The CHI Lava Pro Hair Dryer: Our Review

Table Of Content

• best hair dryers for every hair type, approved by editors and experts
• Best for thick, dense, or curly/coily/kinky hair
• How we test and review products
• The Lightweight Rusk W8less Beats All the Pricey Hair Dryers I’ve Tried. And It’s Under $100.
• Budget pick: InfinitiPro by Conair 1875-Watt Salon Performance AC Motor Styling Tool

It also has a stowaway folding handle and comes with a bag for your packing needs. Although it comes with a concentrator to focus on specific areas while blow drying, you can also use a diffuser, which is available separately. This T3 AirLuxe comes recommended by Foster because it’s great for all hair types and has a compact, sleek design. There’s a Volume Boost button that adds volume and texture, and inside the T3 is a smart microchip that digitally controls 15 heat and speed combinations. It comes with a paddle brush, a round brush, a drying concentrator that provides a wide airflow to help your hair dry faster, and a styling concentrator to focus air on one section at a time. If you want a diffuser or smoothing comb, you’ll need to purchase it separately.

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

CHI Is Recalling All Lava Hair Dryers Immediately - Refinery29

CHI Is Recalling All Lava Hair Dryers Immediately.

Posted: Wed, 15 May 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Speed and heat are the only features that matter for drying your hair efficiently, and with a 55 mph airflow that exceeds 245 °F, the Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer is one of the fastest and hottest dryers we tested. 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. The W8less comes with a concentrator, which is helpful for straightening hair, but it does not come with a diffuser. As someone with long, thick, curly hair, I appreciate how lightweight this hair dryer is. At just over half a pound, it's definitely one of the best travel hair dryers, not to mention, it boasts a round, super slim design that takes up no more space than a bottle of hairspray.

Best for thick, dense, or curly/coily/kinky hair

You get a styling concentrator, a flyaway attachment, and a wide-toothed comb, plus a “gentle” air attachment and a diffuser. 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). I like the direct shot of air it gives my hair, and find that one section of hair dries in less than five minutes, which is significantly less than other hair dryers I've used. There's no denying the construction of this hair dryer, but before we delve into that, it's worth noting how impressive the packaging is.

How we test and review products

This Conair tool is a favorite of Foster’s because of its powerful ion generator that reduces frizz. This model has a 1.5-inch titanium ceramic-coated barrel that distributes heat evenly, and its ionic technology ensures a no-frizz blowout, according to the brand. At an impressive 11 feet long, the currently unavailable CHI Touch 2 Dryer’s cord is the longest of any dryer we’ve tested, but this dryer is more expensive and much slower than the Rusk W8less.

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.

As with any dryer, the sound of whooshing air is physically impossible to eliminate. All of the dryers took more or less the same amount of time to dry hair. A CHI Lava Pro Hair Dryer review wouldn't be complete without declaring my dedication to CHI as a brand.

selectStop using heat on your hair without this crucial product.

The Revlon One-Step is also great even for those with thick and curly hair, she says. 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. 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.

Drybar Baby Buttercup Travel Blow-Dryer

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. It also comes with five magnetic attachments, including a diffuser, all of which are exceptionally easy to add or remove mid-blowout.

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

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. This dryer helped keep my frizz at bay, dried my hair quickly, and travels like a dream. Though it's a professional model, its magnetic attachments and various heat and speed settings are foolproof to use at home, as is the slim, non-bulky design that gives seamless control. All in all, if you're looking for a solid blow dryer that's as durable as it is powerful, this is one to be on the lookout for.

Most of these “features” are useless at best and pseudoscience at worst. Among the models we tested, it tied for blowing the hottest and fastest air. It's sleek, slim, and the signature black and red is a nice reminder that it's a CHI product. I'm a huge fan of how polished the buttons are – they're not clunky, made of different colors, or ill-placed to where you'd accidentally push them. Rather, they're intentionally discreet and have a bit of a texture, which makes for an easy grip and a seamless push. You might be searching for a face cream to address persistent dryness or a new nail product to add to your Sunday self-care routine; you may simply be browsing around for the latest launches to hit the hair market.

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 InfinitiPro SmoothWrap Hair Dryer is slower and has a shorter cord than all of our picks. However, it is lightweight (a pound), and it reaches temperatures above 245 °F. Shark has released another hair dryer called the SpeedStyle, as well as a new hair tool, the SmoothStyle (which resembles the Revlon One-Step).

Below, we rounded up expert-recommended hair dryers, as well as ones we have tried ourselves and highly rated options that align with our experts’ guidance. 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 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. The Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer offers all the features you need in a hair dryer while costing a fraction of the price of a luxury model. The W8less is one of the lightest, fastest, and hottest dryers we’ve tried (1 pound, 55 mph, and over 245 °F, respectively). Those are the only features that matter for drying your hair efficiently. Our editors are constantly trying out new products and speaking to experts to determine the best of all things beauty, and hair dryers are among the most tested.