The Very Best Hair Dryers, According To Months Of Extensive Testing
The best hair dryers work quickly without damaging hair, leaving it smoother, shinier and more voluminous than air drying ever could. They’re quiet enough to still hear your favorite podcast while in use, and they’re light enough that they don’t tire out your arms. After testing for these factors, as well as temperature, speed settings and ease of use, I found the T3 AireLuxe to be the best overall for its higher-than-average number of settings and simple but effective design. The BaBylissPro Nano Titanium Hair Dryer is my top value pick because of its excellent performance and quality at a solid price point.
I tested 10 best-selling models and interviewed professional stylists to find the best hair dryers … [+]
These are the top hair dryers according to my testing:
To find the winners, I tested 10 best-selling models and interviewed three professional stylists. Once I landed on my three favorites, I had expert hairstylist, Lola Doward of The Lola Look, test each one to expand on my findings. I continued to use these three models over the course of nine months to make sure they could stand up to everyday wear and tear—like getting tossed in the bathroom cabinet, packed in a suitcase or accidentally dropped. Below, read more about my experience with the best blow dryers, along with a detailed description of my testing process. (You can also check out my in-depth reviews of the T3 and BaBylissPro models.)
Lightweight, quiet, durable and attractive enough to leave out on display, the T3 Airluxe is my pick for the best hair dryer overall. It has features that rival those of models costing significantly ($100-plus) more, and it bests them in functionality. This blow dryer has the highest number of temperature settings—five versus the typical three so that you can fine-tune it to your hair’s texture—and its two included concentrator nozzles come with the clearest how-to instructions I’ve ever seen. (A diffuser and styling comb can be purchased separately.) All of this makes it supremely easy to achieve smooth, shiny hair.
Professional Technology
The T3 Airluxe has the technology that truly counts, according to the pros: It disperses negative ions for smoothness and a ceramic coating to spread heat evenly across hair. Per Becca Raziuddin, director of artist education for Blo Blow Dry Bar and stylist Quia Querisma, this T3 model is “a professional hairdryer for half the cost.” I found that assessment to be true in my experience. After using this model, my hair looked as if I’d just gotten it cut. It looked finished and polished, thanks to the nice bend I was able to get at the ends using the concentrator.
Our pick for best hair dryer overall, the T3 Aireluxe is lightweight, quiet, durable and attractive … [+]
Ultra-Light And Easy To Control
The T3 blow dryer feels manageable because it’s so accommodating to use and works so quickly. It gives me sleek, smooth, reliable results that last for at least 2 days. Doward also notes that it’s lightweight (at 17.01 ounces, it’s just over a pound—not the lightest we tested, but lighter than the majority, which ranges from 1.5 pounds to just over 2 pounds) and leaves hair smooth, saying its slimmer nozzle gives the user great control. I found the volume boost and cool shot to be effective and ergonomic to use, and I liked the handy Velcro cord keeper for neatly bundling the dryer in my cabinet. Other practical benefits include great durability (it passed my drop test without losing its filter cover or getting scratched) and up to three years of warranty coverage.
Sleek, Luxurious Look
The matte black and chrome or white and rose gold finishes make it feel like a luxury to use. It still looks pristine and beautiful sitting in my bathroom, even though it has been kicked around in a basket with other hair dryers all this time. I love that it doesn’t look banged up or scratched after months of use. I do still get a bit annoyed by the cool shot button’s location and find that I accidentally hit it at least once every time I dry my hair. It’s not a big deal, but it does seem like a design flaw.
I also wish the concentrator nozzles snapped on and off a little more easily. I prefer when attachments slide over the nozzle of the hair dryer rather than fastening into it; it can be difficult to remove or exchange them when they’re hot. While Dyson, with its magnetic attachments, definitely has an advantage here, it’s not worth spending an extra $200 for that in my book—especially if you don’t blow dry your hair every single day.
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You can’t buy a better hair dryer for under $100 than this BaBylissPro. It has a higher wattage—2,000 compared with 1,875—than many of its peers, even ones that cost much more, which translates to more power. All the settings you really need are included: It has three temperature settings and two speed settings to tailor your blowout to your hair type and style. It gives you sleek results, emitting negative ions to smooth hair, and it comes with a super simple concentrator to focus the airflow and iron out even further.
The BaBylissPro hair dryer was one of the lightest and quietest models I tested.
Recommended By An Expert
Doward told me that BaBylissPro is her go-to at the salon, and she ranked this one as her top pick. “It’s great for all hair types,” she says. “It’s very powerful and cuts the blow dry [time] in half.” The three temperature options also let you choose the lowest one for your hair, so you can avoid damage from frequent styling. She noted that its extra-long nozzle makes it great for people who have short hair, as it makes it easier to reach around the back.
Functional, Pared-Down Design
The toggle switch controls are easy to use and change with a sturdy, satisfying click—you won’t accidentally wind up on Lo power when you want Hi—and it stood up to my drop test without a crack or scratch. It was one of the lightest and quietest models I tried out, to boot. I love how the concentrator fits over the nozzle. That makes it much easier to put on or take off with one hand—and without burning your fingers—while styling your hair. The only feature I didn’t like was the cool shot, which you have to hold down continuously to get that blast of cold air to “freeze” any shape or volume you’ve just created. But I consider that a minor flaw, not a dealbreaker.
It has taken a bit of a beating in the basket where it lives, and the baby blue finish has gotten scratched and is peeling a bit. It’s not as sleek and resilient as more expensive hair dryers I tested. But if looks don’t matter to you, it’s a workhorse that will get the job done reliably well for a great price.
Let’s get this out of the way: Dyson’s hair dryer, like all of its home and beauty tools, is much more expensive than the competition. You don’t need to spend this much to get a good blow dry at home or to keep your hair healthy. All of the dryers I tested did the job in around 10 minutes and left my hair looking pretty smooth, with only a few exceptions (see below). However, it is a joy to use and a pleasure to look at. The air comes out much more forcefully than it does from other hair dryers, which gives you more styling power. It’s noticeably cooler too, which is healthier for your hair.
Innovative, Light And Quick
Dyson’s unique magnetic attachments are genius because they are truly effortless to attach and just feel really satisfying to click into place. It’s very lightweight (weighing around 1 pound—not the absolute lightest in our testing but a solid runner-up), and the unusual design with the short barrel puts less strain on your arm. It dried my fine but plentiful hair slightly faster than the competition. It also comes in a beautiful leather train case that anybody would be happy to keep on their countertop.
The Dyson Supersonic hair dryer’s unusual design with the short barrel puts less strain on your arm … [+]
The weight and speediness might merit the price tag for you. I originally purchased one of these for my mom a few years ago after she had a mini-stroke. She has super thick hair, and I thought it might make it easier for her to style her hair while she was recovering; she’d tell you that it did. She did, however, end up buying an Airwrap to make styling even easier for herself.
The only things that detract from its performance are the thick and heavy cord—which makes it bulky to store—and the heat output. While it applies a lower temp to your hair, the dryer itself does get hot to the touch at the top. Doward and I both noticed this in testing.
Other Hair Dryers I Tested
I tested 10 products total, and seven didn’t make the cut—although some could be a good option for certain users. Here are the rest of the models I tested.
Bio Ionic 10X Ultra Light Speed Dryer: As a fine-haired person who usually uses a cooler setting, I didn’t like that this dryer has only one setting. The concentrator also fell off halfway through use for me. It is very lightweight though—truly under 1 pound.
Drybar Reserve Ultralight Anti-Frizz Blow-Dryer: This one felt plastic-y to me. And though Doward really liked it for use in her salon, she thought it might get too hot for home use. I noticed that it did dry my hair a little faster than some others. On a positive note, it is lightweight and quiet, and it has a unique light-up display.
GHD Helios 1875W Advanced Professional Hair Dryer: I love GHD hair tools in general—I’ve had the same curling iron for 10-plus years now—but I didn’t love this dryer. It was heavy and loud compared with the others I tested.
Shark HyperAir: The attachments that come with this dryer actually feel like they belong on a vacuum. They’re not intuitive to use on your hair, and the device is heavy—the heaviest I tested, at 2 pounds without any attachments—and loud.
Kristen Ess Iconic Style Professional Blow Dryer: I loved the Instagram-worthy white-and-rose-gold finish of this one for the price; it looks much more expensive than it is. The dealbreakers: It was one of the heaviest and loudest dryers I tested.
Conair InfinityPro SmoothWrap Hair Dryer: For me, this dryer yielded noticeably frizzy results, perhaps because it felt hotter. Its coating also scratched easily in my testing, and I couldn’t find any information about a warranty. It was, however, among the quietest I tested, and it includes a diffuser and a concentrator.