I’m probably a lot of things that hairstylists fear. If my hair isn’t in a ponytail, it’s in a bun (hence my split ends), never down.
Combing my hair is a luxury, not a necessity, but somehow, tangles aren’t really a major issue.
Though I’ll dress up and put on makeup for events, I’ll rarely style my hair. I’ve always seen it as more of a chore and a burden than it is a way to pamper myself, especially since I keep long and rather thick hair.
Can the Dyson Airwrap multi-styler change my mind (and my hair)?
Interesting science meets hair-styling
Expectedly, Dyson’s Airwrap made waves (pardon the pun) when it first came out years ago. It put an exciting spin on the traditional ways of hairstyling where highly heated barrels were put to heads, sometimes leaving careless burns on skin or even singeing off hair.
Not only was the Airwrap presented as a safer way to style hair, but it was also supposed to reduce heat damage and make the styling process easier.
Using something called the Coanda effect, it took away the need for users to manually wrap their hair around heated barrels (hence the tendency to burn oneself).
The aerodynamic phenomenon works like this: when air is propelled at the right speed and pressure, it naturally follows an adjacent surface, and surrounding air will be incorporated into this flow.
With the Airwrap multi-styler’s curling barrels, for example, the Coanda effect then creates a spinning vortex of air.
When a lock of hair is held to the barrel, this effect immediately sweeps up the hair and wraps it around the barrel. This means the user no longer has to manually wrap and hold their hair to the barrel.
Wrapping my head (hair?) around the Airwrap
I’ve seen this Dyson technology in ads and videos before, but to experience it yourself is excitement on another level.
All using the Coanda effect are these attachments:
- Coanda smoothing dryer for baby hairs and flyaways,
- Firm and soft brushes,
- Airwrap barrels (30mm and 40mm),
- Round volumising brushes.
It was rather intimidating to see all the various attachments, but Dyson thankfully has a lot of helpful material online to get you started.
To begin, I spritzed my hair with water to get it slightly damp since I wasn’t fresh out of the shower. Otherwise, you can begin styling after towel-drying your hair.
I wanted to try curling my hair, so I picked up the 30mm barrel for slightly tighter curls and easily locked the attachment into place using the quick release switch.
I didn’t use any heat protectant since the Airwrap has intelligent heat control which measures airflow temperature over 40 times per second and keeps the temperature under 150°C. Ideally, this should produce only minimal heat damage.
Then I held the middle of a 0.5-inch-thick lock in between my fingers, turned on the Airwrap, put it to the tips of my hair, and watched it do its thing.
Maybe it was just the length of my hair, but sometimes some strands refused to be picked up by the air vortex, so I’d help the tool out by moving it along the length of my hair, tightening the curls.
Overall though, it worked pretty well and produced soft, bouncy curls. Typically, when curling your hair, the general practice is to alternate curling your locks clockwise and anti-clockwise as you move around your head.
This is so that you don’t end up with one giant curl on your head when you’re done. Previously, users of the older Airwrap model had to switch out barrels each time they wanted to go from clockwise to anti-clockwise.
Now, the new Airwrap barrels can switch the airflow direction with just a twist of the tip. Doing this allowed me to move through sections of my hair much faster, although figuring out how to hold the barrel to my hair (over or under the lock, depending on the curl direction) took a bit of getting used to.
I spent about 10-15 seconds heating up each lock of hair (or until they’re dried), then switched to cool shot to set my curls. Basically, it entails more air, but this time at a cooler temperature.
Since the Airwrap has been tested and developed to cater to all kinds of hair types, I got my friend with thick, silkier but shorter (chin-length) hair to try it too. We found that for shorter hair, the lock should be thinner in order to properly suction the hair to the barrel.
To tame my wild baby hairs and flyaways, I tried the Coanda smoothing dryer too. I felt like it worked a little for a while, but admittedly, the comparison for before and after wasn’t too different.
Some of the other attachments that you could use for regular hair-drying and styling are the firm and soft brushes, which come with an improved bristle base that allows for a better Coanda effect.
Verdict
After the initial learning curve, curling your hair with the Airwrap is an easy process. Something to note though is that it doesn’t promise long-lasting curls on its own, and I knew that my hair type can’t hold curls for very long without using copious amounts of hair styling products.
I opted not to do that since I was curious how long the heated curls themselves would last. Within 15 minutes of curling, I noticed that my locks were beginning to straighten, and after about 40 minutes, I was left with wavy hair.
I do like how soft and airy the curls looked though, similar to what you would achieve with a salon blow-out. This RM2,699 device won’t replace all your professional pampering sessions (such as at COCOdry) because the overall salon experience is still what many of us enjoy, but it’s one way to get gorgeous curls at home.
Compared to the older Airwrap, Dyson’s improvements with the multi-styler are quite obvious, keeping user convenience in mind. Plus, it’s a fun device to use, especially with your ài měi (beauty-loving) friends.
Just ask mine who were clamouring to try the Airwrap themselves after having heard so much about Dyson’s hair-styling devices.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| A variety of styling tools that can be swapped on one body easily | There’s a bit of a learning curve at first, especially for the dual-direction curling barrels |
| Intelligent heat control means less risk of burning your hair or skin while using heat-based hair stylers | |
| Self-suctioning curling barrel puts less strain on your arms to hold your hair in place while curling it |
- Learn more about the Dyson Airwrap multi-styler here.
- Read more VP Verdicts here.
VP Verdict is a series where we personally try and test out products, services, fads, and apps. Want to suggest something else for us to try? Leave a comment here or send the suggestion to our Facebook page.
