Exorbitant styling tool for subtle hair fashion

The Hindu

26-05-2025

Would you spend ₹20,000 on a hair styling multi-tool?
Such extravagance might sound unrealistic but more Indian professionals are opting for such products as they realise investing in a premium hair styling gadget can cut down the time and cost of repeatedly visiting a salon for hair styling sessions before interviews, parties, weddings, and other events. While salon experts can give you pin-straight locks or flawless curls using high-heat tools, some fashion lovers want to style their own hair at home with low-heat tools.
Enter the Dreame AirStyle 5-in-1 Hair Drying and Styling tool. Whether you need soft and refined waves for a work meeting or cascading princess curls for a soiree, the multi-tool gadget makes it possible to tame your hair in the comfort of your own home.
The Hindu reviewed the Dreame AirStyle 5-in-1 Hair Drying and Styling tool that retails at ₹19,999, to see if it can truly be the end-all gadget for hair styling.
Here's what we found out.
At a Glance
Dreame's AirStyle 5-in-1 Hair Drying and Styling tool works to deliver a polished yet highly natural result as it swaps heated plates with heated air flow
Though intuitive to use, the premium device is for those looking to achieve lightly tousled hairstyles as opposed to users who want pin-straight hair or corkscrew curls that hold their shape all day
Unboxing and set up
Start unboxing Dreame's AirStyle and you could be forgiven for letting out a loud gasp of amazement as the cardboard falls away to reveal a gorgeous, milk chocolate brown briefcase with a leather-like finish, a golden clasp, and golden corner protectors. The design is perfect for users such as make-up artists, stylists working on shoots, and travel-ready corporates who always need to have their game face (or hair) on and want an elegant but durable container for their hair essentials and more.
Open up the little briefcase to see a black velvet-lined interior where the controller as well as the five hair-styling attachments have been meticulously arranged. The attachments themselves boast either a parchment white body or a tinted metallic finish, giving the product an irresistibly luxurious look that puts it a cut above even premium rival Dyson's AirWrap in terms of visual appeal.
Within the box, users get the base controller with the on/off button as well as the wind flow and temperature control buttons, with the power cable attached. There are five hair-styling attachments: a fast dryer for damp hair, an auto-wrap barrel for curls, a smoothing brush, a round volumising brush, and a flyaway attachment.
We had just one quibble with the design: the box's golden clasp is a unique shape that is difficult to open in a hurry, and can get jammed during travel. A more basic latch would have worked better.
One plus is that the packaging is largely cardboard with coated paper and uses minimal plastic, so disposal afterwards is easy.
Points to consider
First and foremost, you should know that the Dreame AirStyle 5-in-1 Hair Drying and Styling tool works best when you understand your hair type and the styling products that suit your hair. This is not necessarily the best tool for people just starting their hair care journey, but suits experienced users who know which styling gels, creams, waxes, etc. get them the ideal results. However, Dreame provides detailed tutorials and setting guides for new users as well, so every customer is covered.
Next, keep in mind that Dreame's AirStyle does have heat settings, but at far lower temperatures than your traditional hair irons or heat curlers. High-heat hair styling tools use hot plates to make your hair mimic completely new textures, such as turning springy curls into pin-straight hair or vice versa, but tools such as the Dreame AirStyle use heated air streams to work with your natural hair at lower temperatures for a subtle look. Make sure this aligns with your own expectations before investing in the Dreame AirStyle.
For our review, we tried out the Dreame AirStyle tool on black Type 2 straight-wavy hair, as well as greying Type 3 wavy-curly hair.
Using the Dreame AirStyle tool is simple. After a hair wash, we plugged the controller into the wall with the long cable and attached the styling tools in turn. They click and lock into place easily, while the control buttons for air flow and temperature are right at your fingertips. Simply turn on the device and start styling.
Heat and safety
Many will be happy to hear that the chances of seriously burning your skin or hair with the Dreame AirStyle are far lower when compared to traditional heated hair tools.
Some care is needed, but you can safely let adolescents and young adults use the Dreame AirStyle without stress. Just be careful when changing the attachments or laying them down, and do not touch any of the heating coils within the controller immediately after use. The device can deliver a maximum temperature of 60℃. You will still have to use heat protectant when styling your hair, especially with dry hair textures, to prevent frizz in the future.
The styling attachments do heat up after long usage sessions at high temperatures. We tried grabbing the attachments by the metal body right after blasting them on high heat, to get a sense of how severe a potential accident might be. The experience is unpleasant but nowhere near as dangerous as grabbing a freshly unplugged hair straightener plate by mistake.
Now, let's look at each hair-styling attachment.
Fast dryer
This was a good hair dryer that lets you switch between cold, warm, and hot temperatures at three different wind speeds to dry your hair and scalp in turns. It is not as powerful as a standalone hair dryer and it works mostly on small sections, but preps your hair for further styling in about 10 minutes.
The metal body becomes very hot after running for a few minutes at max heat, so remove this attachment with care and do not let it rest on flammable materials. The hair dryer lacks a heat-resistant tip, unfortunately.
Auto-wrap barrel for curls
This is undoubtedly the heart of the Dreame AirStyle and the factor driving many customers to buy the product and treat it as a more affordable Dyson AirWrap substitute. But be warned that the results vary wildly based on the person's hair.
The concept is simple: instead of using hot plates to make tight or loose curls, the barrel uses air flow to pull your hair in and have it wrap around the barrel, with some help from your fingers. You then adjust the heat setting and hold your curled hair in place near your head for a few seconds before sliding down the barrel to leave your curled hair trailing behind. You achieve a soft, light curl that doesn't last long but adds a touch of movement to your hair.
However, there are some disadvantages to this method. First, the noise. The airstream is loud and abrasive at its maximum setting (76 dbA), so it's uncomfortable to hold the curled hair near your ear when compared to the traditional hair curler that is completely silent. Children and those with sensory issues will find this experience difficult to sit through.
Next, we found that while curls generally formed with damp or semi-dried hair, the strong air flow and heat led to uneven drying, meaning that some curls were wet and well-shaped while the hair around that area became dry and frizzy before we could get to it. You will need to repeatedly spritz your hair or part it into sections with clips to mitigate this. In the end, we managed to achieve some soft, tube-shaped curls that did not last long even with styling creams. After watching several tutorials, we achieved better results, but this did not last long in Chennai's humid air either. Hairspray can be used to preserve the shape longer.
We also tried curling dry hair, and the end results were lovely but short-lived across hair types. The strong airflow means you end up blasting open a freshly curled lock of hair while trying to curl the next one, undoing all your efforts unless you are extremely careful. What's more, the curls lasted for less than 30 minutes at most. Users with longer hair who just want curling ends or a beachy look will see better results than users with bobs or lobs. Do not expect parlour-style ringlets, and keep your hands out of your hair when you're done.
Finally, the weight and build of the styling tool makes it difficult to sculpt perfect curls at the back of your head, unless you have excellent arm strength and a good mirror set-up to see what you're doing. Otherwise, you will need someone to help you out.
Smoothing brush
This hair attachment was a definite win for us, as the flexible paddle brush and air stream combo did wonders in taming hair of all textures, but preserved some bounce and highlighted the natural curl or wave pattern instead of flattening down everything.
However, this attachment did not have a heat-resistant tip to allow us to remove it safely, which was inconvenient.
Volumising brush
This is a round, fine brush that you can use at different temperatures in order to make your hair straight and sleek, or add some curling action at the ends. Alternatively, you can bend over and brush your hair from bottom to top in order to achieve staggering volume in the style of an Old Hollywood star. Too much frizz? No worries—just use the smoothing brush to bring it back down to a comfortable level.
Flyaway attachment
A natural consequence of styling your hair with air rather than heated plates is the number of scraggly hairs, loose ends, wiry baby hairs, and flyaway strands sticking up all over the place, making you look as though you walked through a gale. Luckily, a gentle flyaway attachment lets users smooth down their hair to recapture that neat finish just before they head out the door.
Styling textured hair and grey hair
After our tests, we were forced to admit that the Dreame AirStyle cooperates best with Type 1 and mostly straight Type 2 hair. When dealing with rough curls and waves, we sometimes needed to lightly supplement our Dreame styling efforts with the traditional hair straightener in order to get the level of silkiness we wanted. Those with extremely long and frizzy hair may also find using some attachments, such as the curling barrel, to be a long and delicate process that requires a salon-like setup at home.
Furthermore, when styling grey, silver, or white hair with a texture different from black hair, the tool resulted in an uneven finish that we again needed to spruce up with a heat tool.
Verdict
Dreame's AirStyle 5-in-1 Hair Drying and Styling tool is a well-engineered personal grooming gadget, though it comes at a premium price for most Indian buyers.
The tool delights with an impeccable build and cutting-edge tech, not to mention a gorgeous design and travel case, but the hair accessory will mostly appeal to pro users who need to look runway ready every day. The tool certainly saves one the trouble of plugging and unplugging 4-5 different hair tools, but whether it's a wise buy or not depends on the kind of soft, temporary styles you are looking to achieve.
On the other hand, those who want to flaunt salon-style curls, defined waves, or sheet-straight hair just on special occasions can instead explore the far more affordable hair-styling tools available near them, such as portable hair irons whose effects last for hours. Others who simply want to look presentable on a daily basis can consider far cheaper hot brushes for smoothing or volumising their hair.
Despite its flaws, however, the Dreame AirStyle is a safer hair care tool that will fit into almost every fashion lover's arsenal of tools.