As someone who will openly admit they’re terrible at styling their own hair, it’s no over-exaggeration to say that the Dyson Airwrap changed my life. However, at just shy of £500, the desire for a Dyson Airwrap dupe has grown almost as rapidly as the hype for the original. But does it really exist?
Dupes are something we’re dedicated to helping you find at Eliza, whether it’s an affordable alternative to a Skims dress or high end designer fragrance, we’ve got the best high street options for when you can’t justify buying your favourite (and often ultra-expensive) cult products.
And now, thanks to Amazon Prime Day, you can find my favourite dupe even further discounted. What’s not to love?!
More on hair tools:
- The 5 best ghd Rise dupes to rival the OG hot brush
- The truth about wet-to-dry hair stylers
- The Dyson Corrale is currently £100 off; here’s how it compares to my ghd straighteners
- The truth about wet-to-dry hair tools and the damage they’re really doing to our hair
- Can this kitchen tool actually curl your hair? I put the TikTok hack to the test
For the past few weeks, I’ve committed my time to trying and testing a range of hair tools to see how they compare to my beloved Airwrap. My standards are pretty high and my adoration for the Airwrap runs deep, so a worthy dupe will really have to smash it out of the park to impress me.
What makes the Dyson Airwrap so great?
First of all, it’s probably best I explain why I’m so obsessed with the Airwrap. It was the first of its kind that offered serious salon-worthy results at home, without needing a small army of heated hair tools. It’s a multi-styler that allows you to dry, curl, blow out and smooth your hair with just one product. Pretty genius, if you ask me.
It comes with six attachments, and there are even more you can purchase, depending on your hair type and desired finish. And the technology is pretty amazing: the curling barrel, for example, pulls in hair using air flow technology (meaning it does a lot of the hard work for you). This results in less heat damage than normal heated tools and it curls the hair more quickly for the classic expensive-looking bouncy blowdry.
Without further ado, these are the best dupes I’ve tried for the Dyson Airwrap, ranked, rated and reviewed, so you can achieve great hair days and save money while you’re doing it.
1. Revlon One-Step Volumiser Plus
Price: £58.99 – currently on sale for £40.99
Attachments: One
Heat settings: Three and a cool option
Rating: 6/10
As previously mentioned, I’m no wizard with a hot brush. Luckily our beauty contributor Olivia is, and she has openly discussed her appreciation for the Revlon One Step Volumiser Plus and its perfect blow-dry giving abilities.
While it only comes with one attachment, it boasts the ability to both smooth and curl a range of hair types. Like all the previous tools mentioned, the oval brush uses air (hot or cold depending on your heat setting) to dry and style, delivering big bouncy blow-dries or beachy waves with less heat damage and no frizz.
Using a hot brush can take a bit of getting used to, but it is easier than the old-school method of a hair dryer and barrel brush. While it’s quite a departure from the design and features of the Airwrap, the oval barrel brush design of Revlon’s is most similar to the Airwrap’s round volumising brush and smoothing brush, allowing you to achieve similar styles.
If you mainly want a hair tool to achieve a bouncy blowout or loose curls and nothing else, this is one of the best ones out there to do so. It’s not worth splashing out on an Airwrap if you aren’t going to use the other attachments, and this hot brush has become a cult product in its own right.
2. Shark FlexStyle 5-in-1 Air Styler & Hair Dryer
Price: £279.99
Attachments: 5
Heat settings: Three and a cool option
Rating: 8/10
Out of all the multi-stylers I’ve tried, Shark’s FlexStyle is hands down the closest I’ve found to the Airwrap. One look at FlexStyle and the comparisons to the Airwrap are immediately obvious; from the design of the tool itself to the range of attachments.
The FlexStyle, like the Airwrap, allows you to dry your hair with the power of a normal hairdryer, alongside the five styling attachments, which include two curling barrels, a paddle brush, oval brush, a styling concentrator and diffuser. Something to note here is that you can choose which attachments your Dyson comes with, whereas Shark’s comes with this set as standard.
I tested out each multi-styler on either side of my head (see my video below) and found that while the Airwrap was able to style larger sections of hair at once and gave a smoother finish to my hair with fewer flyaways, the styling capabilities of the FlexStyle were almost identical. The FlexStyle uses Coanda air technology (as does the Airwrap) to wrap the hair around the curling barrel, which causes less heat damage and results in a quicker styling time overall.
Some other points of difference include having to swap the barrel when curling each side of your head (Dyson’s updated barrel allows you to twist to change the direction of styling). I did also find that the FlexStyle produced some steam when styling my hair, but it didn’t seem to damage it in any way, although whether it would over time remains to be seen and is another point to consider.
All in all, the FlexStyle is the best dupe for the Dyson Airwrap that I’ve tried, and I don’t think you can get much closer to the original. While I saw slight differences in the power of the tool and the finish, someone who hasn’t had the Airwrap before probably won’t notice, and at almost £200 less, it’s an extremely good hair tool.
3. Revlon One-Step Blow-Dry Multi Styler
Price: £74.99
Attachments: Three
Heat settings: Three and a cool option
Rating: 7/10
After reading one of our beauty contributor’s love letter to the Revlon One Step Volumiser Plus, I was pretty intrigued to try out one of the brand’s hair tools for myself. Divine timing then dropped the brand new Revlon One-Step Blow-Dry Multi Styler onto my desk, which is the first multi-styler from the brand and comes in at a purse-friendly £75.
While this tool launched with three styling attachments compared to the Airwrap’s six, it has the foundations of a good multi-styling tool and can dry, curl and style your hair with a hot brush. In fact, Revlon includes its much-loved hot brush as one of the attachments for this tool, making it a great deal when you consider the original hot brush on its own is £70.
Like the Airwrap, Revlon’s multi-styler promises a quicker styling time with less heat damage, using airflow rather than just relying on hot temperatures to dry, style and set the hair.
The drying attachment is quite different to the Airwrap: while the Airwrap’s attachment dries like a normal hair dryer, Revlon’s Root Drying Concentrator is designed like a comb to lift and hone in on the roots.
The curling tool is also unlike the Airwrap’s and resembles more of a classic curling tong, but I was impressed by the finished style. Although it doesn’t use as much heat as a normal curling tool, it still gave me loose beachy waves, which lasted through the day after a spritz of hairspray.
The hot brush attachment also got the seal of approval from me; while I can’t get to grips with hot brushing my whole head for a blowout style, I do use one every day to restyle and volumise my fringe, and this did as good of a job as my Airwrap. It is quite a chunky brush, however, so those with fine or shorter hair might struggle to style with it.
While it only has half of the attachments that the Airwrap comes with, Revlon’s is still over £300 cheaper, and stands up as a pretty great styling tool if you’re just wanting to curl and hot brush your hair with less heat damage. I personally love having a proper hair dryer attachment with my Dyson as it cuts down on the need for multiple tools and is great for travel, but if you aren’t bothered about that then the Revlon multi styler might be the best buy for you.
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