Table Of Content
- Upgrade pick: RevAir
- GHD Air – Design and features
- What about the Revlon One-Step and other hair dryer brushes?
- Fast and light
- The Lightweight Rusk W8less Beats All the Pricey Hair Dryers I’ve Tried. And It’s Under $100.
- How we picked and tested
- Budget pick: InfinitiPro by Conair 1875-Watt Salon Performance AC Motor Styling Tool
She tested countless health and wellness products from 2016 to 2018.
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Upgrade pick: RevAir
The Revlon 1875-Watt Infrared Hair Dryer produced a wind speed of 45 mph (measured directly in front of the nozzle), slower than the speed we got from our picks. It weighs just over a pound, has a cord measuring 5.5 feet, and comes with a concentrator and a diffuser. But the mediocre specs, along with the gimmicky red lights that flash while you’re blow-drying, kept this dryer from being a pick, even though it was a particularly inexpensive model at the time of our tests. The Hot Tools Professional Black Gold Turbo Ionic Salon Dryer (DC Motor) is extremely light at only 14 ounces.
GHD Air – Design and features
The retro-looking Conair Pro Yellow Bird Hair Dryer is one of the hottest dryers we’ve tested (reaching over 245 °F). But at a pound and a half, it also ties for the heaviest dryer we’ve looked at. Its buttons are strangely placed and unlabeled, and it doesn’t have a cool shot. It used to be our favorite dryer that came with a straightening pick, but we now prefer the Pattern Blow Dryer.
What about the Revlon One-Step and other hair dryer brushes?
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16 Best Hair Straighteners We've Tested ( : Flat Irons, Hot Combs, and Straightening Brushes.
Posted: Fri, 19 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
That means that during testing, it was one of the models to pick up the least scuffs on its outer casing. Customer reviews of the 1,900-watt Parlux 3200 Hair Dryer were pretty good at the time of our research, and the compact design of this model is nice. But the buttons are positioned on the side, and they made the dryer hard for us to hold without getting poked in the hand. The Conair 1875-Watt 3-in-1 Ionic Styler has a long row of grills (and a brush attachment) instead of a circular nozzle. It gives you no way to attach a diffuser, which means you’re stuck with a single-purpose dryer. At 1.3 pounds, it’s noticeably heavier to hold than the W8less, especially after several minutes of drying.
The gorgeous GHD Helios 1875W Advanced Professional Hair Dryer is heavier and slower than our pick, the Rusk W8less—and three times the price. However, at over 9.5 feet, its cord ties with that of the Amika Accomplice for the second-longest cord of any hair dryer we’ve tested, and this dryer is especially beautiful. We also tried the Hot Tools One-Step Detachable Straight Dry Paddle Dryer and the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Styler, both of which were clunkier, heavier, and slower to dry hair than the Conair. Their designs also made it difficult for us to directly reach hair roots compared with the other paddle-style hair dryer brushes we tested.
Fast and light
It also comes with five magnetic attachments, including a diffuser, all of which are exceptionally easy to add or remove mid-blowout. If you don’t care about weight, consider the InfinitiPro by Conair 1875-Watt Salon Performance AC Motor Styling Tool. Commonly found in drugstores, this dryer produces airflow that’s faster (65 mph) than that of our top pick and almost as hot (205 °F). At 1.3 pounds, however, it may feel heavy after you spend a couple of minutes holding it above your head. 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.
If you’re willing to splurge on a dryer, you might consider the Dyson Supersonic. It has consistently been our favorite to use since we first tested it in 2016. The motor sits in the handle, making the nozzle shorter and easier to maneuver. The handle doesn’t vibrate at all, which wasn’t true of other “luxury” models we tested. It has a long, 9-foot cord, and it’s less grating noise-wise than other dryers.
How we picked and tested
Often our own readings disagreed with the manufacturer-stated specs. If you can’t or don’t want to leave the house with wet hair, you need a hair dryer. The GHD Air is a stylish, fast-drying hairdryer that is also able to do more precision styling well too. It’s at the pricier end of the spectrum, but once again, shows exactly where the extra budget is going in its build and performance.
Budget pick: InfinitiPro by Conair 1875-Watt Salon Performance AC Motor Styling Tool
Dyson in 2023 introduced a pared-down package, the Supersonic Origin, which includes only the dryer and a concentrator attachment. It’s a little noisy, chalking up 103dB on its highest setting, but it doesn’t have a high-pitched edge to its motor sound so the GHD Air’s sound isn’t too annoying. The cable measures in at 2.8m, so plenty long enough for most situations, and it comes with one wide styling nozzle – a diffuser is available separately should you require one (£15). Two see-saw controls (three heat options, two speeds) are placed on the back of the handle, making them equally accessible for left- and right-handed users.
Conair covers the InfinitiPro with an impressive four-year warranty (PDF). The Hot Tools Pro Artist White Gold Digital Salon Dryer, the Panasonic Nanoe EH-NA65, and the Panasonic Nanoe EH-NA67 were all slower, heavier, and more expensive than the Rusk W8less. The InfinitiPro typically comes with a concentrator and a diffuser. Although these pieces snap onto the nozzle, they look as if they might screw on, which can be confusing at first. The majority of the body is a matte black plastic, which makes it really easy to hold, but there are metallic accents to help give it a bit of flair too. Even the filter on the back has been paid attention to and looks lovely.
However, it is lightweight (a pound), and it reaches temperatures above 245 °F. For the initial iteration of this guide, we timed the models drying a swatch of hair from a wig wetted with 5 grams of water, with the dryers on their highest setting. Shannon Palus reviewed hair dryers for Wirecutter from 2015 to 2017. The hairdryer also has small, almost unnoticeable, rubber bumpers near the logo on both sides, so you don’t lay it flat and cause scratches to the body.
Because it provides an excellent experience for the price, we think the Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer is the best choice. Its 2100w motor is capable of 22.3m/s at its highest and hottest setting, which dried our test cloth out within 1 minute 30, the fastest we’ve tested yet. Compared with the Rusk W8less, the Amika Accomplice Compact Dryer (currently unavailable) is heavier, limited to a lower max temperature (215 °F), and double the price. However, its 9.5-foot cord ties with that of the GHD Helios for the second-longest cord among the dryers we’ve tried. Despite the Supersonic’s flaws, compared with other dryers we’ve tested, this one truly feels like a luxury to use every day. One tester found that the heavier cord tired out her arms when she was drying the top of her head, though resting the power bar (which most dryers do not have) on the counter helped.
The packaging for hair dryers is adorned with a ton of buzzwords and specs. Most of these “features” are useless at best and pseudoscience at worst. Overall, results with the GHD Air were very good indeed, and I could get a good, sleek blow-dry without much fuss. The cool shot button is pretty effective, though we’d argue it doesn’t go as cool as quickly as on some dryers. The Remington Damage Protection Hair Dryer D3190 comes with a diffuser and a concentrator, but it’s bulkier and heavier than other models we tested. The Conair InfinitiPro SmoothWrap Hair Dryer is slower and has a shorter cord than all of our picks.
However, they have been recessed so they sit flat to the handle when in the neutral position. It’s a very neat way of doing things, but doesn’t always make them the easiest to press down. I say entry level, but this hairdryer costs £99 – that still makes it a hell of a lot cheaper than the £300 Dyson Supersonic and on a par with the higher-end competition. Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).