I tried the 3 latest hi-tech hair stylers – my top buy dried my soaking locks in minutes, but you’ll pay for it
WANT dry, sleek, sexy hair in a matter of minutes after leaving the shower?
Dyson’s hotly anticipated Airstrait straightener promises you just that.
The £449.99 tool launched in the UK last week, though it’s been available in the US since May, and comes after hair heavyweights GHD brought out a similar product in 2023, with equally lofty claims.
Speedy hair-straightening gadgets are now big business . . . sales of multi-stylers at Boots have quadrupled over the last 12 months.
But when it comes to long-lasting, kink-free tresses, how good are these gadgets really?
Beauty Editor Tara Ledden, who describes her hair as “relatively straight and low-maintenance” puts the big guns and a cheaper alternative to the test, scoring them out of five.
BLOW (DRY) THE BUDGET
Dyson Airstrait straightener, £449.99, dyson.co.uk
Dimensions: 60mm x 330mm x 41mm.
Weight: 0.935kg.
Power: 1600w. Two modes with three heat and three speed settings.
Cord: 198cm.
Claims: Zero heat damage, less frizz and flyaways, protects natural shine.
TARA SAYS: It is bulky compared to your average straightener, but it is as light as a feather – even if it does have a huge bulky plug which wouldn’t fit into a traditional plug socket against my skirting board near floor level.
It is five times the size of a normal plug and has a built-in circuit-breaker.
It is far quieter than your conventional hair dryer and automatically shuts off when you put it down, which is a great development.
It is just as powerful as my Dyson Supersonic, the hair dryer I use daily.
Before straightening, I clamped the plates together to use the blow-dry function – it’s the only one of the three I tested with this option and means you can still use it as a dryer if you don’t want to straighten your hair.
You can also get much closer to the roots for a sleek finish than with the other two.
It took me a few goes to get used to it as there are many settings to choose from, but once I did, my hair went from towel dry to bone dry in two or three passes, the quickest of those I tried.
Once dry, my hair felt silky soft, like I’d had a professional blow dry.
Or like I’d dried my hair and then straightened it, which would probably take me half an hour in total, but it was much faster than that at about ten minutes from start to finish for my full head.
I can imagine it would be a godsend on holiday, when my hair gets frizzy from the humidity.
Not only is it one less tool to take away with you but the sleek design and handy plate lock mean it would take up about as much space as a pair of flip flops in a budget-airline sized suitcase.
VERDICT: The dual-action dryer is the only one that can actually get at the roots.
The results are similar to using straighteners on my hair, but the preset temperatures might not be hot enough to fully straighten curly or coily hair.
Rating: 4/5
GOOD – OR BAD – HAIR DAY?
GHD Duet Style Hot Air Styler, £379, John Lewis
Dimensions: 396 x 120 x 100mm.
Weight: 1.28kg.
Power: 410w, two heat settings.
Cord: 270cm.
Claims: 45 per cent less energy consumption, no heat damage, instant frizz-free results, 2x more shine.
TARA SAYS: When I tried this before it launched last year, I couldn’t work out who it was designed for.
But as the reviews flooded in, I soon understood the appeal.
There’s a large contingent of wavy-haired people who have had great success with this OG zero-damage, wet-to-dry straightener.
My misgivings are largely design-based as it is the biggest of the three and also the heaviest, meaning my arm was already sore when I was halfway through my hair.
And the air flow doesn’t stop automatically, so you have to switch it off every time you take a break if you don’t want to risk melting the carpet.
The bulky size and shape also made it the hardest to use on the back of my head.
And it didn’t dry the roots of my hair, as I couldn’t get it to the top inch or so.
I also found it got extremely hot, despite maintaining an optimal temperature of 185 degrees.
At times, it even felt like it was burning my scalp.
The results are somewhere between the Dyson and Remington, as was the time it took.
It left my hair straight and shiny, but lacking the bounce the Dyson affords.
VERDICT: It is the only tool to utilise hot air and metal plates, so I expected it to be the fastest of the three.
But the over-sized design makes it difficult to use.
If I had shorter, wavy hair, I might find the effort more worthwhile.
Rating: 3/5
CHEAP BUT NOT CHEERFUL
Remington Wet 2 Straight Pro S7970 hair straightener, £49.99, Currys
Dimensions: 38.2 x 31 x 277.4mm.
Weight: 0.427kg.
Power: 52W, ten heat settings.
Cord: 300cm.
Claims: Cuts styling time in half, no heat damage.
TARA SAYS: It is easier to figure out than the Dyson, as it is the same size as a normal straightener and you use it in the same way.
There are two settings wet and dry, with temperature increments 10C apart going from 140 to 230 degrees.
It is important you switch it to the wet mode by holding the “+” for two seconds and waiting for the screen to turn blue or you will damage your hair.
If I had not read the manual, I would not have known this – the other tools are more self-explanatory.
In wet mode, as soon as I clamped it shut on my hair, it made an alarming sizzling sound and emitted a lot of steam.
The no-damage claim applies to four passes, but I had to go over the same section seven or more times before it felt dry.
Although it gets far hotter than either of the others – 90C higher than the Dyson, which should make it easier to style for coily and curly hair – there is no way of getting right to the root as the hot plates don’t extend to the edge of the device, so the finish would not be seamless.
For my fine, near-straight hair, I set it to 180C and the results were poker straight.
But it left my hair knotty, as without any airflow to separate and direct my stands, they tangled, and my hair felt dry rather than shiny and sleek.
VERDICT: Despite its claims that it won’t damage hair, the sizzle and tangled finish suggest otherwise.
It took a lot of passes to dry my hair, longer than it would to use two separate tools. I won’t be using this again.
Rating: 1/5
Final verdict
WET-to-straight stylers are far less bulky than the Swiss army knife-like multi-stylers that have reigned for years.
They are easy to use, while the “no damage” claims make them a great option if you have teens or tweens who are looking to start styling their hair.
But I’m not convinced the results are as sleek as conventional straighteners.
And given the price tag of both the GHD and Dyson, it is a lot to pay for something that only creates one style.
That said, I will definitely take the Airstrait away with me on holiday because it’s light and portable.
So if you have the money and regularly use a straightener, the multi-task marvels are a no-brainer.