Dyson Hair Dryer vs Airwrap: What’s the Difference?

Hair dryer and styler from dyson. High quality photo
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If you’re a fan of living in the lap of luxury, then having the most innovatively designed hair styling products is probably something you also covet: Dyson products. And if you’ve been shopping around for a new hair dryer, then you’ll almost likely have considered buying the No products found..

However, did you know that there’s another Dyson hair dryer called the ?

So, what is the difference between these two luxury hair styling tools? And which one should you choose?

In this article, we go head to head with the Dyson Hair Dryer vs Airwrap to help you understand the differences between these two pricy products.

The quick answer is that if you’re looking for volume, go for the Airwrap. If frizz is your nemesis, choose the Supersonic Hair Dryer.


Contents

Dyson Hair Dryer vs Airwrap

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The Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer has become an iconic product over the last few years, with its futuristic styling and eye-popping price point (that many feel is worth the cost!). With a successful product at a high price, it only makes sense to release more hair-care products… at an even higher price point!

Both the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer and the brand’s Airwrap are among the most popular hair styling tools in the luxury haircare market.

They also both benefit from the amazing design and engineering that the Dyson brand is well known for, including:

  • Intelligent heat controls, which work to eliminate the damage that hot air can cause to your hair when heat styling
  • Multiple speeds and heat settings
  • Ionic technology, which helps to keep the hair cuticle smooth, prevents frizzing and stops your hair from feeling like it has been fried to a crisp
  • An innovative ergonomic and lightweight design that can be used on hair when it’s damp and dry

But in order to make an informed decision about which hair dryer is right for your hairstyling needs, you’ll have to consider your hair type, as well as what you actually want the product to do for you.

The Supersonic Hair Dryer in a Nutshell

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Basically, the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer does exactly what it says — it’s the most powerful and lightweight hair dryer on the market, and has been specifically engineered to dry your hair quicker, while also leaving it feeling smoother and looking shinier with less heat damage.

The Airwrap in a Nutshell

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The Dyson Airwrap, on the other hand, will dry your hair, but not as intensely, because it styles your hair as it dries. The device includes several attachments that use the Coanda effect, which we’ll discuss later in this article.

This makes it more of a styling tool that also has the ability to dry your hair.

Differentiating the Two

The Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer works great for all hair types, including those with very curly and coarse hair, because it provides a frizz-free blowout that will leave your hair both smooth and shiny, due to its fast drying and reduced heat damage effect.

Meanwhile, the Dyson Airwrap is more suitable for those who have thin, flat, and lifeless hair and prefer a more volumizing blowout with bouncy curls. Think of the classic ‘90s-style pouffy tresses worn by supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer, and you’ll get the picture.

The Dyson Airwrap is more suitable for those who have thin, flat, and lifeless hair and prefer a more volumizing blowout with bouncy curls. Think of the classic ‘90s-style pouffy tresses worn by supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer, and you’ll get the picture.

Therefore, if you struggle with hair that is flat, and you have a hard time getting it to look more bouncy and volumized, then you’ll definitely want to consider getting the Airwrap over the Supersonic. And if controlling frizz is your dilemma, then choosing the Supersonic will be your best bet.

But for now, we’re going to take a closer look into what each of these luxury hair dryers from Dyson will actually do for you and your locks.


Dyson Supersonic Focus

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The Dyson Supersonic is basically a well-engineered hair dryer that works on great on wet and damp hair to provide an extremely fast and smooth blowout.

This hair dryer delivers a much stronger and hotter airflow than the Airwrap, due to its higher wattage.

The Supersonic’s innovative design includes having the motor encased in the handle, which not only makes it quieter, but it’s also smaller and easier to handle than the majority of hair dryers on the market.

It also includes several heat settings, a cool button, and an extra long cord, which provides added convenience when drying your hair. There are also five magnetic attachments that come with the Supersonic, which are:

The Diffuser

The large diffuser attachment can be used for safely drying waves and curls. It simulates natural air drying, because of the way that it disperses air over a wider surface area, and it does this much better than other diffusers.

The Gentle Air Nozzle

This nozzle attachment will diffuse the air into a gentler and cooler stream than the general styling concentrator attachment. It works great especially for those who have thinner hair and/or sensitive scalps.

The Styling Concentrator

If you want to style your hair in sections with a more controlled and precise stream of air, then this will be your go-to attachment. The precision provided by the Styling Concentrator, when combined with using a round brush, will give you the most voluminous and shiny blowout you’ve ever achieved at home.

The Flyaway Nozzle

If you need help controlling frizziness and flyaway hair, then this attachment uses the Coanda effect, which will help you to produce a straight and sleek look for your locks.

The Wide Tooth Comb

For those with textured coils and tighter corkscrew curls, this attachment will allow you to stretch and lengthen your curls while they’re drying, and will help to make them appear extra smooth without any frizz.

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One thing that you do need to be aware of when using the Supersonic, is it that these attachments can get very hot when the hair dryer is in use. On top of this, the magnetic attachment mechanism is very strong, and can take some effort to release. This won’t be easy when the attachments themselves can burn your fingers!

One thing that you do need to be aware of when using the Supersonic, is it that these attachments can get very hot when the hair dryer is in use. On top of this, the magnetic attachment mechanism is very strong, and can take some effort to release. This won’t be easy when the attachments themselves can burn your fingers!

Therefore, if you want to use more than one attachment while you’re drying your hair, you’ll need to wait for the entire device to cool down before you will be able to change them.

And of course, this will add time to your overall drying process.

Key Takeaway:

The Dyson Supersonic hair dryer works particularly well for those with thicker hair, because its powerful motor reduces drying time, meaning that your hair will be exposed to less heat and will unlikely become more damaged over the long term.

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Dyson Airwrap Focus

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Not simply just a hair dryer, the Dyson Airwrap is also a hair styler that comes with several attachments that are more than your average accessories. And that’s because they take center stage in the hair styling stakes.

The Airwrap is also a more compact device than the Supersonic, because the styling attachments are the real stars of the show.

The Airwrap’s attachments include:

The Coanda Smoothing Dryer

This attachment will dry your hair and control flyaways using the Coanda effect, which comes from a jet-propelled air stream that works faster than other hair dryers on the market, and does so by reducing the amount of heat that’s being generated.

The Wide Tooth Comb

This attachment works great at controlling, as well as lengthening, very curly and coily hair, while also helping to reduce any frizz that you’re probably used to.

The Volumizing Brush

This brush acts as an all-in-one hair dryer and round brush, and will give extra body to your hair while it’s drying. This will result in the perfect blowout you would only usually get from a professional hairdresser at a salon.

The Smoothing Brushes

There’s both a soft smoothing brush that works best for those with sensitive scalps, as well as a firming soothing brush that can be used for thicker hair. Both of these brushes work by shaping and smoothing both fine and frizz-prone locks.

The Three Airwrap Barrels

These barrel attachments also use the Coanda effect, which allows the hair to curl via the strong air pressure that’s projected.

The barrels can be used to create both clockwise and counter-clockwise curls, and they range in size from 1.2-inch for creating voluminous curls and 1.6-inch for loose, bouncy curls and waves.

There’s also a long barrel attachment that can be used for those who have longer locks.

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The Dyson Airwrap also comes with a heat mat that can be used to protect your surfaces, and a storage case to keep all your attachments together.

These luxury styling barrels, comb and brushes work best on damp, or even dry hair. If your hair is too wet, then you’ll need to towel dry it thoroughly first. The Coanda Smoothing Dryer nozzle isn’t as large as a normal dryer nozzle, so trying to dry your hair with it will only add a considerable amount of time to your styling routine.

The Coanda Smoothing Dryer nozzle isn’t as large as a normal dryer nozzle, so trying to dry your hair with it will only add a considerable amount of time to your styling routine.

The Smoothing Brush attachments, however, do have the ability to dry your hair just as fast as the Supersonic, especially if you have thinner locks. They can also leave your hair looking much smoother overall than simply using the Supersonic on its own.

All of the Airwrap’s attachments are easy to apply and remove, and they don’t get too hot in use like the Supersonic’s magnetic attachments do.

To add an attachment to the base of the Airwrap, you simply twist it until the notches align, and then click it into place. You can confirm this by observing the lock position, which is visible with the base’s lock/unlock button.

To remove and change your chosen attachment, all you have to do is slide the button over to the unlocked position, twist it and then lift it off.

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Science And The Coanda Effect

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Dyson’s engineers designed the attachments of the Airwrap and Supersonic to use the Coanda effect, which is a phenomena of physics that occurs when air deviates from its path and curves.

Because of this, your hair will adhere to the curved surface of the attachments, and follow their shape in parallel. This is why you will have to use different barrel attachments for each side of your head to make clockwise and counterclockwise curls when using the Airwrap.

The Coanda effect, which is something Dyson’s engineers have spent much time researching when designing both the Supersonic and Airwrap, is what makes these luxury hair styling tools stand head and shoulders above the rest of the competition.

The Coanda effect, which is something Dyson’s engineers have spent much time researching when designing both the Supersonic and Airwrap, is what makes these luxury hair styling tools stand head and shoulders above the rest of the competition.

The Coanda effect itself happens when a fast-moving jet of air travels over a surface, and then attaches to the surface. Even if the surface curves away, then the jet of air will follow it and attach to the curve.

This is how Dyson’s engineers found a way for the hair to attach to the barrels, without having to use bristles, which your hair can get caught up in or even damaged by when it’s wet and much more elastic. The Coanda effect is what keeps the hair attracted around the barrels, and keeps it free from unwanted damage.

The powerful digital motors contained in both the Supersonic and Airflow help to provide the Coanda effect much more strongly, so that more hair is attracted to the barrel and wraps around it, while also holding it in position during the drying process, in order to provide volume and smoothness to every single section.


Learning Curves: Supersonic vs Airwrap In Action

Both the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer and Airwrap are very easy to use, because of the Coanda effect. Of course, this may also cause you some frustration when you first start using the barrels, because you’ve been used to wrapping your hair in brush bristles.

It’s definitely a different experience.

However with practice, once you learn this new way of styling, it will be as simple to style your hair as riding a bike.

These luxury hair styling tools also have temperature regulating technology, so you can be reassured that the air circulating around your hair will never get too hot, even as the powerful airflow does its work to dry and smooth your hair in the style you want.


The Final Decision

So, to the question: should you buy the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer or the Airwrap? Well, your answer will completely depend on what kind of styling tool that you want to add to your hair collection.

When it comes to blowing your budget on one of these luxury hair styling tools, if it comes down to simply being able to dry your hair more efficiently and reducing frizz, or you already have a head full of curls, then you would probably want to choose the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer.

However, if styling is more your thing, then choosing the Airwrap will give you more options to play around with your locks.

And of course, if you’re lucky enough to afford both of them, then these Dyson products will definitely take your hair game up to a whole new level.

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Written by Kayla Young

Kayla is the founder of LuxeLuminous. She has worked professionally in the tanning industry for years. She has been interested in esthetics since childhood, and has tried every hair, skin, and makeup product ever produced (more or less).