The Dyson Airwrap Costs 10 Times As Much As the Revlon One-Step. But Does It Deliver a Better Blowout?

If you regularly style your hair using a blow dryer and a round brush, a tool that functionally combines these two items might be appealing. The $60 Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer, a hot-air brush that’s beloved by nearly 63,000 sleek-hair-seeking reviewers as well as members of the bustling Peloton Mom Facebook group, and the $550 Dyson Airwrap, a coveted styling system with as many add-ons as a high-end vacuum, are two such tools. We tried both and found that although they can do the same thing—dry and style damp hair—and produce similar results, the experience of using each tool is radically different.

For starters, the One-Step is much larger than the brush-attachment-equipped Airwrap. It looks like it would kick the Airwrap’s ass in a fistfight, too, as it bears a strong resemblance to what a medieval morning-star torture club would look like if pinkwashing marketing were prevalent in the 1400s. Were the One-Step a person, it would be Ser Brienne to the Airwrap’s Queen Sansa. But looks can be deceiving, as like the Game of Thrones women, both the One-Step and the Airwrap are capable and powerful, though each in their own contrasting ways.

Three other Wirecutter staffers and I tested the styling tools, blowing out and styling our own hair. Our approximate hair types: 2A (mostly straight), 3C (kinky curls), 3A/3B (loose-to-medium curls), 2B (medium waves). I also tested the One-Step and Airwrap on my 5-year-old daughter’s medium curls. I do not regularly blow out my own hair, whereas my colleagues who tried the tools do.

Our results with each tool were roughly the same: Each provided an adequate blowout, similar to the type a professional could do. It would be difficult to distinguish an Airwrap blowout from one done with the much-cheaper One-Step, especially after an hour of two of humidity. Experience-wise, however, the One-Step and the Airwrap couldn’t be further apart.

Dyson Airwrap vs. Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer: Blow by blow

The Airwrap is a six-piece kit with interchangeable attachments that Dyson markets as a complete blowout and curling system, while Revlon’s One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer—as its name promises—is a much simpler device that can dry and straighten some people’s hair but not curl it. For the purpose of a comparative review, we used only the Airwrap brush attachment that’s most similar in size and form to the One-Step’s head.

Our findings: The One-Step is a no-frills workhorse, a utilitarian beast that dries hair adeptly if brusquely, while the Airwrap feels like a warm comb, the hair-tool equivalent of freshly baked cookies. The One-Step is far louder than the Airwrap and feels much hotter. My daughter, who begged me to blow-dry her hair, ran away screaming the second I tried to drag the One-Step through her curls but sat happily and colored while I dried her hair with the Airwrap—an unheard-of feat for a tender-headed elementary-schooler.

Dyson covers the Airwrap with a two-year parts and labor warranty. Revlon warranties the One-Step against defects for four years (returns require a $6 handling fee).

Two testers who regularly blow out their own hair generally preferred using the Airwrap overall, but not so strongly as to justify the added cost of buying it over the One-Step—at least for the purpose of at-home blowouts—alone. “I loved the Airwrap’s curling iron and blow dryer attachments,” our 3A-hair-type tester said. “I could see myself getting really into these attachments after I get over the learning curve.” If you covet Dyson’s Supersonic hair dryer and regularly use a curling iron to style your hair, it might make sense to spend an extra $150 on the Airwrap, as its dryer attachment, while not as powerful as the Supersonic’s, performs similarly. A long-term tester, who has type 2A hair, found that while it takes her longer to create the type of curls she prefers with the Airwrap compared to a conventional curling iron, the resulting style typically lasts longer.

Although both tools dried my kinky-curly hair, neither enabled me to successfully accomplish a salon-style blowout. To be fair, I expected this result, as without additional heat from a flat iron, my 3C hair is impossible to straighten—it starts reverting to its natural curl within minutes, thereby wasting all the time, money, and energy I spent on trying to straighten it into submission. As my hair-type twin YouTuber Amber Ansah proclaimed, if she’s blow-drying her hair, “it’s because I am going to flat-iron it.” Like Ansah, were I seeking a salon-style blowout, using either the Airwrap, One-Step, or the unconventional-yet-effective RevAir hair dryer would be merely a first step. Miracle tools aside, the fact remains that whether you’re using a hot-air brush, one of our upgrade pick blow dryers, or our budget recommendation, your blowout results depend more on your hair type and technique than on the drying tool you use.