I broke my hair dryer, so why not try a few out? Hair Dryer Review
Updated: May 3, 2020
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I am one of those people who doesn’t wash their hair. Hear me out… I have somewhat curly, thick, fluffy hair that is a PAIN to wash and dry often. The whole process from start to finish (soaking wet hair to dry and smooth / straight) is epic - at least 45 minutes. Typically, I won’t even try to dry my hair right after I shower because it just takes so long and it’s frustrating.
Then, the other day, I dropped my hair dryer and it was forever crippled from the incident.
I’ve been using a ~$30 Remington hair dryer for the last five years or so, and it’s been doing a pretty good job. Like I said, I don’t dry my hair more than a couple times per week, so it works for my purposes. However, I wanted to take this opportunity of needing a new one to really try to find something that reduced my dry and style time significantly without dropping $400 on a Dyson or something similar. For all tests, I put my hair in a Turbie Twist towel for about 10-15 minutes to soak up the extra moisture and applied Garnier Blow Out cream (I am not too bougie with hair products). I also wash my hair with Living Proof No Frizz Shampoo and Conditioner.
Here are the results:
This dryer is PRETTY. I loved the way it felt in my hand and it is so quiet! This is supposed to be a high-quality dryer and was the most expensive of the bunch I tried. At $180, I expected GREATNESS. I thought for sure I would love it so much and then have to return it anyway because of the price. And it was a nice dryer for sure, but the result wasn’t that different from my $30 Remington one. The quieter motor was certainly a treat, but I don’t know if it’s worth the $180 price tag just to have a quieter motor. Maybe others have had a better experience with this dryer, but it was just ok and offered good results, but not better than my drug store dryer did. Not to mention I could barely get the attachments on and off without feeling like I was going to break something. It took me a little over 20 minutes to dry all of my hair, and after that I felt like it still needed a flat iron or curling iron touch up.
2. Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer and Volumizer Hot Air Brush
I absolutely and fully believed that I would HATE this dryer and it would be a giant waste of my time even bothering with it. How in the world can a brush dryer really work? I felt like this was one of those gimmicks that could’ve come out in the 90s...here’s a brush that also dries your hair! Trust us! It’s great! Five minutes later….said brush is stuck in my hair and being cut out of a matted mess by my older sister. But I was SO wrong!!
This dryer blew the T3 out of the water. I absolutely love it and cannot wait to dry my hair with it again. Is this too much enthusiasm for a dryer? I don’t know. Maybe. But it is seriously awesome. My hair was dried AND styled in about 15 minutes. It was also so, so shiny and soft, not fluffy or frizzy at all. I loved the simplicity of only using one tool in the drying process (normally I use a round brush AND dryer together). This dryer was under $60 and worth every penny. I don’t think it would work as your only dryer if you also sometimes diffuse your hair, but if you only do blow outs, this one is BOMB. Get it. You will not be sorry.
3. CONFU Lightweight Negative Ionic Blow Dryer (supposed to be a Dyson dupe)
What can I say about this one? I didn’t expect it to be like the Dyson, considering it was only $45 and from some random brand I’d never heard of. However, I did expect it to at least compare to the others I was testing. While this one was super lightweight and quiet, there was very little power, and it felt like I was drying my hair on the low setting the entire time. For someone with thicker, wavy or curly hair, this is definitely not the dryer for you. I wouldn’t actually recommend it for anyone because for just a little more money, you can get the Revlon One-Step dryer which is leaps and bounds better than this! Sorry little Dyson dupe, but you get to go back from whence you came.
Now, you’re probably wondering which one I’m planning to keep. The verdict? You haven’t guessed it by now?
The Revlon One-Step is the winner!
I will still need to figure something out for the days when my hair is curly, and I want to use the diffuser. But the Revlon One-Step did such a great job with the straight blow out that I think it is worth keeping even if I need a backup for the curly days, which are rare and sometimes I don’t even use a dryer for that. All in all, I would say if you’re looking for a great blow out that doesn’t cost much or take much time, the Revlon One-Step is amazing!
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