Our Favorite Curling Iron

Getting eight people out the door means the bathroom runs like a relay, and the sliver of time Mom gets for herself usually goes to her hair. The old curling iron left a little red mark on her wrist more than once, took forever to heat, and never quite gave her the curls she was after. Something had to give before someone earned a real burn on a school morning.

We landed on the Dyson Airwrap i.d. Multi-Styler after Mom borrowed a friend’s for a wedding and came home a convert. It wraps hair into curls with a stream of air instead of a scorching barrel, so there’s no metal hot enough to leave a mark, and the same tool dries and smooths too. In a house with one shared outlet by the mirror, a single gadget that replaces a drawer full of hot tools is its own kind of miracle.

It is not cheap, and we thought hard about the drugstore irons we could have grabbed for a fraction of the price. But those get dropped and burned out, and we were replacing them yearly. The Airwrap has held up to daily use and gives Mom bouncy waves without the heat damage her hair used to take, and the no-burn design means she can get ready in a crowded bathroom without worrying about a curling-iron burn. For how often she reaches for it, it earns its spot.