Dyson just launched mushroom-powered styling products – are they the secret to long-lasting Airwrap curls?

Dyson’s newly launched Chitosan haircare and styling products are designed to complement the brand’s ever-expanding range of hair styling tools. That means they could, finally, be the solution to one of the most infuriating problems with the Dyson Airwrap – curls not lasting.

Marketed as a one-stop shop for all hair styling needs, while also styling hair wet-to-dry without heat damage, the Dyson Airwrap was first released in 2018. Its automatic wet-to-dry hair curling was revolutionary, so it’s not surprising that the styler made its way onto the wishlists of beauty lovers worldwide.

However, with hundreds of people having spent almost £500 on a hair styler that didn’t hold a curl, people took to social media to share their tips and tricks to overcome the dropout problem once and for all. While using the built-in cool shot combined with hair pinning was one major tip, the most popular has been to add hair styling products like firm hold mousse and texture spray, to help the hair maintain its shape.

Of course, years have gone by since these problems with the Airwrap were first reported, and it seems Dyson wants a slice of the styling product pie.

Due to be released on 27 August, the Dyson Chitosan range consists of two products – a Pre-style cream and a Post-style serum. Both are powered by their namesake core ingredient, chitosan, which is derived from oyster mushrooms. It is the component of mushrooms that creates structure in the cell walls, giving the fungi its distinctive, delicate, yet strong shape, pictured below.

Mushrooms and mushroom-derived ingredients such as chitosan are having a heyday right now, and their use in the Chitosan haircare formulations allows the styling products to give the hair a strong but flexible hold.

Dyson has also packed some of their famed tech into the formulations. Its Triodetic technology locks in hairstyles using a lightweight, flexible structure of bonds. This flexibility allows hair to move around naturally and recall its style, supposedly even in high humidity. Dyson also claims this technology allows hair to hold its shape without any stickiness or crunch – a feeling anyone who has used drugstore mousse or hairspray will be all too familiar with.

“Some other styling products use simple polymers that stick the strands of hair together like glue. Dyson’s formulas […] create flexible bonds that support hair strand by strand, for 2x the hold, with movement and shine”

James Dyson,
Founder and Chief Engineer

The range will be suitable for all hair types, with the Pre-style cream being available in four different formulations, and the Post-style serum available in a one-size-fits-all formulation. Two Pre-style creams will be tailored to straight and wavy hair types, while two have been formulated specifically for those with curly and coily hair. For each hair type, there is a light conditioning cream and a rich conditioning cream.

The Pre-style serum is designed to be used as, you guessed it, a primer before styling damp, towel-dried hair. Alongside its star ingredient Chitosan, it contains frizz-reducing conditioning agents and a blend of silicones and oils to add smoothness and shine to the hair.

After styling, the Post-style serum is designed to help hold and define your style. The formula contains hyaluronic acid and helps protect your hair from dropping out in humid conditions. Dyson claims it offers effective protection in up to 80% humidity, which is no mean feat. Add onto this a blend of amino acids to help improve surface-level hair damage and you’ve got a pretty impressive product on paper.

Now you must be wondering, as we all do with Dyson products, how much they will cost. Full-size, 100ml bottles will set you back a mighty £49 each.

Thankfully, the Chitosan products are packaged up in reusable packaging, which means you can refill your products for £44. That’s still steep, but Dyson’s refillable dosers should ensure you never use too much product. The doser has been rigorously tested to only dispense 0.22ml product in every pump, minimising wastage and supposedly maximising efficacy.

We won’t know for sure how much product you’ll need to use before we test them – I’m almost certain that hair length and thickness will have a huge part to play in dosage. For the sake of argument, though, if one pump is enough to completely cover a head of hair, the 100ml bottle could last you more than 450 applications.

Still, the nagging question remains. If you want the best Dyson Airwrap styling products, will budget-friendly mousses work or should you turn to the makers of the styler itself? Time will tell and we can’t wait to test the Dyson Chitosan formulations later this month.