Table Of Content

However, after a few wash-and-go tests, our curly-haired testers found that they liked using the included DevaFuser attachment, a unique hand-shaped diffuser that helps dry curls and waves without losing definition. You can buy a universal-fit version of the DevaFuser for any attachment-compatible hair dryer. At 0.6 pounds, the Gold ’N Hot Ultra-Lightweight Dryer with Tourmaline is the lightest dryer we’ve tested. However, the measured air speed was only 45 mph, and we found the handle thick and awkward to hold. The Bio Ionic 10X Ultralight Speed Dryer is a tad lighter (0.92 pounds) than our top pick and has a slightly longer cord.
Upgrade pick: Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer
All of the dryers took more or less the same amount of time to dry hair. 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. If you can’t or don’t want to leave the house with wet hair, you need a hair dryer.
Limited gift edition Dyson Supersonic hair dryer
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.
How we picked and tested
No dryer will make your hair exceptionally more voluminous and glossy than another. What your hair looks like comes down to technique, products, and, in large part, its natural characteristics. Despite the Supersonic’s flaws, compared with other dryers we’ve tested, this one truly feels like a luxury to use every day. 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.
Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer
The motor sits in the handle of the dryer rather than in the head. The handle is straight and a tad thicker than that of the Rusk W8less, too. Dyson says the motor placement makes the weight of the dryer more balanced, since it’s not top-heavy. The difference isn’t huge, but over weeks of using the Supersonic, we found ourselves appreciating the configuration. If you have trouble holding a typical dryer overhead, the weight distribution of this one might make gripping easier, a reader told us.
One tester, who usually requires two back-to-back appointments with a professional stylist at Drybar, now achieves similar drying and smoothing results with the RevAir in as little as 20 minutes. The RevAir has an exceptionally large footprint compared with most dryers. The entire corded machine weighs about 8 pounds and is the size of a toaster. The hose-attached handheld wand alone weighs more than our heavier dryer picks (around 2 pounds), but we found that this is not terribly problematic because very little motion is required to use it. The Hot Tools Professional Black Gold Turbo Ionic Salon Dryer (DC Motor) is extremely light at only 14 ounces. But it also has the most buttons and slides and switches of any hair dryer we’ve ever tested, including a cool-shot button, a power-boost slide, an ion select wheel, and switches for speed and temp—whew!
Best for thick, dense, or curly/coily/kinky hair
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Whether this sound is more pleasant, as the company claims, is a matter of personal opinion, though. As with any dryer, the sound of whooshing air is physically impossible to eliminate. You get a styling concentrator, a flyaway attachment, and a wide-toothed comb, plus a “gentle” air attachment and a diffuser. Despite what magazine lists and advertisements would have you believe, most hair dryers are one-size-fits-all.
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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. The RevAir is unlike any other hair-drying, heat-styling tool we’ve tested. For people with Type 3 or 4 curl patterns especially, this vacuum-like device is gentle on fragile strands and can cut down total drying time significantly.
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. It weighs less than a pound, it has an 8-foot cord (one of the longest we found), it’s notably comfortable to hold, and overall it has the best combination of features we deem important.

Although the Dyson dryer’s feel and attachments are improvements over those of our other picks, we also found features we didn’t like and a few that we were neutral on. The Dyson Supersonic is currently available at Ulta in white and at Bluemercury in fuchsia. It comes with five magnetic styling attachments for all hair types. Its newest attachment hides flyaways in a single pass for smooth hair. At 1.3 pounds, it’s noticeably heavier to hold than the W8less, especially after several minutes of drying. Unlike on other dryers, the cool-shot button is wide, so holding it down for several seconds isn’t uncomfortable.
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]
Among the models we tested, it tied for blowing the hottest and fastest air. If you have curly hair and prefer using a diffuser to dry it, you have to buy one separately (though it’s best to buy a hair dryer that comes with one). After putting in over 20 hours of research and spending over 70 hours testing 42 hair dryers, we’ve found that some are far more pleasant to hold and use than others. Because it provides an excellent experience for the price, we think the Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer is the best choice. Although the 1,875-watt Revlon Compact Styler is a wallet saver at around $10, the savings do not make up for the dryer’s added heft, its lack of attachments, and its reduced wind speeds compared with those of our picks.
"It's weighted appropriately so it relieves hand and arm fatigue. Lastly, it works so well on curly hair. It's been a game changer for me," the reviewer adds. 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. Shark has released another hair dryer called the SpeedStyle, as well as a new hair tool, the SmoothStyle (which resembles the Revlon One-Step).
She tested countless health and wellness products from 2016 to 2018. 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.