11 Best Hair Dryers in 2024 Reviewed by Allure Editors

Table Of Content

• Best for Styling: Shark SpeedStyle RapidGloss Finisher & High-Velocity Hair Dryer
• Shark HyperAIR Fast-Drying with IQ 2-in-1 Concentrator
• How to Dye Your Hair at Home (Even Though You Probably Shouldn’t)
• Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer
• How we test and review products
• best hair dryers for every hair type, approved by editors and experts
• How do hair dryer attachments work?

Currently, she is an editor and writer on all things makeup, beauty, skincare, and lifestyle. Michelle graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a B.A. She has bylines at Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie Claire, Allure, The Zoe Report, HelloGiggles, Yahoo, Byrdie, Well+Good, Reviewed, Women’s Health, Runner’s World, The Girlfriend, and more. If you're wondering whether or not the CHI Lava Pro Hair Dryer is worth the price, I'm here to tell you that as long as you can afford it, it definitely is. Despite a few mishaps that are more inconvenient than they are cons, I'm a huge fan of this hot tool and wouldn't expect anything less from CHI.

Best for Styling: Shark SpeedStyle RapidGloss Finisher & High-Velocity Hair Dryer

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. It’s no more effective than our other picks, but if you want the most pleasant hair-drying experience possible, the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer provides that. This dryer has an unusual design that makes it extraordinarily nice to use.

Shark HyperAIR Fast-Drying with IQ 2-in-1 Concentrator

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.

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

Because it provides an excellent experience for the price, we think the Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer is the best choice. Speaking of having time for styling, I’m also a mother of two small children, with hardly any time to take a shower, let alone style my curls. When I blow dry my hair, I find that it's typically at night after the kids are asleep. In theory that sounds great, but it requires me to keep a silent hair dryer on deck, specifically one that won’t wake my littles at the press of a button.

Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer

If you want to add volume, consider using the wide tooth comb attachment, or use the concentrator nozzle attachment to focus on the roots and small sections. To keep your dryer in good condition, don’t forget to clean the filter and wipe away any product residue, like leave-in conditioner or a heat protectant, according to the brand. 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.

Get Chi Hair Care Tools With Prices Starting at $60 at Beauty Brands - CNET

Get Chi Hair Care Tools With Prices Starting at $60 at Beauty Brands.

Posted: Mon, 08 Aug 2022 07:00:00 GMT [source]

How we test and review products

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. However, the dryer doesn’t have separate wind-speed and temperature-control settings (if you want hot air, it must also be fast).

best hair dryers for every hair type, approved by editors and experts

Rather than raising the dryer to your hair, however, you insert sections of your hair into the wand; the device then quickly and gently sucks the damp hair dry. It offers seven suction power levels and three heat settings (high, low, or the no-heat cool shot). Most hair dryers are effective at blowing hot air toward your head—sometimes quite fast—in order to speed along your hairstyling. It’s the small differences between models that can make a big difference overall, particularly with daily use. Barbara Booth is a former editor at Select who has published several guides on self care and beauty products. For this article, Barbara interviewed celebrity hairstylists and salon owners to get expert-recommended tips on best hair dryers and researched dozens of top-rated options on the market to recommend other options to consider.

Despite what magazine lists and advertisements would have you believe, most hair dryers are one-size-fits-all. 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.

It comes with five styling attachments, including a diffuser, styling concentrator, flyaway attachment, gentle air attachment and a wide-tooth comb, which makes it ideal for all hair types, according to the brand. “It prevents heat damage by [self-regulating] direct heat on the hair strands, eliminating frizz and providing high shine, which is crucial when it comes to getting the perfect blowout,” says Foster. In fact, the Supersonic checks the temperature over 40 times a second to prevent damage to your hair, according to the brand.

If you plan on fitting this in your luggage, the dryer also has dual voltage for overseas travel, according to the brand. 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!

Former digital deputy beauty director Sophia Panych agrees about the efficiency. 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. We found the position of the speed and heat buttons on the back of the dryer’s head less than ideal, and the cool-shot button is in an awkward spot at the very top of the handle. If you don’t change speeds and temperature a lot, though, the button locations might be a bonus, as they are hard to hit accidentally. Meanwhile, the cord has a small power bar near the plug, which itself is bulky. 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.