Dyson Airwrap vs Supersonic | Head to Head.

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Dyson Airwrap vs Supersonic hair dryer – who will win the battle of the infamously brilliant, heat styling tools!?

When it comes to preserving your hair colour, nothing is more important than using the right hot tools. Straighteners, hair dryers, curlers and hot air brushes can all fade and frazzle your colour with too much use. And it’s just as bad if you’re using one that’s not right for dyed and colour-treated hair.

Luckily for us, those clever engineers at Dyson have this all figured out and have magically designed TWO amazing heat styling wonders to help us style our gorgeous locks AND prolong the life of your hair colour.

But which one do you really need in your life right now? Who wins the battle of Dyson hair dryer vs Airwrap? Dyson Airwrap vs Supersonic, let’s put them both Head to Head!

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What’s the difference between the Dyson Airwrap and Supersonic hair dryer?

Before we get started, let’s get down to the basics to help you decide between Dyson Airwrap vs Supersonic and clear up any confusion!

The Dyson Airwrap Styler is a hot air brush. It’s great for styling and waving your hair but it’s not for blow drying it.

The Dyson Supersonic is a hair dryer, pure and simple. It’s great for quick blasts to dry your hair, blow drying and pre-styling.

There’s no reason you can’t have both! We spend a lot of money having our hair lightened, highlighted, extended, treated, styled and dyed – anything that prolongs our style and colour and keeps it looking like we’ve just had it done, really is a great investment.

Dyson Airwrap vs Supersonic

In best hair dryers for coloured hair, the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer won by a hot mile for it’s design, it’s easy use but most of all, the fact it smoothed and loved our colour.

In best hot air brush for coloured hair, the Dyson Airwrap Styler blew us away (sorry!) with it’s colour preserving properties and sheer range of styling attachments that come with it.

Now we put them both Head to Head to find out which one you really need in your life right now to keep your coloured hair happy!


TOP PICK!

Dyson Airwrap Styler.

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The best for everyday use.

Beautiful design and great results of the smoothest, silkiest hair from those clever engineers at Dyson. However, it’s the fact that this uses air and not heating elements to give us salon-worthy results that makes this our best one to buy to look after your coloured hair. Read on!


The Dyson Airwrap Styler.

In the box.

Loads!

  • 30mm Airwrap barrels – For creating volume and curls
  • 40mm Airwrap barrels – For creating bigger volume, curls and waves
  • Firm smoothing brush – For straightening thick, frizzy hair
  • Soft smoothing brush – For straightening medium to fine hair
  • Round volumising brush – For volume!
  • Pre-styling dryer – To make sure your hair completely dry before styling
  • Storage case – Your box of tricks
  • Non-slip mat – For table tops
  • Filter cleaning brush – To erm…clean the filter.
dyson airwrap unbox tweet

The Look and feel.

This is a stunning piece of technology and design. The quality is evident from when you first open the box.

We were surprised to find the actual Airwrap styler is a lot lighter than it looks, even with the attachments. The cord is a good length so you have the flexibility to move it around your head. The attachments themselves are pretty intuitive to use and pop on and off. 

How does the Dyson Airwrap Styler work?

Like the Supersonic hair dryer, The Airwrap uses the same tiny but powerful motor as the hair dryer, which has been engineered within an inch of its life to be magically powerful yet quiet. 

The motor creates the ‘Coanda effect’ which means instead of heat, it uses a jet flow of air that attracts your hair to the barrel, wrapping it around to create amazing results. 

The idea is that the air flow mimics a hair stylist’s blow-drying technique, directing air down the hair and creating the style, relying on air rather than extreme heat  – working wonders for colour treated hair.

How do I use the Dyson Airwrap Styler?

First, the pre-styling dryer.

We thought this would be a mini hair dryer, used to blast away the rest of the moisture in our hair after leaving it to dry naturally, and before we begin styling. But no! You can use it for that. So the Dyson Supersonic wins points here.

This styling attachment is more of a smoother – perfect as a hairdryer-come-straightener that we can use quickly in the morning before we leave the house. It can also be used to smooth your hair ready for styling when you have the time.

Next, the brushes.

Let’s get this straight, using this takes time. Almost as much time as straightening your hair. But you’re also drying it, so you’re saving on time and appliances in the long run. 

Like the pre-styling dryer, this can be used on it’s own and we even tried it on our hair straight from wet (naughty!). It worked a treat and the results were much smoother and sleeker than drying with the Supersonic hair dryer and a separate brush. It did take longer though but we only used one arm, so.

Now, for the curling barrels.

These can be used straight after drying your hair with the pre-styling drying attachment as your hair needs to be a little damp for the best effects.

These are tricky to get the hang of at first, we’ll be honest. What’s amazing is that the curling barrels have arrows on to help guide you in the right direction when you’re working them down the lengths of your hair (so you’ll need to be in front of a mirror to see them!).

Dyson Airwrap hair style instagram

Goodbye all other styling tools!

Since we’ve had the Airwrap, we haven’t touched our straighteners and it’s easily less damaging than using a hair dryer and straighteners every day. It’s definitely worth the investment to look after your coloured hair and keep that colour from fading. You can read more in our Dyson Airwrap Styler Spotlight Review.

BEST FOR: Everyday use and a whole range of styling possibilities to change up your look.

Dyson Airwrap Styler

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The Dyson Supersonic hair dryer

In the box.

The Iron/Fuchsia (standard), Purple/Nickel and Black/Nickel Supersonic hair dryers all arrive with the hair dryer itself, plus the following MAGNETIC accessories:

  • Styling concentrator – a slim nozzle that controls the airflow to dry your hair one section at a time.
  • Smoothing nozzle – directs gentle, low-velocity airflow to dry and style your hair simultaneously 
  • Diffuser – for enhancing and controlling curls, helping to reduce frizz and improve definition and sass.
Supersonic hair dryer unbox tweet

The Look and Feel.

We’re reviewing the Dyson Supersonic Hair dryer Iron/Fuschia version and even unboxing the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer is a luxurious experience. It looks stunning and gives us the feels in the same way we fawned over our first iPhone. It feels…quality.

The Dyson Supersonic hair dryer weighs 1.8lb so it’s still light to hold but heavier than the Dyson Airwrap Styler. The motor is ingeniously in the handle which makes it feel more study in our hands.

The ‘styling concentrator’ (the hole bit) looks futuristically cool and although this hairdryer has been around for longer than the Dyson Airwrap Styler, the award-winning design has stood the test of time.

The Controls.

The controls are little stainless steel buttons around the edge that are intuitive to use and light up to let you know what setting you’re on in another great design detail.

The Dyson Supersonic hair dryer has three speed settings – High, Medium and Low – (for diffusing) and four heat settings, ranging from 28°C (constant cold) to 100°C (for fast drying and styling). The cool shot (28°C) is essential for those of us with coloured hair to seal our strands and give them gloss.

supersonic different colours instagram

The Power.

We wondered – is it called Supersonic because we’ll have to hold onto our extensions while it blasts a jet stream of hot hair at our faces? The answer is no. It’s powerful yes, but it uses ‘intelligent heat control’ to measure the air temperature every 20 seconds to dry your hair without blowing you away.

The Speed.

Dyson claim it’s six times faster than other hair dryers. We found it dried our hair on average 33% quicker than the time it would normally take us to dry our hair. And this was across thick, fine and curly hair.

The Sound.

Thanks to the Dyson engineering wizardry, it’s not a noisy hair dryer. It’s 1200W power was much less than the other Best Hair Dryers 2020 we reviewed. Dyson Supersonic hair dryer is cleverly designed to make heat go where it’s needed so it doesn’t need to blast our poor fragile locks.

Supersonic accessories and attachments instagram

The Attachments.

The Dyson Supersonic comes with a range of attachments, most of which have been re-engineered since the dryer’s initial launch. There aren’t as many as the Dyson Airwrap Styler however, which is packed full of attachments so you can style and create different looks.

  • Styling concentrator – a slim nozzle that controls the airflow to dry your hair one section at a time.
  • Smoothing nozzle – directs gentle, low-velocity airflow to dry and style your hair simultaneously 
  • Diffuser – for enhancing and controlling curls, helping to reduce frizz and improve definition and sass.

Each of these attachments are magnetic so they are easy to put on-and-offable and they rotate to point at any angle you so wish.

How does the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer work?

This question is a lot easier to answer than ‘How does the Dyson Airwrap work?’! The Dyson Supersonic works just like a hair dryer – but better!

Firstly, thanks to the heat technology (that blows our minds as well as our hair), you don’t have to spend as long drying your hair. Which is obviously better for it. And this is even with using it on a cooler setting.

You won’t need it at its hottest temperature except maybe in an emergency (or if you spill wine on your lap). And even then, this isn’t the ‘extreme heat’ that other hair dryers burn the tops of our ears with.

The styling concentrator is excellent because it directs a stream of air just where you need it to be. We found it easy to dry our hair in sections without the section we’ve just finished getting all messed up (watch the video above for a demo). This would probably be the attachment we would leave on the most.

The diffuser attachment has longer prongs that got close to closer to the roots and although took a while to dry on a cooler setting, the result was worth it for curly hair with extra definition and bounce. You can read more about it in our Dyson Supersonic hair dryer Spotlight Review.

BEST FOR: Those who don’t style their hair as often and just want fabulously smooth and sleek hair.

The Dyson Supersonic hair dryer

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TOP PICK!

Dyson Airwrap Styler.

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The best for everyday use.

Beautiful design and great results of the smoothest, silkiest hair from those clever engineers at Dyson. However, it’s the fact that this uses air and not heating elements to give us salon-worthy results that makes this our best one to look after your coloured hair.

This article was written by:

  • Nicola Freeman, Creative Director & Content Lead
    Creative Director & Content Lead

    With over two decades of passionate hair dyeing experience, I've experimented with nearly every shade imaginable. My journey began long before blogging; as an award-winning copywriter in London and New York, I shaped narratives for iconic brands. However, when friends sought advice during lockdown for at-home hair dyeing, I realized my true calling. Beyond being your hair color expert, I'm a mom of two girls, wife to artist Tony, and an avid soccer player!