It’s no secret that Dyson has been dominating the hair care house—proving itself 3 times over with the fast-drying Supersonic blow dryer, the futuristic Corrale flat iron, and the versatile Airwrap (all obtained excessive scores from WIRED). I’m always making an attempt to influence everybody round me to put money into not less than one in every of them. A few years in the past, I purchased my mother the Supersonic for Mother’s Day. Last 12 months, I satisfied my mates to pool our cash collectively to purchase the Corrale for our greatest pal’s thirtieth birthday.

But when Dyson introduced the Airstrait, its wet-to-dry flat iron, I had my doubts. Perhaps it is as a result of I’m nonetheless scarred from my Croc Wet to Dry Flat Iron from center college. It’s been over a decade, however I can nonetheless clearly hear the sizzle from my moist hair being clamped between the warmth plates—leading to crunchy, broken strands with every cross. So, you may perceive my apprehension towards the Airstrait.

I used to be barely relieved to see that it is extra of a hair dryer-straightener combo. Instead of compressing your moist hair between scorching plates, it makes use of airflow to dry and straighten your hair. Still, I wasn’t fully satisfied. My mixture of wavy, curly, and coarse hair requires as a lot warmth as attainable to keep away from trying frizzy and puffy. And that $500 price ticket would not assist. But as with the corporate’s earlier hair instruments, I ought to’ve identified. After solely two makes an attempt, I used to be able to throw my blow dryer and flat iron within the trash.

Divide and Conquer

With no warmth plates, you are in all probability questioning how the Airstrait works. Located alongside each arms of the system are 1.5-mm gaps. Airflow travels through the motor, splits into each arms, and accelerates by means of the gaps to create two high-velocity downward blades of air. At a 45-degree angle, these blades merge to create one targeted jet of air that strikes downward to straighten the hair because it dries—leading to a pure, clean end.

In addition to watching your hair dry, you will additionally hear the Airstrait working. With the power to sense when the hair is clamped throughout the system, it robotically will increase airflow. Once your hair is out, it instantly decreases it, like a Dyson vacuum that will increase suction when it senses dust or switches flooring sort. It additionally has clever warmth management to manage airflow temperature 30 instances per second, so it’s going to by no means exceed the temp you set.

The Airstrait has diffusers (the gold items that stand proud of the aspect) that assist maintain the air flowing onto your hair as an alternative of onto you. As somebody with delicate pores and skin, I’m all the time left with quite a lot of redness after blow-drying my hair. Regardless of how excessive the warmth setting is, I do not expertise irritation with the Airstrait. The diffusers are detachable, making it straightforward to scrub away any product, like a warmth protectant, which will construct up over time.

To set the temperature, there is a digital shade show to see what mode you are on and buttons beneath to cycle by means of every setting. Choose from two foremost styling modes—moist and dry—and three temperature settings for every. With moist mode, you will have the selection of 175, 230, or 285 levels Fahrenheit. In dry mode, you may choose between 250 levels, 285 levels, and increase mode. You can alternate between low-flow and high-flow pace settings as properly. There’s additionally the choice for a cool mode, which helps set the model.

If you could not inform, there are quite a lot of methods to customise the Airstrait, which is nice! It means there are a number of choices for various kinds of hair. Each button is labeled intuitively, with a purple for warmth, a blue for cool mode, a raindrop icon for moist hair mode, and so on. But I discover myself staring on the controls for longer than I’d wish to, making an attempt to recollect methods to get to sure settings. Dyson may have made the show greater and merged a number of of the buttons as an alternative. I extremely suggest tapping by means of all of the menus first, so that you’re aware of every one.