A dandy hair styling tool from a vacuum cleaning company. Sounds bizarre? Check it out!

The very thought of a vacuum cleaner at work on your hair is enough to give you the spikes! But no, we are not asking you to try that out. Instead, we’re talking about an edgy hair styling device from Dyson, which primarily makes vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. While an elegant attire paired with the perfect handbag and shoe can give you the perfect look, messy hair can be a spoiler. Especially if you are pressed for time. This is where hair styling tools come in handy – something I have been investing in for over a decade and a half. What started with Philips and graduated to Ikonic Professional, where I invested in multiple styling tools, the recent experience with Dyson has been outstanding. Primarily for two reasons - first, it is a multitasker – can dry, smoothen, add volume, curl and even create waves. And secondly, it styles without damaging the hair with excessive direct heat. Check out what we think of this gadget.

Personal hair styler:

Neatly placed in a big box, the Airwrap is accompanied by six attachments - Coanda smoothing dryer, 30mm and 40mm barrel, soft smoothing brush, firm smoothing brush and round volumising brush - just perfect to have a casual look or flawless professional curls.

The neatly designed Airwrap machine has intuitively located control sliders for heat and airflow on the main body. There is a third slider for power on and off, which also switches the air to a cool shot (the mode to finish each curl). And these attachments can be easily replaced on the top.

Dry your locks:

The trick is to start with damp hair and not drenched - a quick tower dry will do the job. And the rest, up to 80 per cent, can be dried using this new Coanda smoothing dryer attachment. This new, fancy-looking attachment work in two ways. The blow-dry mode helped in pre-drying the hair before styling. The second mode is smoothing which I can switch to just by rotating from the top. This mode works nicely on flyaways. Dyson says it works best on naturally straight or wavy hair or straightened hair of any type. While the former was really easy, I took some time to get hang of the smoothing mode.

Perfectly curled tresses:

Unlike the traditional curling tongs where the heated metal comes in direct contact with the hair to shape them, no direct heat is applied with Airwrap. Instead, Dyson uses hot air followed by a shot of cool air to style.  I held a section of my hair from the bottom near the barrel and turned it on. The high-speed airflow rolled the hair onto the barrel, and while drying, gave it the desired curl. I started with hot air for about 15 seconds and ended up with a cold shot to seal the cuticle for a longer-lasting hairstyle.

The earlier edition of Airwrap included a battle for each side, which was frankly a hassle to use. Dyson has reinvested the barrels and clubbed two into one. Just by rotating the barrel from the top, I was able to switch between the sides.

Accompanied with a 30mm and a 40mm barrel, the former is for creating voluminous curls and waves, and the latter is for loose curls and waves for the casual look.

When segregated into small sections, it barely took me 15 mins to get the curls (for my short length). For someone with longer hair, it will take longer.

Smooth hair:

Other than the barrels, there are three brushes added to the box that are great for achieving a quick smooth and straight style. As not everyone has the same hair type, Dyson has designed different attachments to work for different hair types and create different styles. The soft smoothing brush is great for fine hair. But for my frizzy hair, the firm smoothing brush was perfect. The round brush worked on both types of hair for volumising and styling. These ones were really simple and easy to use and given my short tresses, I was able to get a straight look for the office or any meeting in just 10 minutes.

Practice makes it perfect:

Dyson Airwrap looks cool. And once you watch some videos on YouTube, you will be completely sold out. But is not easy as it shows. When used it for the first time, it took me about three attempts, a lot of time and patience to understand how the barrels work. But once I got a hang of it, I was able to style my hair as a Pro. Luckily, Dyson is offering a 10-day return policy on its website - it is good enough time to experience the styler and if you still don’t like it, there is always an option to return within the said period.

Damage free hair styling:

Dyson does everything with perfection. Dyson says the new Airwrap features an improved airflow system for faster styling with the intelligent heat control system from the earlier model. To prevent heat damage to the hair, the temperature never exceeds 150 degrees. The machine measures airflow temperature over 40 times a second, intelligently controlling the heating element to keep the temperature under 150 degrees Celsius. This prevents extreme heat damage. But even then, I would recommend using heat protection spray before styling.

Upgrade attachments:

If you have been using the Dyson Airwrap 1st gen, and wish to upgrade, you need not spend money on the entire package. Not many companies offer this but Dyson is letting existing Airwrap users an option to upgrade to the full set of attachments for Rs 14,900 which is compatible with the old machine.

Scope of improvement:

This new version of the Airwrap is neatly placed in a soft leather box. While it looks good, it does not feel as premium as the packaging of the first ger Airwrap. Also, there was a magnetic lock in the previous version that would prevent it from accidental openings.

Also, I have been using Dyson Corale Hair Straightener for a long, which comes with a built-in battery to be used on the go. Given the comfort of using it anywhere, without hunting for a power point, I think it’s high time Dyson should engineer the same in-build battery tech to the Airwrap as well.

My go-to-styler:

A hair styling tool coming from a vacuum cleaner and air purifier company sounds bizarre. But Dyson has achieved this unthinkable feat. Back in 2016, the company took styling hair at the comfort of home, or anywhere you may travel, to an all-new level. It started with the Super Sonic hair dryer, followed by the first generation of Airwrap and followed by the Corrale Hair straightener that did the wonder. And with second generation Airwrap, Dyson has improvised the design further.

Priced at Rs 45,900, the price tag might appear to be on the higher side, but this is an impressive multi-functional styler that gives professional-looking hair in the comfort of your home. If you dread going to the saloon often or are pressed for time, this can be a great alternative.

Also read: iPhone users getting iOS 16 update from today: check if your iPhone is in the list

Also read: Apple launches entry-level Watch SE for Rs 29,900