I Curled My Hair With the New $550 Dyson Airwrap, and Here’s What I Really Think

There are great things about the Dyson Airwrap, but also a few downsides.

Pros:

• The air that comes out of the the tool is hot but not scorching. I already have a burn scar from a newbie curling iron mistake, so not fearing burning my skin while maneuvering the tool was pretty great.
• Being able to avoid the double heat exposure of drying hair fully and then using a hot tool to style it into waves does seem like something that'd make a difference on the health of my hair over the long term. Dyson says the tool "measures its temperature up to 40 times a second" to make sure it doesn't get too hot.
• In my experience, setting my hair into curls while it was still damp also meant that the style lasted through the day without the need for hairspray. In fact, I tried to make things harder for the Airwrap by using a hydrating hair mask when I washed my hair and skipping styling product altogether. It stood up to the test.

Cons:

• My biggest issue with the Airwrap is that you need to change the barrels to switch the direction of your curl. I prefer messy beach waves and alternate the direction of the curls to create that style, but since I already had to curl smaller sections of hair at a time, changing barrels after each curl would have required more time than I like to spend on my hair every morning — and my hair is just a little longer than shoulder-length. I can't imagine how long it'd take to beach-wave long hair.
• Because air constantly flows from the barrel, as you hold a curl to dry it, air disturbs the rest of your roots, creating frizz. My roots were way messier than they are when I use a curling iron.
• I didn't buy the Dyson Airwrap — the brand provided me with the tool for testing purposes — but all I kept thinking about is all the other things one could buy with $550: a two-way ticket from NYC to Paris (I've gotten tickets over Thanksgiving for $450 before), a nice leather handbag, an iPad — you get my point. Spending that much money on a tool is a serious, serious commitment, but Dyson has a few demo stores where you can see the tool in action yourself before buying it (in New York, San Francisco, and the Washington DC area).

So, will I continue to use the Dyson Airwrap to curl my hair? Yes, after a few tries, I've mastered the correct way to use the curling barrels, and I can see myself using the tool on days I wash my hair. I don't think I'm ready to toss my trusty curling iron quite yet, though. I'll still be using it on second- or third-day hair to create those soft, messy waves, since I normally have to coerce my straight hair back into curls every morning to keep my style going.