Dyson's hairstyling gadgets have been among some of the most popular around, and one of the most intriguing is the Airwrap. It's a curler that can double as a straightener, and you may even have seen one of the mesmerizing GIFs where strands of hair attach themselves to the rod, as if by magic. The Airwrap Complete, which came with all six attachments, as well as cases and accessories, cost $550. Today, Dyson announced that a new version is coming this summer. It'll work faster and come with a slew of new attachments to make styling your hair easier. 

As a refresher, the Airwrap uses a high-pressure motor to power the "Coandă effect," which gently pulls hair (and air) towards its surface. Dyson said that since launching the original Airwrap in 2018, its engineers challenged themselves to "miniaturize and multiply the Coandă effect" to make the device more versatile. 

In addition to the performance improvements, the company also designed new attachments, and the most intriguing one, especially for those familiar with the previous Airwrap, are new styling barrels that can curl hair clockwise and anti-clockwise. Before, you would have had to check the arrows on the barrel to make sure you have the right direction set up, and if you wanted to change it up mid-style, you'd need to switch out the attachments. With the new attachment, you'd just have to toggle a switch at the top of the rotating cool tip.

The barrels come in 30mm, 40mm, 30mm long, 40mm long and 20mm long for various curl sizes. There's also a new smoothing dryer that, as its name suggests, can both smooth and dry your hair. Dyson also added firm and soft brush attachments, available in large and small, for those who prefer a straight finish. 

Importantly, Dyson said owners of existing Airwraps can "upgrade to these latest attachments, whilst retaining the original machine." And like the previous version, the new Airwrap can also work on damp hair (that's 80 percent dry) and can style your locks without extreme heat.

While pricing is not available at the moment, Dyson's products tend to cost around $500. Like I said, the previous Airwrap with all its attachments cost $549, while the Corrale straightener will set you back $500. The Supersonic hairdryer, meanwhile, is $400. Still, though the company's hairstyling gadgets have been more expensive than most, they've also generally been well-received and can last a long time. 

Pinterest has launched a new search feature that could make it easier for Black, Brown, Indigenous, Latinx and other POC users to find hair inspiration that would suit their hair types. The visual discovery website has introduced hair pattern search, it said, with BIPOC users in mind. This new feature uses computer vision-powered object detection to enable users to refine their searches by six different hair patterns: protective, coily, curly, wavy, straight and shaved/bald.

Now, after users search for broader terms like "summer hairstyles," "glam hair" or "short hair," they'll find new hair pattern buttons that will narrow down the results. The feature is now live in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand on desktop, as well as on iOS and Android. It will roll out to more locations over the coming months.

Yes, there are different types of curls, not to mention different hair textures and porosities, and Pinterest said its technology detected hair patterns in over 500 million images on its platform. Being able to refine results could help POC users find styling inspiration more easily instead of having to wade through pages and pages of hair images that wouldn't work for their hair types. That said, it remains to be seen how accurate the feature is and if it's truly effective in sifting through images on the website.

According to the company, this feature builds on its first inclusive product that allows users to search for images based on the subjects' skin tones. It worked with BIPOC creators and popular Pinners like Naeemah LaFond to design the product.

Pinterest's Head of Inclusive Product Annie Ta said in a statement: 

"Our mission on the Inclusive Product team is to help everyone feel like Pinterest is a place for them. As a visual discovery platform, we have an opportunity and responsibility to do a better job of increasing representation in the products we build. That's why we built hair pattern search using computer vision technology to help identify hair patterns in images. By doing this, we hope we're able to use technology for good and make it easier for people, no matter who they are, to find hair inspiration for them on Pinterest."

Pinterest