It has been one of the most in-demand hair tools in living memory - and many will have been hoping to find the Dyson Airwrap under the Christmas tree this year. And if you were lucky enough to get the styling tool from Santa, you may be swiftly getting it unwrapped and giving it a go for the first time.
Depending on your hair type, you may also be at the start of an epic journey to master this coveted tool. I bought my Dyson Airwrap Long almost two years ago now - paying a hefty £450 for the honour, although the newer versions now set you back an even more eye-watering £499.99.
For such a big investment, you might be expecting something of a wonder tool. But this is possibly just the start of your journey into the unknown.
Read more : I pitted the Dyson Airwrap against the Shark Flexstyle and there was a clear winner
While many people absolutely LOVE their Airwrap, for others, like me, it's been more of a battle. One I've refused to give up on.
The big issue for me, and my very straight long hair, is getting the lovely curl it undoubtedly gives me to stay in place for longer than an hour. When I first started using it, it would already be going straight again on one side by the time I'd finished curling on the other.
And I'm not alone. I, like hundreds of other women, have joined Airwrap Facebook groups, I've watched a million Instagram and Youtube tutorials, I've spent a ridiculous amount of time and money trying styling mousses, hairsprays and clips, all in a bid to hold the curl for more than a few hours.
Anyway, with many likely to be unwrapping the mythical tool this festive holiday (or perhaps considering investing in one with your Christmas money come Boxing Day) here's some things I can share about my journey.
You may be one of the lucky people, who whisks out the Airwrap and finds it magically tames your hair into beautiful bouncing curls that hold beyond an hour. In my experience, people who have curly or wavy hair seem to have better results, as the natural wave appears to help in getting the Airwrap curl to hold.
But if you have poker straight hair like me, and are struggling to get the curl to hold like me, these are some of the stages you will probably go through in the weeks ahead.
Working out how to use it properly
You'd be forgiven for thinking that paying £450 for a hair curling tool would be a guaranteed way to secure a good hair day. Alas, this has not been the case for me.
Of course the obvious way to start is to follow the instructions and the videos that Dyson link you to when you buy the whole thing.
The key thing is "feeding" the hair in sections onto the arrow on the wands and letting its "aerodynamic jet stream technology" do the work for you. Eg, it should wrap the hair itself with the "coanda" effect of the whirring air.
You shouldn't be wrapping it round yourself, basically, as that defeats the object. It's worth a play around to see which way the arrows work best for you - most say away from the face, but I quite like the style of doing them towards your face as well.
They recommend holding it for around 15 seconds before giving a "cold shot" of air and then releasing the curl. Sadly, simply following the Dyson video alone did nothing in helping me work out how to hold the curl though.
Within an hour of following the suggested technique, while my hair retained a smooth bounce, the curl itself just dropped to nothing.
You might need thinner barrels
It's called the Dyson Airwrap complete so you'd think it came with everything you need for curling. But it became very swiftly apparent to me that the two "barrels" (in 40mm and 30mm) it comes with were not going to hold a curl for my long straight hair.
So that's when you look online and realise there are extra SLIMMER 20mm barrels that promise a tighter curl, thus less chance it will drop. But they're £30 extra.
Eye roll at this point but yes, I bought them. I was desperate to get a decent curl at this stage. They undoubtedly give me the more longer-lasting curl.
It's a real shame because I love the more voluminous curls given by the 40 and 30mm barrels but on my hair they drop way, way quicker so now I pretty much stick to the 20mm.
Join a Facebook Group
Remember, you are not alone in this battle. There are hundreds of women who are also looking for the answer to the question: "How do I get the airwrap curl to hold?".
Join a good Facebook group and you will find loads of tips and tricks, as well as fellow curl-questing comrades.
And most of all it will give you hope that one day, maybe one day, you'll find the trick that "works for you" - and then you have to share it with everybody else. It's the law.
My favourite Facebook Group is this one - lots of tips and good banter.
Wet or dry? It's a big debate
When trying to work out what you're doing wrong, you start questioning is your hair too wet? Or is it too dry? What's the optimum dryness/wetness to make the curl hold?
It's an impossible question that no one really knows the answer to. Some say start with hair 70 per cent dry, some say 80 per cent dry - others suggest doing it from completely wet to "hold the curl".
Over the past year I've tried every percentage point possible from dry to wet and back again. Currently I am veering more towards doing it from almost wet and it does work pretty well this way for me.
"It's all about the product"
You'll hear this a lot. And you'll hear lots of recommendations for an array of hair products, gels, mousses, waxes - and it's mind-boggling really when you just want the hair device itself to be doing all this for you, not hair product.
In 20-odd years of curling my hair with traditional tools like hair tongs, straighteners and heated curlers I've never had to use a product to hold a curl before. That said, yes, I've now pretty much tried every product going in a bid to get the Airwrap curl to hold.
Everyone raves about L'Oreal's Pli Spray - but I found that too sticky for me and as soon as I touched the curl it dropped for me anyway. Others recommend blowdry cream or hair oil, similarly this didn't work for me - in fact they seemed to make my curls drop faster.
I had some degree of success with hair mousse - not a fancy one, just old cans I had in my cupboard. When I tried hairspray after, it made the curl drop for me.
The game changer for me has been Sea Salt Spray - any old brand is worth a try you can find them in most Boots or Superdrug stores. I spray it on when my hair is still wet and it basically makes your hair a bit rougher and stickier, and this seems to do well in holding a curl for me.
Don't touch it once curled!
This is a hard one to follow if you're constantly messing with your hair like I am. But the longer you can go without touching or teasing the curl, the longer you'll probably find it will hold.
Naturally, this doesn't work for everyone as the curl can sometimes start very tight and you might want to loosen it out. But from personal experience when I've held off from brushing the original curl at all, it will hold for many more hours.
The picture above is when I curled using sea salt spray, and then not touching it AT ALL. This was my best success with a curl yet this year - and lasted for a whole night out which has never happened before.
And "not touching it" was the big takeaway when I asked a Dyson expert - which you can read more about below.
Use pins
Right, so I've spent £450 on a hi-tech hair tool, but when I've curled it I need to use old-fashioned BOBBY PINS?
Well yes. Even Dyson recommend this in one of their video tutorials as "fine hair tip - pin them up to make curls last longer". Although of course they don't actually include any pins in the package.
There's also a clever hack you'll see on Instagram if using kirby grips - you can slide them up the line of Airwrap column as you finish the curl to stick the pin to your head in one swift movement.
Ultimately, the longer you can keep the curls held up in pins after you've done it, the longer the curl will last in theory. Although I can't help but feel the £1 pins here are taking on the heavy lifting of what the £450 hair tool should be doing.
Anyhoo, this technique, does help it holding the curl for longer if you can be bothered with all the faff and have the time to mess about doing it. I do not have the time to bother with it I'm afraid other than for really special occasions.
Ask an expert
I got quite excited when a new Dyson superstore opened up at the Trafford Centre earlier this year. Namely, because they said a Dyson expert would be there and I could ask him some questions.
This was to finally be my moment to get the ACTUAL ANSWER on how to hold the curl. Surely.
Hmm, well, you can read my full experience here. But essentially, what stylist Larry King said was this:-
He recommends using a light volumising spray or a very gentle soft mousse, then rough dry your hair to 85%.
He recommends using the barrels to point AWAY from the face for the best look. He said: "You want the barrels to come away from your face, it opens up the face it's a lot more flattering."
He said to dry each section until it's fully dry, he'd hold it for 10 seconds and then always do the cold shot for 3 - 5 seconds which will lock in the style.
Interestingly, Larry said FORGET the pins. He says you should literally not touch your hair after you've "released" the curl. Larry says: "Leave it, don't touch it. Just leave it with the curl and move on to the next section.
"Leave it so you have all these barrel curls around your head. You can always brush them out later if it's too much."
I took to heart the bit about not touching the curls and this is probably the best bit of advice to try.
Don't forget to use the other bits
So, OK, I bought the Airwrap because I wanted to make my hair fabulous and curly. But there are other things you can be doing with the full kit and I know that shouldn't be forgotten.
There's a smoothing hair brush thing that I like to use to dry my hair with, and there's a different heated roller attachment that some people swear by to give big bouncy blow-drys.
I don't need any help getting my naturally straight hair any straighter, but there are other attachments that others swear by too. So if you're wanting the Airwrap for all of these things you might find it more worth the money than if you're just wanting a heated curler, which is essentially why I bought it.
You will keep on searching
I still feel like if I just keep searching the internet, one day, ONE DAY someone will come up with a miracle fix to solve this problem once and for all and help me get the curl to hold every time.
It's so frustrating because the curls the Airwrap gives me are exactly what I want - if only they would stay that way for more than a couple of hours.
So if you're reading this and think you HAVE got the miracle cure then please, please write email me, or call me, @ me on Twitter just please, please PLEASE let us all know.
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