Four years ago, if someone had said I needed a $400 hair-dryer, I’d probably ask whether it would declog my shower drain and do my laundry too. But that was before Dyson came along in 2016 with its honest-to-God revolutionary Supersonic hair-dryer. It’s one of the few truly expensive hair tools I’ll admit is worth every penny. Thanks to its powerful motor, my straight, fine hair dries perfectly in pretty much 10 minutes flat.
So when the Dyson Airwrap, a dryer with multiple attachment tools that let you style your hair as it dries, came out, people rightly went nuts. The concept basically marries the idea behind thermal blowout brushes (like this) and self-curling irons like Beachwaver. But where it differs from the latter is that it uses entirely air—not extreme heat—to set curls.
The Airwrap comes in three kits: one for fine hair ($499.99), one for coarse hair ($499.99), and one that contains the attachments for both ($549.99). Each set features a mini, more travel-friendly version of the Dyson dryer. The top of the dryer then detaches to add the styling pieces: two 1.2-inch barrels (for fine and coarse hair), two 1.6-inch barrels, a firm brush for coarse hair, and a soft and round brush for fine hair. As with the OG, all the attachments are heavy-duty and lock solidly in place.
The various attachment pieces for the Dyson Airwrap
The brush attachment is fairly intuitive to use. And the whole thing is way lighter than it looks. You just drag a small section from root to tip on top, and then again from underneath, lifting your hair slightly at the root to give a volume boost. The trick is to get your hair about 80% dry with the brush (or the dryer if your hair is already fairly straight) before moving on to the curler attachments.
