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Shopping For A High-End Hair Dryer But Not Sure How To Separate The Okay From The Amazing?
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Find out what essential things any quality hair dryer needs to have, plus our top 3 picks ranked.
Your hair is important. It can be the finishing touch to a great look, a way to reinvent yourself, part of your identity. There’s a reason we get excited over good hair days.
But depending on our hair, keeping it looking incredible can be an expensive– and exhaustive– endeavor. Between the hours spent in front of a mirror, making each wave, curl, and swoop perfectly coiffed, or the hundreds of dollars spent on tools, creams, sprays, anti-frizzers, deep-hydrators, gels, waxes, and everything in between, our hair can take a real beating.
Many of us decide to just toss our hair in a bun and be done with it, or even to just give it a break because if we straighten, dry, or even run a brush through it one more time…
It’s no secret that the intense heat from hair dryers can wreak havoc on your delicate strands. Split ends, straw-like texture, and even burning are common with consistent hot tool use. It can be frustrating having to choose between having the look you want and sacrificing your hair health, and the fight between these two desires ends up in a vicious cycle of over-styling and hating what you see in the mirror.
The last thing you, or your hair, needs is rough treatment– which brings us to the latest developments in hair dryer technology.
One of the best new things to hit the beauty world in the last few years came in the form of infrared light, or red light as it’s also known.
The miracle of red light is its ability to heat your hair from the inside out, saving it from aggressive, and often texture-changing heat damage. It helps eliminate the need for an extensive regimen of anti-damage creams and serums, which can cause their own troubles like buildup or layering chemicals onto your hair.
Couple this powerful attribute with commonly seen ceramic tools, you’ve got a match made in hair heaven.
Ceramic is a wonderful way to treat your hair to negative ions. Negative ions help negate the static in your hair and have been shown to help smooth the outer layers of your hair to help it feel smoother and retain its essential moisture.
The best part? It dries your hair faster. Negative ions help the water on your hair post-shower evaporate quicker, meaning you can spend less time standing underneath blasts of hot air and more time running your fingers through silky soft strands.
Standing under intense heat is one thing, but holding up a heavy dryer is another battle entirely. When shopping for your next hair dryer, make sure the model you choose is lightweight and not frustrating to handle.
While this is an uncommon thing to list in most articles of this kind, we consider it to be absolutely essential for something most of us use every single day.
We’ve all been there: early morning, still sleepy as we drag ourselves in front of our mirrors. We thought we skipped the gym today, but no. Unfortunately for too many of us, our dryers demand we put in at least 20 minutes of arm workouts.
Getting ready should be an uplifting, self-empowering experience, not something that gives you a healthy dose of angst first thing in the morning. It should be a process where you’re able to focus on getting the result you want without breaking a sweat.
Thankfully, many product designers are taking this into account and putting the days of ‘beauty is pain’ firmly in the past and focusing instead on making tools that are easy, if not enjoyable to use.
So to recap, the three most important things to look for in a hair dryer are–
- Infrared light to reduce the amount of direct heat damage to your hair
- Negative ion technology to help dry hair fast and hold onto moisture
- A lightweight design that makes it both enjoyable and easy to use
With these considerations in mind, we’ve picked our 3 favorite hair dryers that we felt delivered not only the best experience for the user but took the health of your hair into consideration.
Developed with both infrared light and negative ion technology, its ceramic-tourmaline air vent and extremely helpful cool shot button helps your hair look and feels its best while helping to improve its health
Our number # 1 Top Pick: SRI Salon Dry Pro
The SRI Salon Dry Pro was the only hair dryer we tested that checked every box, so we thought it deserved the top spot. It uses red light and negative ion technology, plus its lightweight design is sure to give you a sigh of relief. It achieves the perfect balance of affordability and professional quality, with multiple heat settings plus a cool shot button, which is always a plus.
The SRI Salon Dry Pro retails at $199, making it the least expensive pick on our list, but as an added bonus SRI usually runs a First Time Customer Discount on their website for joining their email list.
- Has a wide range of temperature settings making it safe for all hair types
- Cool shot button
- Ceramic-tourmaline air outlet evenly distributes heat
- Negative ion technology
- Infrared light technology
- Lightweight design
- Only available online
The Supersonic Dyson Hair Dryer has a super-quiet motor that’s located in the handle instead of the head, giving it a more lightweight feel. With its patented Air Multiplier technology, it measures the air temperature 20 times every second to prevent overheating
The Dyson Supersonic hair dryer is hands down the lightest hair dryers on the market, plus it has Air Multiplier Technology and doesn’t use extreme heat which is why it made our list. In recent years, Dyson has been becoming a household name. Because of their reputation, the Dyson Supersonic comes with a hefty price tag. If you’re comfortable spending money on a quality item that will last you, the Dyson Supersonic is a solid choice.
- Sleek, aerodynamic design
- Lightest of all the dryers we tested
- Air Multiplier Technology to avoid heat damage
- Price. At nearly $400, this product is well above the price point of most other dryers on the market
Made in France, this eco-friendly pick is great for going green while still being designed for faster drying times with some of the lowest noise levels on the market.
Another extremely lightweight design that comes in a unique and refreshing mint green. We loved its speed and efficiency but found some user issues with the heat settings. At this price point, we feel that it’s a solid contender but still only enough to come third in our top picks.
- Lightweight design
- The most eco-friendly of all the dryers tested
- Multiple speed and heat settings for a wide range of hair types and styles
- The high price point
- Imitation products flooding the market
