Most hair dryers are effective at blowing hot air toward your head—sometimes quite fast—in order to speed along your hairstyling. It’s the small differences between models that can make a big difference overall, particularly with daily use.
After putting in over 20 hours of research and spending over 70 hours testing 42 hair dryers, we’ve found that some are far more pleasant to hold and use than others. Because it provides an excellent experience for the price, we think the Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer is the best choice.
Our pick
This dryer is lightweight and equipped with a long cord. Among the models we tested, it tied for blowing the hottest and fastest air.
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.
Budget pick
Although this dryer is just as fast as pricier models, it’s the heaviest of our traditional hair dryer picks, and its attachments can be hard to remove.
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 6-foot cord, though shorter than those on our other picks, is longer than those on most other inexpensive hair dryers. The buttons are easy to use, but the cool-shot button is a little small and harder to hold down than the cool-shot button on our top pick. The InfinitiPro comes with both a diffuser and a concentrator.
Upgrade pick
It’s expensive, but the unique design makes it extraordinarily nice to use: There’s no vibration whatsoever, and the simple-to-switch magnetic attachments make styling easier.
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. With airflow at 88 mph and a temperature surpassing 245 °F (the hottest temperature our weather meter could measure), the Supersonic doesn’t dry hair any faster than our pick, but it is more pleasant to use in almost every way due to its unique design. 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.
Upgrade pick
It’s spendy, it’s bulky, and it works—quickly and gently. For hair that’s fragile or difficult to blow-dry with a conventional hair dryer, the RevAir is worth considering.
The RevAir is unlike any other hair-drying, heat-styling tool we’ve tested. For people with Type 3 or 4 curl patterns especially, this vacuum-like device is gentle on fragile strands and can cut down total drying time significantly. One tester, who usually requires two back-to-back appointments with a professional stylist at Drybar, now achieves similar drying and smoothing results with the RevAir in as little as 20 minutes. The RevAir has an exceptionally large footprint compared with most dryers. The entire corded machine weighs about 8 pounds and is the size of a toaster. The hose-attached handheld wand alone weighs more than our heavier dryer picks (around 2 pounds), but we found that this is not terribly problematic because very little motion is required to use it.
