Despite our positive experience, we wish there were more bells and whistles. Overall, we love the results it delivers, but would love it even more if it came with more attachments. Yet the dryer’s features aren't just for the pros. Anyone who uses a dryer daily will appreciate the tool's longevity (an A/C motor that lasts 2,000 hours), its efficiency (the dual-filtration system drops energy use by 70 percent), and its impressive multitude of settings (12 heat, speed and ion settings). Equipped with one of the longest nozzle attachments we tested meant that we could direct heat in specific sections. We were particularly pleased that using the nozzle in such a targeted way didn’t result in a scorching sensation.

Vaccaro shares his four simple steps: “One: Apply desired product. Two: Place damp or wet hair on the diffuser gently and allow the diffuser to do the work. The less you touch your hair, the better. Three: Flip your hair over and diffuse the underneath sections of your hair. Four: Once hair is 90 percent dry, you can start scrunching and touching it to give yourself the final shape.” How simple is that? The result? Immaculately well-defined curls with an abundance of volume. We loved the way our hair felt after each blowout; it was soft to the touch versus the "crunch" that sometimes happens to curly hair after a blowout. This inexpensive choice does not skimp on value either with a removable filter that will keep the performance high despite how frequently we use it. The attachments it came with — a diffuser and concentrator — were easy to snap on and off, and they remained firmly in place from start to finish. With evenly-distributed and fast-acting ionic heat, sealed in by a cool-shot button, the device is designed to dry and straighten simultaneously. Emitting a low, high-tech hum versus the typical soundblast associated with most dryers, the Shark tool has three different air speeds, ranked low, medium, and high. Yet we found that “strong, stronger, and very strong” might be more apt descriptions — even on the lowest setting, the air is forceful and consistent.With buttons located on the right side of the handle, left-handed folks may find it difficult to switch settings. Ceramic: Contain a special ceramic coating to help distribute heat more evenly to hair while avoiding damage. Our fine hair tends to get frizzy, but this hair dryer tamped down on our flyaways while amping up our much-needed volume. After every blowout, our hair looked smooth, straight and healthy. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.

Although first impressions aren’t everything, the sleek design of this T3 hair dryer nearly won us over, although we were curious whether such a small hair dryer would be powerful enough for a proper blowout. We have thin hair, and not a lot of it, so we need our hair dryer to be strong enough to whip up a serious amount of volume, and this little guy did just that.

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Instead of separate heat and speed settings, the Zuvi is outfitted with four modes that combine the two, termed “care, fast, soft, and style.” We particularly loved that it allowed us to easily toggle with heat and airflow settings, for a feeling of control over the tool. In fact, once we tried different settings, we found that the "Care" option was ideal for drying our hair daily without inflicting long-term damage. You should always take hair damage into consideration because you don't want to make matters worse by frying your hair. According to Stewart, if you have heat damage, try drying hair on a low setting with warm or cool air instead of with hot air on a high setting. "In addition, you can use a heat protectant or serum prior to blow drying to protect your strands," she says. Bumble and bumble Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat & UV Protective Primer is one of our favorites because it provides heat and UV protection, moisturizes, detangles, and cuts down frizz. The accompanying attachments make it one of the best blow dryers for curly hair for creating different looks. A diffuser will create a head of natural, bouncy curls. Want a straight look instead? Use the higher heat and speed settings along with a brush, held taut. Hotjar sets this cookie to identify a new user’s first session. It stores a true/false value, indicating whether it was the first time Hotjar saw this user.

The buttons’ placement feels crowded, making it easy to accidentally adjust your settings mid-blowout.As the cute green color chipped off when we dropped it, the hair dryer may not be as durable as some of the other options on this list. The pro-grade dryer comes with an ionizer switch at the top that lets you customize your blowout to your needs. All you have to do is simply press 'volume' or 'smoothing' and let the ionic blow dryer do its thing. I personally went for the smoothing option as my wavy hair was looking particularly unruly on the testing day. I'm happy to report that the smoothing option does exactly what it says it will — I was left with a sleek blowout, even on a humid summer day in New York City. Quiet and controlled, the airflow and temperature were reflective of the dryer’s professional standing, and our hair and scalp didn't feel scorched, or even slightly overheated, at any point during the trial. At the hands of the luxe, lightweight and effective tool, the resulting blowout of our hair felt like a professional one. When it comes to hair dryer wattages, the old axiom “Go big or go home” doesn’t apply universally. Instead, go big only if your hair type warrants the wattage. The Hyper Air comes with two attachments, the IQ 2-in-1 Concentrator and the IQ Styling Brush. The concentrator includes a dial to toggle between wide and narrow airflow, and users can rotate the attachment itself to ensure that the airflow is always in line with a brush while blowing out hair. A diffuser is also available, although it's sold separately, which was disappointing.

We really liked the features of the hair dryer. The diffuser attachment, which looks like a hand, dried our hair in about eight minutes, which is super fast considering it usually takes us around 20 minutes. Even with the funky lime green hand attachment, the dryer is lightweight and easy to maneuver. For curly-haired folks looking for either a straight or bouncy blowout, Nicole Karkalis, cofounder of Chicago's blow dry bar, Blowout Junkie, recommends high heat and high-speed settings, “while creating tension with your desired brush to create that smooth, shiny finish. If your hair is on the finer, side you should be using medium heat and speed settings.” T3 Aireluxe has five heat settings and three speed settings. We were thoroughly impressed by the blowout produced by the INFINITIPRO SmoothWrap Hair Dryer, transforming our fine, wavy hair into a dreamy blowout in a matter of just 18 minutes flat. Even better, it wasn’t heavy or bulky, and didn’t aggravate our editor’s carpal tunnel.For those who want to “take textured hair straight, you’ll need a concentrator attachment to smooth out strands and create shine,” says Giovanni Vaccaro, hairstylist and co-founder of the on-demand beauty service, GlamSquad. “I prefer a thin attachment that helps concentrate air on a smaller section.” The Pattern Blow Dryer comes with brush, wide tooth comb, diffuser, and concentrator nozzle and is great for curly hair. Compact yet effective, this blow dryer dried half of our fine hair in just a few minutes, without ever making us feel like we were frying our hair. Even at low speed, it felt pretty powerful, but not like our hair was burning. Our hair dried smoothly, with tons of volume, instead of flat against our head. This compact blow dryer has all the power and functionality of a full-sized one. We found it intuitive to use and all of the buttons are where they should be, making it easy to push and move between different speeds and heat, even with the smaller design. The price is a little steep, but it works as well as other T3 blow dryers, except that it folds up. The dryer also has auto-dual voltage, meaning it can be used anywhere in the world — so no matter where your travels take you, a sleek blowout will always be available. It's worth noting that the highest heat setting isn't super hot, but it didn't bother us, as it kept us from burning our hair.