to spend money and time on professional hair styling appointments, are concerned about damaging your hair with heat tools, are constantly dropping money on high-tech gadgets, what are you waiting for? The Dyson Airwrap was made for you!

I’ll miss you, Airwrap

The Airwrap is clearly a luxury product. Doing my hair with it felt like a treat, and left me lookin’ and feelin’ great. But ultimately, I can’t justify the price to myself. And those who dropped $400 on the Supersonic dryer might be a bit miffed that Dyson is now offering basically that same hair dryer as just one part of a far more robust product. 

The Dyson Airwrap is a fantastic way to treat yourself. If you want to be kind to your hair, and feel the power of the wind against your face and your scalp, you might have to clear some space (perhaps a lot of space) on your shelf for your new high-tech hair toy.