What's the Hype Surrounding the Dyson Airwrap?
Graphic by: Agnes Lee
"I LOVE my Dyson. I could talk about it for days. It is my absolute favorite thing," says Dayna Rapkin, a junior at Northwestern University.
The Dyson Airwrap has made waves across social media platforms for quite some time now. The Airwrap is a hair styling tool that utilizes an aerodynamic phenomenon called the Coanda effect to style hair with air rather than damaging heat. It comes with various barrels and brushes to curl, wave, smooth or straighten multiple hair types. Besides various high-tech styling gadgets, the hair dryer also comes with a $550 price tag.
Rapkin had been eyeing the Airwrap for around seven months before receiving it as a gift for Hanukkah this past year. She had been giving herself blowouts with a round brush, and she thought that the Dyson Airwrap would be easy to use, more time-efficient and a more fun tool for styling her hair. She also thought it would be a good alternative to the popular Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer & Volumizer Hot Air Brush, which she had heard damaged users’ hair.
The Dyson Airwrap has now become an essential part of Rapkin's daily routine.
Rapkin’s hair before and after using the Dyson Airwrap. Image courtesy of Rapkin.
"Once I start using the Airwrap, it takes me, on average, six minutes to make my hair look like it was blown out," says Rapkin. "My hair always looks good nowadays because I ‘Dyson’ every single time I get out of the shower."
Rapkin tends to stick to the straightening brush, the blow dryer and the round brush when using her Airwrap as she has found them to be the most self-explanatory and easy to use, while the curling barrels were slightly more confusing. Nonetheless, she did watch some of the video tutorials on the Dyson website when she was first getting started.
Image courtesy of Rapkin.
Georgie Goldstein, a sophomore at Northwestern, has recently been spending her time watching said videos to learn how to properly use her new Dyson Airwrap, which she received as a surprise gift from her mom a few weeks ago. Goldstein says she likes the results of using the product, but when she finishes doing her hair, she is not always completely satisfied with the results. Goldstein says she thinks that she still has a lot to learn about the complex product since there are so many different tools, and she already didn't know a lot about hairstyling to begin with.
Image courtesy of Goldstein.
Regarding the hefty price tag, Goldstein says she believes that the Dyson Airwap is worth it.
"If you think about it, it's a flat iron, a blow dryer and a curling iron all in one," says Goldstein. "And it's really good at all those things. And it's good for your hair, so I feel like it's probably a pretty worthwhile investment."
However, there are many affordable alternatives if you don’t feel ready to drop the money for a Dyson Airwarp. The Revlon One-Step Volumizer is a very popular alternative as it’s a hair dryer and straightener all in one round hairbrush shaped product for only $35. However, it utilizes heat to style the user’s hair, which is very damaging. Some other alternatives are the Drybar Double Shot Oval Blow-Dryer Brush and the Head Kandy Straightening Brush, costing $150 and $95 respectively.
So… is it worth the hype?
"I would 100% say it's worth the hype," says Rapkin. "Obviously it's not like a cheap everyday purchase, but if you are looking for a nice gift or you want to save it for yourself, it is 100% worth it. I just really love my Dyson. I love it. It's actually amazing."