It’s safe to say that nothing has shaken up the modern-day hair-care industry like the innovative hot tools from James Dyson’s namesake brand. Ever since the brand dropped the coveted Airwrap Multi-Styler ($599) back in 2018 and revolutionized the world of hair styling with their air-based technology that drastically minimized the effects of heat damage, Dyson has remained one of the biggest names in modern hair care. Just yesterday, the company expanded their collection with the launch of the first-of-its-kind Airstrait Straightener ($499) proving they’re just getting started.
What Is the Dyson Airstrait?
Following a six-year break from releasing new hair products, Dyson’s Airstrait is a revolutionary tool that allows you to go from wet to dry hair without the use of hot plates or addition of heat damage. The straightener was especially engineered to work on all hair types and create a sleek, natural straight look that maintains movement. While utilizing countless one-of-a-kind Dyson technologies like the Hyperdymium motor, intelligent heat control (glass bead thermometers continuously measure airflow to ensure no excessive heat) and two different styling modes and temperatures, you can use the Airstrait to take your hair from wet to runway-ready in as little as 10 minutes, or to touch up your already dry look for other-worldy shine.
How Does the Airstrait Work?
The Airstrait uses the science behind how our hair works to harness maximum efficacy when it comes to both drying and straightening. In order to change the style of your hair, the hydrogen bonds within the strands must be broken and reset into the new, desired shape. When our hair is wet, these hydrogen bonds are naturally weakened, making them more easily reshaped without the use of excessive heat. Thus, Dyson utilized this natural progression to create a product that uses an ideal level of heat in tandem with optimized and controlled air flow to dry and straighten hair with significantly less heat damage than traditional hot tools.
Dyson invested half a billion GBP into the research, development and design of the Airstrait which has allowed the product to be effective on all hair types, from straight to coily. “This expertise, which we’ve gained over the last 25 years, is what has enabled us to deliver our first wet to dry straightener, with no hot plates, and no extreme heat damage,” explains founder and chief engineer, James Dyson. “Delivering the ease-of-use that people love about straighteners but with high-velocity air blades, saves time, maintains hair strength and achieves an everyday natural straight style.”
Dyson Airstrait Review
I was lucky enough to receive the Airstrait to celebrate its launch, and let me tell you I was shocked. In full honesty, I hate blow drying my hair. Though I love the look of a fresh blowout, I’m a pretty adamant air dryer. That being said, the first thing that sold me on the Airstrait was how incredibly easy it is to use. I simply turned the tool on, set it to “wet” mode and put it on the lowest temperature (175º) to be safe, and started doing passes on 1.5-inch sections of my hair. I only needed to use one hand to pass the tool through my hair and dry it, which was hugely more convenient than trying to test my coordination with a dryer and a round brush.
In just under 10 minutes, my entire head had genuinely gone from wet to dry, straight and the sleekest I’ve ever seen it. Another one of the main issues I’ve had with blow drying tools of the past is that, though my hair would end up dry, it was always frizzy. But, the precise 45º angled high pressure blades ensure that hair is not only dried, but smoothed and styled. I was also absolutely obsessed with the energy-efficient nature of the product. As someone who is always doing a million things at once, I tend to get distracted and set my tools down to tend to other parts of my routine. Dyson’s Airstrait has an energy-saving feature that stops airflow a few seconds after being set down, and even sends the tool into a “standby” mode when not touched for a few minutes.
The Bottom Line
With the amount of celebrities, stylists and users who have endorsed and raved about Dyson hair products, it’s hard to believe I was even slightly skeptical about this latest launch. Using a straightener to go from wet to dry has been so frowned upon for so long, it felt a little strange to put the arms around my freshly washed strands, but the revolutionary airflow technology eased my fears and gave me a look I would have never dreamed to be possible fresh out of the shower and in less than 10 minutes. But, if anyone can make it happen, it’s James Dyson.
