IS Boots’ top-selling Christmas hair tool really a cut above?
Siobhan O’Connor compares the £39.99 Revlon volumiser with the feted £450 Dyson Airwrap and gives her verdict.
It has also achieved more than 12,000 five-star reviews on Amazon. And a manager at Boots told me it is the store’s top-selling gift this year.
So it has to be worth a try, right?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The brush head is very large and much wider than the Dyson. That is great if you have long hair like me — but trickier if you have short hair and tough to get in close to your roots. With nylon bristles designed to detangle hair, it is not heavy to hold.
IN ACTION: It is so easy to use. You can dry large chunks at a time due to the wider brush head and it gives a nice wave to the hair. It is also really simple to do a sleek, straight look.
I noticed quite a few flyaways with this styler. That wide brush means more air can get under and blow hairs up. But overall, this gave a really glossy finish. The brush makes it best for creating a smooth, straight, sleek look with volume — like a salon blow-dry. It was more difficult to create a thick wave.
Reviews have been watched almost 650million times on TikTok, with some users praising it as the best money they have ever spent.
Fans point to its speed and results that don’t damage your hair. The bouncy curls are said to last up to three days.
But is it worth that hefty price?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS: It is pricey, yes, but comes packaged in a beautiful box along with eight attachments including a dryer, bristle brush, two paddle brushes and four tongs to create bouncier curls.
The bristles are finer than the Revlon and work well with finer hair. The barrel is narrower, so you can get in closer to the roots to lift hair and create volume.
IN ACTION: I like that you have a few attachments to play around with, so you can alter how your blow-dry finishes. I stuck to using the bristle brush and not the tongs to ensure it was a fair test against the Revlon.
It dried my hair very quickly and gave an ultra-smooth shine. The heat is much higher than the Revlon — and it can get a bit too hot closer to the roots. But the technology is meant to be less damaging for your strands.
One of the more noticeable differences between the two is the style and design. Dyson is surprisingly light and easy to handle, though it’s much longer than the Revlon.
It’s relatively quiet too, so you can get away with styling your hair first-thing without waking up your partner or flatmates.
The silver and pink colour combo makes it look a lot more boujee too — a tool you would willingly leave resting on your beauty cabinet.
Overall, this looked like a professional blow-dry and my hair was very shiny. It gave my locks volume and shape. But the steep price is off-putting.
VERDICT: SO WHICH ONE WINS?
I WAS blown away by the results of both – but Revlon comes out top. It was super easy to use and required no faff. While it’s nice to have all the extra heads that come with the Dyson, most busy women stick to one style, don’t they?
With the Revlon, in just 15 minutes I gained a frizz-free, straight blow-dry that sat in place all day, and it was more than six times cheaper than the Dyson version.
