The design
I as soon as heard somebody say of highschool proms, “If you happen to’ve been to 1, you’ve been to all of them,” and that’s how I might typically describe blow-dryer brushes. That was my preliminary response to the Airsmooth too. It’s light-weight and simple to carry, however the one apparent distinction between it and rivals is the teardrop-shaped brush head. Or so I believed. As I used it, one other key distinction shortly grew to become obvious: the bristles. Slim and hyper-flexible, they lack the ball-tipped ends discovered on most brushes and combs.
Says Nair, because the workforce started researching sizzling brushes already in the marketplace, two person complaints persistently emerged, significantly amongst these with finer, thinner hair and coily hair sorts: breakage and discomfort. Digging deeper, they found that these ball-tipped bristles have been a serious wrongdoer. The bristles are likely to catch knots and tear them, versus working via them.
Regardless of shared considerations, nevertheless, these hair sorts have some drastically totally different wants. “If you happen to design one thing very excessive in pressure that offers you a number of management, the curly/coily neighborhood loves it. The minute you try this, although, customers [with] finer hair—like Asian hair or European hair—are like, ‘It’s painful for me, I would like this to be a bit extra versatile,’” says Nair. “So a number of work went into the event of the bristles and understanding how the product will be strong when it comes to taking very excessive pressure, but in addition being very comfy on the scalp.”
In response to all of the above, the Airsmooth options two distinct varieties of bristles: AntiSnag (additionally discovered on the Anti-Snag Loop Brush attachment for the Airwrap) and PivotFlex. The AntiSnag bristles, with their looped construction, are designed “to flex and launch knots across the bristles,” Nair explains, versus catching and breaking them. The Eiffel Tower-shaped PivotFlex bristles are thinner and extra versatile (bending as much as 90 levels), “adapt[ing] to the kind of hair it’s important to launch tangles with out truly placing a number of power in your hair to launch them,” she continues. These bristles additionally function an open-base design, serving to to diffuse airflow and, by extension, reduce frizz.
These high-tech bristles are located round that aforementioned teardrop-shaped brush. The narrower edge is designed to enhance entry to the roots, whereas the flat sides are for styling and straightening.
Why isn’t it an Airwrap attachment?
The Airsmooth is sort of like a watch shadow single in comparison with the Airwrap’s nine-pan palette: It’s designed to be a stand-alone product that’s extra handy, cheaper, and travel-friendly, albeit much less versatile. The objective, says Nair, was to carry “wet-to-dry styling functionality to a sizzling brush that folks can take with them on the go.”
I wouldn’t say the Airsmooth is considerably lighter than the Airwrap (or, at $250, significantly low cost), however one group of individuals would possibly discover this new gadget particularly interesting: frequent worldwide vacationers. As “the flagship product [for] wet-to-dry styling,” based on Nair, “I wish to name [the Airwrap] a ‘salon in a field.’” The Airwrap requires a number of energy, and due to that, every one has a voltage particular to the area the place it was bought, that means that your North American Airwrap gained’t work in your Italian lodge room. By comparability, the a lot much less highly effective Airsmooth works wherever on the planet, supplied you’ve gotten an adapter for the plug.
