How great would it be if you could straighten your hair every day and not worry about heat damage? Well, now you can with the newest kind of hair tool on the market: the air straightener.
Combining the styling prowess of the best hair straighteners with the power of the best hair dryers, 2-in-1 air straighteners allow you to simultaneously dry, straighten and style with air so you can save time and reduce heat damage to hair – which probably helps to explain why Google searches for ‘wet to dry straighteners’ surged by 189% in the past year.
However, if there’s one downside to air straighteners it’s their hefty price tags, with tools like the Dyson Airstrait and the ghd Duet Style Hot Air Styler costing £449.99 and £379 respectively. So, what’s the solution for beauty fans on a budget? Step forward the Revlon One-Step Air Straight, which retails at the bargain price of £69.99. But how does it stack up against its pricier competitors? Read on to find out.
REVLON ONE-STEP AIR STRAIGHT REVIEW: PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
The Revlon One-Step Air Straight is now available to buy in the UK for a recommended retail price of £69.99 from selected third party retailers, including Boots, Argos, and Amazon.
REVLON ONE-STEP AIR STRAIGHT REVIEW: UNBOXING AND DESIGN
Launched in the UK in August 2024, the One-Step Air Straight is the latest hair tool to join Revlon’s affordable and award-winning family of One-Step products, including the new One-Step Blow-Dry Multi Air Styler 5-in-1 and the TikTok viral sensation One-Stop Volumiser.
Inside the sturdy cardboard packaging, you’ll find the One-Step Air Straight tool, a heat proof glove and two instruction manuals. The most noticeable thing about the One-Step Air Straight is its size. Like, it’s really big. I had to get my tape measure out to find out its dimensions and I estimate that it is 38cm long with a 2.5m swivel cord.
The overall shape is a bit like an hourglass, with a chunky base to house the motor and straightening plates at the top measuring 5cm wide x 12cm long. However, the tool curves inwards at the centre to form an ergonomic handle that’s comfortable to grip. Weighing in at 0.9kg, it isn’t exactly lightweight, and it’s also a bit bottom heavy, so you do need to exert a bit of effort and control when handling it.
The ceramic tourmaline plates aren’t flat like regular straightening plates. One plate looks like a mini hairbrush with lots of solid teeth infused with Argan oil to get straighter results and enhanced shine. The other plate dips inwards to accommodate the teeth and features 28 ‘unique’ air vents to distribute a 90°C concentrated airflow for a more even drying and straightening experience that maintains 100% of the hair’s natural moisture to reduce damage.
REVLON ONE-STEP AIR STRAIGHT REVIEW: FEATURES
Recommended for fine to medium hair textures, the One-Step Air Straight boasts six customisable heat and airspeed settings to suit your hair’s needs. You’ll find all these settings at the bottom of the base along with an ‘off’ setting and a handy ‘lock’ setting to fix the plates together for storage and travel.
To lock the tool or select your chosen setting, you must rotate the bottom of the base to the coordinating icon you want, which is a great feature because there are zero buttons to accidently knock whilst you’re styling your hair.
In total, there are four ‘damp hair’ settings (Cool Air, Low Air, Medium Air and High Air) which dry and straighten using just air, plus two ‘dry hair’ settings to be used only when your hair is 100% dry. When the dry hair settings are activated, the plates heat up to 200°C and you can use either a combination of hot air and the heated plates to refresh your look or use the heated plates alone to boost shine.
The One-Step Air Straight also boasts AirPause technology, which Revlon describes as ‘revolutionary’. In short, the air flow begins to blow when you press the handles together and stops when you release them. This means you can control the airflow with a simple squeeze, which eliminates the need to switch the device on and off every time you pick it up or put it down to separate a new section of hair, and this feature does make drying faster and more convenient.
REVLON ONE-STEP AIR STRAIGHT REVIEW: PERFORMANCE
Revlon says your hair should be 75-80% dry when using the One-Step Air Straight, which is important to point out. Does that make the tool a ‘wet to dry’ styler? I’m not sure. But with that knowledge in mind, I let my long thick hair air dry for a few hours before combing it through and putting it into sections.
Revlon suggests you clamp the plates at the root of a section, twist your wrist 90 degrees, and then pull the tool down to slowly glide it towards your ends. I got to work using this technique on the highest air setting as my hair usually needs a stronger touch, and it’s fair to say that a slow and steady technique wins the race (especially at the roots to get them dry). But that’s not to say the process is slow.
The Air Straight can handle fairly big sections of hair and, overall, it’s far easier, quicker and less stressful to use compared to blow drying your hair with a hair dryer and round brush. After doing four or five passes on each section, my hair was sleek and straight with volume at the roots, and you can also build body and movement into the hair by rotating your wrist more when styling the lengths.
I finished my look by switching to one of the dry hair settings, although I preferred using the heated plates without the added airflow as the air can blow your hair around a bit. The outer edges of the plates have a nice rounded shape that can be used at this stage to create lovely waves through the hair with one pass.
Ultimately, I was impressed with how glossy and healthy my hair looked and felt by the end of the styling process, and the results were certainly much easier and quicker to achieve compared to using a hair dryer and round brush to blow dry my hair.
Given its very reasonable price point, I wasn’t surprised to experience a few niggles with the One-Step Air Straight. The Cool Air setting on my device wasn’t cool at all, and my hair would occasionally get tangled in the teeth. It’s also quite big and heavy to handle, which I have to say I didn’t mind (I found it quite comfy to grip, to be honest), but I think more petite people could struggle with it a bit.
Finally, I do have a gripe with the AirPause technology. One the plus side, it makes styling super easy because the air flow simply stops when you release the handles, meaning you don’t have to faff around with reaching for a button when you need to put the tool down to get your next hair section. On the downside, I found the noise from the stopping and starting of the airflow to be annoying, especially given that the airflow is pretty loud. But that could just be a personal thing, and it’s not enough to knock a point off when the excellent styling results are so quick and easy to achieve.
REVLON ONE-STEP AIR STRAIGHT REVIEW: VERDICT
The Revlon One-Step Air Straight is a highly affordable 2-in-1 hair tool that dries, straightens and styles your hair in one go to make styling quick and easy without the use multiple devices.
Best of all, it evenly distributes a 90°C concentrated airflow to dry and style hair simultaneously without the use of extreme heat. It’s not perfect, but it delivers excellent styling results for the price and leaves hair looking and feeling healthier and less frazzled.
