Tuesday, April 30, 2024

11 Best Hair Dryers of 2024, Tested by Experts

hair dryer near me

In addition to being incredibly lightweight, the blow dryer has some pretty unique settings. First, it has a turbo ionic option that helps speed up drying time. Despite having two settings (hot and cool), we wanted more heat settings, especially a medium option, for a more customizable drying experience.

Conair Hair Dryer

The 6-foot cord, though shorter than those on our other picks, is longer than those on most other inexpensive hair dryers. The buttons are easy to use, but the cool-shot button is a little small and harder to hold down than the cool-shot button on our top pick. This compact blow dryer has all the power and functionality of a full-sized one. We found it intuitive to use and all of the buttons are where they should be, making it easy to push and move between different speeds and heat, even with the smaller design.

About Cosmo Prof®

“A higher wattage hair dryer will typically be more powerful and dry your hair faster,” explains Uehara. For most people who don’t have textured hair, 1800 to 2000 watts “will suffice,” she says. Put to use on our very thick, long, wavy hair (which historically takes forever to dry), the Harry Josh Ultra Light Pro Dryer proved its prowess as the best professional-grade tool in its class. This mint-green, French-made dryer weighs in at under a pound, yet produces a powerful airstream that goes virtually unheard, thanks to its patented silencer that drops the noise volume considerably.

Best Hair Dryer for Frizzy Hair

"The blow dryer did a great job of drying my hair — it took about 7 minutes to style a third of my hair, which is extremely fast considering how thick my hair is," shares Senior Commerce Editor, Shannon Bauer. "The heat settings are great and the hottest option can get really hot. The high was powerful enough for a rough dry and some oomph, while the low setting provided just enough airflow to effectively style my hair." The high speed with low heat dried our hair fast — in four and a half minutes to be exact, without any attachments. After drying, we used the concentrator, which smoothed out our hair nicely and reduced the look of frizz. Despite loving the blow dryer's sturdy, compact body and easy-to-use attachments, we were less impressed with the cool setting — it more so felt like we were out on a windy day.

How to Dye Your Hair at Home (Even Though You Probably Shouldn’t)

April (she/her) is the beauty director at Good Housekeeping, Prevention and Woman's Day, where she oversees all beauty content. She has over 15 years of experience under her belt, starting her career as an assistant beauty editor at GH in 2007, and working in the beauty departments of SELF and Fitness magazines.

hair dryer near me

Budget pick: InfinitiPro by Conair 1875-Watt Salon Performance AC Motor Styling Tool

This is a particularly good hair dryer for those who want something that doesn't sound like a jet engine taking off in your bathroom. According to Dyson, the Supersonic measures 79 decibels on average and emits less noise than the average hair dryer. Sabina (she/her) is the director of the Beauty, Health & Sustainability Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute, where she has overseen skincare, haircare and makeup testing since 2012. She also reviews applications, substantiates claims and evaluates products for the GH Seal and the Beauty Awards and Sustainability Awards programs.

11 Best Hair Dryers for Perfect Blowouts TIME Stamped - TIME

11 Best Hair Dryers for Perfect Blowouts TIME Stamped.

Posted: Mon, 16 Oct 2023 19:03:17 GMT [source]

Similar to the noted downside of our budget pick, which is also from Conair, the button placement on this higher-end model caused a bit of a pause for us. Located on the side of the device and positioned close together, the buttons are sensitive and we found it became too easy to switch settings accidentally. It’s lightweight and easy enough to grab, but if you happen to handle it the wrong way, you'll likely interfere with any saved settings. Plus, the handle is designed for those who are right-handed, making it more difficult to use for left-handed people. It works on different hair textures, too; we found that when tested on our thick, straight hair, it was whipped into frizz-free shape in under 10 minutes, whereas ordinarily it would require a 20-minute session to take our hair from wet to dry. When we used it with the accompanying concentrator on coarse, kinky hair, the dryer cut drying time down to under 20 minutes, which was a pleasant surprise for us, given that our hair would normally require a full 12 hours to air-dry.

Olivia Garden Ceramic + Ion Professional Hair Dryer

Of the Dyson Supersonic lookalikes, the Karrong F350 seemed the most promising to us, but it ended up being half as fast, with no way to control speed separately from temperature—the hotter it got, the faster it got. We took basic stats on our dryers, using a weather meter to test the speed and heat and a postage scale to weigh them. Often our own readings disagreed with the manufacturer-stated specs.

Fast and light

Before blow-drying, "always prep hair with a leave-in styling product that provides heat protection," Alvarez suggests. Many hair dryers also tout special technologies like ceramic, tourmaline or far-infrared radiation on product packaging, but these aren't necessary for an effective, quality tool, GH Beauty Lab testing has found. While there is general research on these technologies, little data is available on their benefits in the context of hair dryer design. Each of the top-tested hair dryers in the GH Beauty Lab's most recent test has a cold-shot button, which can help to close the hair's cuticle and lock in the style, preventing frizz once you're finished drying.

We didn't love the design of the buttons; the temperature settings, for example, required two hands to adjust, and the lock button on the handle was located too close to the on switch. Sleekly designed with just two easy-to-use buttons, including an on/off button that slides up and down, and a second button for toggling between settings, the Instagrammably pretty tool has enough grip to hold it comfortably. Plus, it’s compact enough to store or travel without added hassle, and the accompanying storage bag and stand prove useful both at home and on the road. Our fine hair tends to get frizzy, but this hair dryer tamped down on our flyaways while amping up our much-needed volume. The tool was also easiest to maneuver and comfortable to hold, though it was heavier than other models and more effort was required for proper placement and removal of the attachment.

Hotel hair dryers can be iffy, though, so if you blow dry your hair often, a travel-sized option may be worth looking into. Unless you've got superhuman strength, holding a blow dryer above your head for minutes on end is tiring. No matter how strong your arms are, the Instyler Blu Turbo Ionic Hair Dryer feels lightweight in your hands and makes blow drying the top of your head a painless process. Hair dryer options are seemingly endless with features that seem more fussy than functional. And because any hot styling tool like a hair dryer will damage hair to some degree, it's also crucial to protect strands from the effects of heat.

When tested on long, thick and curly hair, we found the Halo offered a 54-minute blowout that left it looking smooth, straight and less frizzy when compared to our blowout pre-Halo. Although there are only three heat settings — low, medium, and high — it really felt like there was a difference between each level, while still putting out a consistent stream of air. We mostly stayed with the medium setting because the highest option was so hot that it was uncomfortable at times.

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