it’s no secret Dyson has been dominating the haircare space — proving itself threefold with the quick-drying Supersonic hairdryer, the futuristic Corrale iron, and the versatile Airwrap (all earning high marks from WIRED). I’ve been trying to convince everyone around me to invest in at least one of these. I bought my mom a Supersonic for Mother’s Day a few years ago. Last year, I convinced my friends to chip in and buy a Corrale for our best friend’s 30th birthday.
But when Dyson announced the Airstrait, its wet and dry iron, I had my doubts. Maybe it’s because I still have scars from the Croc Wet to Dry Flat Iron I used in middle school. It’s been over a decade, but I can still clearly hear the hiss of my wet hair as it’s pinched between the heating plates—each pass results in brittle, damaged strands. So, you can understand my concern about the empty channel.
I was slightly relieved to see that it was more like a hair dryer and straightener combo. Instead of squeezing wet hair between hot plates, it uses airflow to dry and straighten hair. However, I’m not entirely convinced. My mix of wavy, curly and coarse hair needs as much heat as possible to avoid looking frizzy and shaggy. The $500 price tag doesn’t help either. But as with the company’s previous hair tools, I should have known. After just two tries, I was ready to throw the blow dryer and iron in the trash.
divide and conquer
Photography: Dyson
Since there is no heating plate, you might wonder how the Airstrait works. There is a 1.5 mm gap along both arms of the device. The airflow travels through the motor, splits into two arms, and accelerates through the gap to form two high-speed downward air blades. At a 45-degree angle, the blades combine to create a focused jet of air that travels down to straighten hair as it dries—for a natural, smooth finish.
also to watch your hair is dry, so will you heard Empty straits work. It automatically increases airflow thanks to the ability to sense when hair is trapped inside the device. Once your hair falls out, it instantly reduces it, the same way a Dyson vacuum increases suction when it senses dust or switches floor types. It also features intelligent thermal control, which adjusts the temperature of the airflow 30 times per second, so it never exceeds the temperature you set.
The Airstrait has diffusers (gold flakes sticking out of the sides) that help keep the air flowing to your hair instead of you. As someone with sensitive skin, I always get redness after blow drying my hair. I don’t feel uncomfortable with the Airstrait no matter how high the heat setting is. The diffuser is removable, making it easy to remove any product that may have accumulated over time, such as heat protectant.
To set the temperature, there’s a digital color display to see what mode you’re in, and a button below to cycle through each setting. Choose from two main styling modes (wet and dry), each with three temperature settings. With the wet mode, you can choose from 175, 230 or 285 degrees Fahrenheit. In dry mode you can choose between 250 degrees, 285 degrees and boost mode. You can also switch between low flow and high flow speed settings. There is also a cool mode option that helps with styling.
If you didn’t know, there are so many ways to customize Airstrait, it’s awesome! This means that there are a variety of options for different types of hair. Each button is intuitively labeled, with red for heat, blue for cool mode, a raindrop icon for wet mode, and more. But I found myself staring at the controls longer than I wanted to, trying to remember how to access certain settings. Dyson could have made the display bigger and incorporated some buttons. I highly recommend clicking through all the menus first so you can familiarize yourself with each one.
