Dreame AirStyle Era Hair Styler Review: Dry, Straighten, Poof, and Curl Your Hair with Air

Hair styling is something that escapes me. That’s probably because I’m on a first-name basis with the few hairs that remain on my head. My wife, however, has struggled her whole life styling her very fine hair. Hair dryers and hand tools work to a point, but really styling her hair has always been tough. The Dreame AirStyle Era Hair Styler claims to solve her struggles. In our testing, their claims were spot on.

My wife’s thin, delicate hair has always been a challenge to style. Coming home from the salon with a professional styling job was great. After a wash, recreating that look without all the professional tools and such was nearly impossible. The Dreamea AirStyle Era Hair Styler has solved that problem for her. Its excellent selection of included tools lets he create a variety of hairstyles quickly and easily at home. Previously, her only option was a curling iron.

Curling irons are notorious for the damage they can do, especially to delicate hair like hers. She had been intrigued by Dyson’s automatic hair-wrapping styling tools ever since she got a demo. But the high cost of that tool, starting at $400 and going up from there, versus the relatively low number of times she really wanted to style her hair never added up for her.

The Dreame AirStyle Era brings that same automatic wrapping function to the vanity table, plus a whole bunch of other styling tools for a much more reasonable price. The AirStyle Era’s heating and airflow are gentle on her hair while still delivering excellent results.

Specifications

• Rated Power: 1,300W
• Temperature Settings: 3, Room Temperature (Cool), 50°C (Warm), 80°C (Hot)
• Wind Speed Settings: 3, 50m/s, 55m/s, 60m/s
• Highest Wind Volume: 55m³/h
• Power Cord Length: 2.8m
• Handle Weight: 290.6g (Without the Power Cord)
• Handle Size: 44.6mm x 44.6mm x 260mm
• Noise Level: 76dBA
• NTC (temperature control to prevent hair damage): 1000 times/s
• Motor speed: 110,000RPM

What’s in the Box?

Let’s start with the storage box. Everything comes in this pink leatherette storage box.

The magnet-closure top opens to reveal everything organized nicely inside.

When we pull everything out, we see all the Dreame AirStyle Era’s included tools.

• User Manual
• Quick Start Guide
• Cleaning Brush x1
• 32mm Auto-Wrap Barrel x2
• Soft Smoothing Brush x1
• Power Cord with the Handle x1
• Hard Smoothing Brush x1
• Fast Dryer x1
• Straightening Nozzle x1
• Round Volumizing Brush x1
• Diffuser Nozzle x1

The soft-touch, pebbled-leather handle is thick and fills the hand. It allows for a comfortable and secure grip while styling.

The power cord is attached at the end. It freely swivels 360°, eliminating cord tangles.

The perforated end cover twists off to clean the airflow input filter.

The control panel is marked with low-contrast labels. They were a little difficult to see.

The power switch has three positions. It is in the OFF position. Slide it up (left in the photo) to turn the handle on. Push it farther, to the blue snowflake position, to momentarily turn on the cold blast function. This instantly kills the heat, forcing room-temperature air through the handle at high speed. This cold blast helps set curl into hot hair.

The middle button cycles through the three heat levels. The top (left in the photo) button cycles through three airflow speeds.

All tools connect securely to the handle with a twist-lock motion.

Align the dot on the tool with the circle on the handle. Then push the tool on and twist slightly to lock it in place.

Let’s Get to Styling!

My lovely and very tolerant wife agreed to be the model for these tests. Generally, you would use the Dreame AirStyle Era after a shower. Start with the fast dryer to dry most of your hair, leaving it damp for styling. To save time, rather than showering and drying multiple times, she used a spray bottle to dampen her hair for these styling sessions.

Here she is, hair appropriately dampened and ready to style.

The Straightening Nozzle

She started with the Dreame AirStyle Era’s straightening nozzle. Her hair is very fine and slightly curly. The straightening nozzle is basically a slit. The airflow pulls the hair in one side of the nozzle, forcing it out the other. The heated air dries the hair while simultaneously straightening it.

The results were pretty surprising. Her hair straightened very nicely. All signs of her slight natural curl were gone.

She was pretty impressed with the results and how easy it was to achieve those results.

The Auto-Wrap Barrel

Next up was the auto-wrap barrel. There are two barrels included. One wraps hair to the right. The other wraps to the left. You change barrels depending on which way you want the curls to curl. This pointed out one issue with the Dreame AirStyle Era. The tools get hot during use. They weren’t hot enough to burn skin, but it still wasn’t comfortable to change the tools.

Given that you will likely want your curls curling in opposite directions on each side of your head, you will be changing hot tools mid-session. She also noted that the barrels could get a little uncomfortably hot against her scalp. That is partly due to the thin texture of her hair.

To use the auto-wrap barrel, attach the correct barrel for the curl direction you want, then turn on the tool. Pull out a section of hair and place it next to the barrel. The airflow will suck the hair around the barrel, pulling it tight onto the barrel in a spiral. After a few seconds, push up on the power switch to turn on the cold blast. After a few seconds, the cold air sets the curl, allowing you to slide the barrel out of the curl. Repeat the process on one side before swapping barrels and curling the other side.

As you can see, the auto-wrap barrels did a terrific job creating tight curls throughout her hair.

Creating these curls was incredibly easy, even when reaching around to get the hair on the back of her head.

She was impressed with the results and how easy it was to use. This process did point out one other shortcoming of the Dreame AirStyle Era. While the dryer itself, at 10.25 ounces, isn’t too heavy, the lengthy and thick power cord adds a significant amount of weight. The handle and cord together come in at 21 ounces, meaning that the cord more than doubles the weight of the handle alone.

Even when part of the cord is plugged into the wall or lying on the counter, some of its 9.2 feet will still dangle and add to what you’ll be lifting. Long sessions with the AirStyle Era can be a workout for your arms.

The Diffuser

The Dreame AirStyle Era’s diffuser is used to dry the ends of the hair. As it does that, it separates the hair, creating distinct ends and allowing natural curl to set. Place the diffuser at the ends of your hair, letting it lift the hair upward and curl naturally as it dries.

The diffuser did an amazing job of allowing her hair to take on its natural curl.

Look at how the tips all took on a life of their own, falling gracefully along her shoulders.

We both really liked the results the diffuser produced.

The Volumizing Brush

The Dreame AirStyle Era’s volumizing brush is a cylindrical brush with nylon bristles. It is designed to separate hair as it dries, creating space and volume throughout. Place the brush under the hair at the scalp, then roll it down to the tips.

The volumizing brush significantly increased the volume in her naturally thin hair. The difference in apparent volume was surprising and very attractive.

The difference in how thick her hair looked was incredible.

She said that she has never been able to achieve this kind of volume in her hair. Yay, Dreame AirStyle Era!

Adding Auto-Wrap Curls At The Ends

To add one more layer to the volumized style, she went back to the Dreame AirStyle Era’s auto-wrap barrels. Rather than adding ringlets, she used the barrels to add curl to the ends of her hair.

The incredible volume and inward curl at the ends produced her favorite look.

She also played around with the smoothing brush and liked the results, even though I didn’t get any photos. She appreciated the two smoothing brushes. One is designed for thick, sturdy hair. She used the second one, designed for thinner, more delicate hair. It produced nice, basic results for a quick dry and blow-out.

The fast dryer also worked well. She used this right out of the shower to dry her hair quickly to about 50%-75% before styling with the various tools.

Her hair did stick in the various brushes. Dreame thoughtfully includes a semi-circular cleaning brush. Putting this around a styling brush and moving it vigorously up and down helped extract all those hairs from the brush.

Final Thoughts

The Dreame AirStyle Era Hair Styler is a game-changer for my wife. She can now create multiple attractive hairstyles at home. With a reasonable price tag, a wide variety of tools for different styles, well-organized storage, and easy use, the AirStyle Era delivers salon-quality results right out of the box. As she continues to use it, she will learn to handle the hot tools and weight, but those are minor complaints for an otherwise excellent hair styling tool. Her only regret is that she can’t bring it with her on most of our trips, since cruise lines don’t let you bring your own hair dryer.

The Dreame AirStyle Era Hair Styler retails for $349.99 (marked down as of this writing to $289.99); it is available directly from the manufacturer and other retailers, including Amazon ($309.99).

Source: Manufacturer-supplied review sample

What I Like: Produces great results; One solution creates multiple styles easily; Gentle on delicate hair; Excellent selection of individual styling attachments; The rotating cord eliminates cord tangles; Nice storage box keeps tools organized

What Needs Improvement: The individual tools get very hot, making them tough to change mid-session; The hot tools can be uncomfortable on your scalp if you have thin hair; The lengthy power cord adds a lot of weight, and it gets heavy during use; The buttons could be labeled a little more clearly