So, the big question of the day is whether any hair dryer is worth £299. Yes, £299. That’s the price of the newly released Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer. I’ve given it a thorough test this morning so writing down my thoughts.
The main thing to note is that the engine lives in the handle of the dryer – most, if not all, dryers have their engine in the head which is what makes them heavy and unbalanced. I had literally never thought about the balance of a dryer in the hand, but now I can see exactly what corrections you are probably having to make all the way through a blow dry in terms of hold. The Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer is very light indeed – if you have short hair that’s very quick to dry this probably won’t be a perk, but if you have thick and long hair that takes forever, I am certain you will notice a distinct difference. The motor, for techies, is the Dyson Digital V9 motor, created by a team of 15 engineers and takes the Dyson prize for being its smallest, lightest and most advanced digital motor.
The unexpected thing, if you just quickly bring a conventional dryer to mind, is the control panel is the opposite side of the hair flow. I expected the air to come out of the purple side where the buttons are, but it’s the other side. I made that mistake several times during my blow dry because we are programmed to think air and control are the same side. The air jet feels high velocity and it’s hot without being burny. Built into the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer is intelligent heat control (yes, you expect something for your £300!) meaning that your hair will never be exposed to excessive heat – a glass bead thermistar measures the temperature 20 times a second and transmits the information to the microprocessor which in turn controls the double-stacked heating element. I know! This is a very swanky machine, but it would take more than a test or two to see whether it improves hair condition because of it. If your hair is very dry, this is quite a serious thing to take into consideration because heat damage is very real and does upset already dry hair.
Most impressive for me (because you cannot physically see the other technologies working) are the sound level, which is extremely low for a dryer (I’ve Snapchatted this so you can hear – I’m at britbeautyblog if you want to see the demo) and the magnetic attachments which just seem to glide onto the main body. When it comes to the sound, the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer team pushed one tone within the motor to a sound frequency not able to be heard by humans, and put 13 motor impellers in instead of the usual 11. The air flow has a simplified pathway which contributes to the noise reduction. It’s not by any means silent, but when you think how near to your ears your dryer has to be it’s more of a whispering woosh and nowhere near the jet engine like noise from normal dryers. Interestingly, my son heard my drying my hair with the Dyson and thought he was hearing me use my electric toothbrush. It’s debatable whether my blow dry was quicker than normal – I felt it was but I’m trying not to get carried away by the hype and give as much factual information as I can. What I did notice was that it seemed a thorough dry – I didn’t need to go back over any bits that were still a bit damp because each section dried thoroughly. It didn’t particularly add any extra shine or anything like that.
I’ve added in all the technical information because I think this gadget really is one for those who love all the techie stuff. Let’s face it, any hair dryer will dry your hair eventually, so the Dyson is going to appeal to those who like the streamlined look and all the technologies.
Back to the matter of £299. Well, it’s first generation of its kind and that always means beginning at the top end. My personal feeling is that if Selfridges tried to take this back from me I would be prepared to wrestle quite hard with them! Physically, if neccessary, and there isn’t much that I would go to fisticuffs for! The Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer would have to be a very considered purchase for most of us, but then, so were flat screen TVs back in the day and most of us have them now. It’s HERE.
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13 comments
There may be be a lot of science behind it…but it still only dries hair!! I guess for some people £300 really is small change but for me….great review though. 😉
http://vodkaandarose.blogspot.co.uk
The makers of what is probably the noisiest and most expensive vacuum cleaners on the Planet have brought out a hair dryer that looks like a scaled down version of their fan heater and isn’t much less expensive than one either. Kudos to Dyson if they can actually move enough of them, but I’ll stick with my trusty Babyliss thanks.
I’m going to Selfridges on Monday for a play with it……it might be brilliant but I’m not spending £300 without seeing it and they are advertising two colour’s so I need to see which colour to choose! Xx
Last year I bought a Dyson vacuum cleaner and I coudn’t believe how much better than a normal priced one it was. So the money was definitely well spent. Based on that, I’m assuming this hair dryer would be a good investment too. For me it would be worth it if I knew I would use it for maybe 10 years. You described the technology behind it very well, but how usable is it? Does it make your life easier when you are styling your hair? For example my hair is not long, but if I don’t use a rotative brush it goes in all directions. At the moment I hate this process! I haven’t seen this hair dryer in action, but I’m just thinking the engineers focused on speed of drying rather than usability for styling? Or is it good at both?
It comes with a standard nozzle, smoothing nozzle and a diffuser so it’s very usable for styling.. I used with and without (but didn’t use the diffuser) and it was the same as my normal styling. It’s hard to say that it’s better than what I normally use, but in terms of being lighter, that does help, as does the ‘thoroughness’ of the drying which means you’re less likely to have to go back over.
Apparently I can’t play with it next Monday…..only in Selfridges London is there a demo model. Demonstration booth is arriving in other Selfridges on Monday 13th June so if you want to select your own colour, feel the weight for yourself and try before you make such a huge investment that’s the way to go. Have made a huge mistake with a £150 GHD hairdryer which was too heavy after 5 minutes I’m not prepared to wing it without trying it first even if it is a Dyson. But I have to say it does sound incredible. Xx
Definitely try it first.. it’s a serious investment.
I also bought the GHD….omg….how heavy??? Big regrets….but excited to see this one in action.
It sounds amazing but £300 for a hair dryer is obscene!! x
If it did the vacuuming as well then maybe.
My hairdresser is coming with me to the launch. She wants to know what the fuss is about too! Shame I can’t take my dog with us because he’s going to feel the benefit of his fur dried in rapid time too. Xx
Unlike Diana, I’m not in a very least impressed with Dyson vacuum cleaner (the only advantage in my opinion that it can “inhale” lots of crap without chocking :), but sucking power is not impressive, Miele does it waaaay better) which costs less then 200 pounds, so 300 for just a hairdryer seems like nonsense to me. New balancing and some less noise aside, how much better than that last Remington you reviewed (aloe ring or something, extra ionization) it can be? Saying that I, however, totally understand the appeal of a new cool gadget…
I have a Dyson vacuum and it’s worth every penny. I actually bought my Mom one too. It’s money well spent so I am totally open to giving this a try. I am looking to purchase the T3 but now I’m interested in this….
Mel | http://www.thegossipdarling.com