It’s been two and a half weeks since the Dyson airsmooth launched as both the brand’s first standalone hot brush and, at £199, its cheapest hair styler to date. The hair tool arrived alongside the updated corrale coolshine hair straightener, but it’s the airsmooth that could prove particularly tempting for anyone who’s struggled to justify the cost of Dyson’s pricier styling tools.
At £380 less than the renowned airwrap, the airsmooth strips things back considerably. There are no curling barrels or interchangeable drying and smoothing attachments. Instead, Dyson has focused on creating a bouncy blow-dry with a single pear-shaped brush which is designed to increase tension through the hair for a smoother, longer-lasting finish.
But how does it fare away from the salon chair? Since its launch, deputy IndyBest editor Sabrina Sahota and I have been putting the Dyson airsmooth through its paces on two very different heads of hair – mine straight and prone to looking lacklustre, and Sabrina’s wavy and frizz-prone – to see whether Dyson’s most affordable hair tool is cheap by name and nature, or a real saving.
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Dyson airsmooth hot brush
Weight: 600g
Heat settings: Four (85C, 100C, 113C + cool shot)
Speed settings: Three
Cord length: 2m
Voltage: Universal – 100-240v
Size: 32.74cm x 9.37cm x 7.43cm
Why we love it
- Glides through hair without snagging
- Leaves strands glossy and smooth
- Holds a large wheft of hair in one go
Take note
- Long-lasting style not guaranteed
- Hard to fully dry roots
The first thing I noticed when testing the Dyson airsmooth was how easily it glided through my very matte and tangle-prone hair. Even wrapping a full section around the barrel and pulling down caused no snagging. I found it worked noticeably better than the brush on the airwrap I’d previously rated.
It’s rapid, too. I took my medium-fine (but plentiful) hair from wet to dry with the airsmooth alone, although I needed to blow-dry upwards at the roots first before curling the lengths under. The real draw of this product is the shine it delivers. In fact, just one pass smoothed down my particularly frazzled front strands and made my hair look far healthier and glossier than it really is.
What it couldn’t do was make a bouncy blow-dry last on my heavy, poker-straight hair. Within an hour, I was left with more of a polished, curved-under finish than a Hollywood blowout. But that’s much the same result I get from the airwrap – including its curling barrels – and, for £380 less, I’d pick the airsmooth for this look. As I could dry my roots sufficiently, I didn’t particularly miss the airwrap’s separate dryer attachment, either.
- Lucy Smith
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Hot brushes can be hit or miss on my thick, wavy hair, sometimes contributing to more frizz, so I was interested to see if this would be the case with Dyson’s new airsmooth styling brush.
The pear-shaped brush was easy to get into my roots and I found it worked best when I held it at my scalp for a few seconds to ensure they were completely dry before smoothing through the rest of the strand.
Initially, I struggled to get enough tension when styling my hair from wet to dry, but I found that wrapping my hair around the barrel helped. My hair can get quite knotty while styling, but the airsmooth glided through my thick hair without any snagging. The wide barrel meant I could style larger sections of hair effectively – you’re always going to get better results working with smaller sections, but it’s good to know this is an option if I’m in a rush.
The final result was a mostly smooth, voluminous blow dry. I had to go back over to smooth out a few small sections, but this was quick and easy to do. It didn’t do the best job of completely drying my roots, so I’d say if you have thick hair, you’ll likely get a better result if you dry your roots with a hair dryer before going in with the airsmooth. After a few hours, my hair still looked sleek and had a nice bounce to it, but a bit of frizz had developed at the crown. This is to be expected with my hair texture and can be easily remedied by using anti-frizz products.
- Sabrina Sahota
Buy now £199.99, Dyson.co.uk
Is the Dyson airsmooth better than the airwrap?
For £380 less than the airwrap, there’s a lot to like about the Dyson airsmooth. On both straight and wavy hair, it left our strands smooth and glossy, while the pear-shaped brush created noticeably more tension than the airwrap’s brush attachment without getting caught in our tangle-prone locks.
Of course, you’re sacrificing the airwrap’s curling barrels and six-in-one versatility. But if it’s a bouncy blow-dry you’re after, we struggled to find much the airwrap could do that the airsmooth couldn’t. In my case, the finished result was practically the same and, at £199, I know which one I’d spend my money on.
How we tested
We tested the Dyson airsmooth for two and a half weeks on our straight, fine-to-medium and wavy, thick hair types. Ahead of its launch, Lucy also previewed the tool in Paris with professional hairstylist Chris Long, where she learnt more about the design and styling technique before putting it to work at home.
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
Sabrina Sahota is IndyBest’s deputy editor and, as such, oversees a huge proportion of the hair-related reviews that go live from our team. Not only does this make her an expert on the topic in theory, but, having tested products such as the Davines essential haircare line, she’s put plenty of formulas to the test herself – including the Dyson airwrap.
Lucy Smith heads up beauty for IndyBest as a senior shopping writer. That means she’s tested pretty much every Dyson device from the airstrait to the airwrap – and she’s tested plenty of competitor brand hair dryers and curlers, too.
Read more: Best hair dryers, tested for the perfect blow dry
