It can feel almost impossible to replicate a salon-level hairstyle on your own. Whether you’ve got long locks, a frizz-prone mane, damaged hair or thinning strands, we’re here to tell you that it is possible to “DIY” a flowing, bouncy blowout. You only need a great hair dryer to feel like you just stepped out of a shampoo commercial.
A memorable hair day is bound to boost your confidence, especially when you can save money by doing it on your own. So, to get that just-stepped-out-of-the-salon look at home, we tested the market’s top-rated models.
We spent hours testing 13 hair dryers, ranging in price from $39 to $429. We tested them on four hair textures: fine and straight-to-wavy, thick and curly, 4b curls, and thick and wavy-to-curly.
We looked at obvious factors, such as dry time, heat and airflow speed, as well as other important components ranging from attachments and unique features to cord length and weight.
By the end of the process, we doubled our upper arm strength and found five winners that left our hair looking healthy, silky smooth and flyaway-free.
Best Tested
Revlon One-Step Volumizer and Ionic Hair Dryer
Best hair dryer
Our value vote goes to the Revlon One-Step. If you’ve never been able to get the hang of holding a hair dryer in one hand and a round brush in the other simultaneously, this model mashes the two together, resulting in ultra-shiny, frizz-free hair.
Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer
Best mid-range hair dryer
The Drybar Buttercup was bound to exceed expectations; it’s created by the iconic Drybar salon. Better yet, it comes in a cheery bright yellow colorway. It’s a pricier hair dryer, but in our testing it outperformed its competitors in key evaluation points including dry time, settings and versatility on various hair types.
Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer
Best high-end hair dryer
The Dyson Supersonic is one of the most expensive hair dryers we tested. After rounds of testing, all testers agreed it was worth the hype. It dries hair at warp speed, blasts out heat at a whopping 70 mph and is much quieter than other models we tested.
DevaDryer and DevaFuser
The best hair dryer for diffusing
If you’ve curly locks and struggle with heat damage, this is the hair dryer for you. Developed with curl-flexible alternating ionic technology, this hair dryer can create anything from defined curls to a shiny, sleek blowout. Combined with the hand-shaped DevaFuser, this dryer is the ultimate tool to get tight, defined waves and salon-worthy curls.
Shark Flexstyle Air-Drying and Styling System
The best multi-styling hair dryer
The Dyson AirWrap and Shark FlexStyle are comparable in terms of attachments and drying power. Both are powerful, fast and versatile dryers with stylers that curl, volumize, smooth and dry hair. The attachments are easy to use and can create standout blowouts. We found that the Shark FlexStyle is significantly more affordable and achieves the same result.
Best hair dryer: Revlon One Step
This viral brush-style hair dryer had us curious. Would it live up to the hype? The short answer was a resounding yes. Our testers were impressed with how quickly the One Step dried hair at its highest setting, in addition to the blowout results. Many even compared the blowout to the Dyson. “I loved, loved, loved the way this tool made my hair look — straight, shiny and like I just left the salon,” said one tester. “Honestly, I loved this thing for its ability to leave my hair shiny and frizz-free,” raved another.
The Revlon One-Step dryer is unique in that it includes a non-detachable brush head with nylon pin bristles, allowing you to both dry and brush through your hair at the same time, easing the awkwardness of using both a brush in one hand and a dryer in the other, which gives many folks trouble.
At 1.8 pounds, it’s on the heavier side of the dryers we tested, but its design still feels light in your hand. Since it was a bristled brush, we were unnecessarily worried about issues with tangling (there was none at all), and the 4.25-inch oval barrel design lets you get close to the root, allowing for a volume boost, while you can also bend or lightly curl the ends.
Other great features include ionic and ceramic technology (which you can read more about below), three heat/speed settings and a cool option, plus a four-year warranty. The buttons, though, are at the bottom of the handle, so you’ll need to stop what you’re doing to change settings.
Be warned: This dryer’s highest setting gets very hot; we were starting to sweat by the time we were done.
Its major flaw is that if you don’t want a sleek and shiny blowout and want your hair to dry curly or wavy, or you have time only for a rough dry, this isn’t the tool to use and you’ll need an additional hair dryer. But if you only straighten your hair during a blowout? This is all you’ll need.
Best mid-range hair dryer: Drybar Buttercup
Fans of Drybar will instantly recognize this high-end hair dryer by its bright yellow hue. And they probably won’t be surprised to learn that this retail version, the same style used in the blow-dry salons, delivers shiny, bouncy hair even without a professional stylist.
Weighing 1 pound 2 ounces (only two dryers, one of which is travel size, were lighter), it still packs a lot. It features ionic technology (which you can read more about below), a powerful 1,875-watt motor and a long, 9-foot cord. It has six settings, a great heat range with a distinctive difference between low, medium and high, and a very cool cool-shot button.
In use, it was one of the quietest models we tested with minimal vibration. It works well on various hair types and comes with two nozzle attachments: a smoother and a concentrator. The buttons are located on the inside of the handle and are comfortable to use and easy to manipulate. This placement allows for easy toggling between settings with your thumb while using it, too. Overall, it resulted in our testers’ hair looking healthy, shiny and super straight, all without too much bicep strain to get it there.
Next to the Dyson, the Buttercup gave the fastest finish time for our testers with fine, straight-to-wavy hair, 4b curls and thick, curly hair, and tamed even our most stubborn waves and curls without much effort.
A curly-haired tester noted that with no included diffuser attachment, the Buttercup’s focus is on rough-dries or straightening hair, so those embracing their curls may prefer another model. It’s also expensive (and only has a two-year warranty).
When we consider a single trip to a Drybar salon sets you back $50, shelling out $200 for countless blowouts feels like a bargain.
Best high-end hair dryer: Dyson Supersonic
Dyson’s Supersonic has received so many accolades and awards that we almost wanted it to be a flop. Because $400 for a hair dryer, who’s willing to pay that? But after putting this expensive, high-tech apparatus through multiple tests, we can firmly say: we are.
With a powerful V9 digital motor that’s cleverly housed in the handle, giving it a unique and even balance, the Dyson Supersonic features intelligent heat control that measures its air temp 40-plus times per second — so it won’t overheat and you get damage control. Air is sucked in through the bottom of the ergonomic, comfortable-to-hold handle (unlike most hair dryers, where it comes in at the back of the barrel), making it less likely for long hair to get pulled into the filter.
It also comes with three magnetic attachments — a diffuser, smoothing nozzle and concentrator nozzle — that stick on easily and securely. The attachments are also engineered so they don’t get hot, which means you can swap them out or rotate them without missing a beat or burning your fingers. Eight settings — three for speed (fast, regular, gentle), four for heat (including a cold setting) and cold shot (which you can read more about below) — are available and it has the best distinct heat range tested (that is, you can really tell a difference between high, medium and low heat).
This model also creates virtually no vibration, meaning it’s more comfortable to use. It has a 9-foot cord so you can move about freely. And while we don’t know of any silent hair dryer, this model is much quieter than others we tested. It’s quiet enough you can follow along with a TV show or FaceTime a friend while using it (a bonus for those trying to avoid waking small kids or sleeping partners). It isn’t the lightest hair dryer we tested, but its durable, distinct design makes holding it feel rather effortless. It also comes with a non-slip mat and storage hanger, and its compartmentalized packaging is, er, head and shoulders, above the rest.
As for the most critical elements (the time it takes to dry hair and its results), the Supersonic is lightning fast: It dried testers’ hair in half the time it took most other models. “This hair dryer is simply the greatest of all time,” one tester remarked. “Absolutely amazing,” said another. “Everyone on my work Zoom calls thought I’d just been to the salon,” raved another.
After a full blow dry, testers saw superior shine and smoothness, with even the curliest hair lying perfectly straight while retaining salon-worthy volume. Ends were sleek and frizz-free. And flyaways? What flyaways? One key to healthy, shiny hair is keeping heat exposure to a minimum, and, again, with its incredibly fast dry time, there’s less opportunity to cause damage.
If we have to nitpick, we must admit when we first used the dryer on high power it nearly blew our doors off and took a minute to figure out how to avoid shooting the air straight into our ear. And the hottest setting is definitely hot, which may be too much for sensitive scalps. It also has a limited two-year warranty, the same as the majority of the dryers tested, but not exactly amazing for such a pricey item.
Ultimately, this beast is worth the investment as it works wonders on various hair types, comes with useful attachments, is fast, fast, fast and leaves hair so shiny, so healthy and so frizz-free. Dyson Supersonic? You can do no wrong. So much so that our testers summed it up with some variant of: “I can’t imagine switching to anything else after using it.”
Best hair dryer for diffusing: DevaDryer and DevaFuser
We tested hair dryers on a range of hair types and textures — and testers with thicker, curlier hair found The DevaDryer and DevaFuser to be a winning hair dryer for diffusing curls.
This unique hair dryer is designed with curl-flexible alternating ionic technology that has two speed settings to improve volume and smooth frizz. Some might find the lack of speed settings a downside but if you’re only looking to diffuse hair, this is an excellent option. Just remember to purchase the DevaFuser too.
The DevaDryer is 1800 watts, powerful enough for blowouts and diffusing. It also features a cool shot button to reduce frizz, similar to other dryers we tested.
In our testing, we found the hand-shaped diffuser made this dryer stand out from the rest. Curly-haired testers found this helped curls dry faster without making coils frizz or feel damaged. The diffuser mimics the sensation of scrunching curls by hand, all with targeted heat flow to volumize curls without ruining the shape of your hair.
The dryer has a 360-degree airflow which is unlike most diffusers on the market, meaning it gets more done in a shorter amount of time. The Devafuser is designed to fit the dryer — but if you want to use your own hair dryer, the universal DevaFuser attachment fits most commercial hair dryers. Both retail for $180 on the Devacurl website but you can purchase the universal diffuser for $55 on Amazon and Devacurl, which we felt was worth the investment.
One tester with 4B curls wrote: “The attachment really makes it feel like you’re scrunching your hair with your hands which helps lock in product and define curls.” Another tester with thicker, wavy strands added: “This hair dryer feels like it makes my curls look the most defined.”
Best multi-styling hair dryer: Shark Flexstyle Air-Drying and Styling System
The Shark FlexStyle, with two auto-wrap curlers, an oval brush, a paddle brush, and a concentrator, usually retails for $300 on Ulta but you can build your own system on the Shark website for $250. All testers with a range of hair types agreed that we preferred this multi-styler over Dyson’s option.
Similar to the Dyson, the Shark FlexStyle is designed with low heat settings in mind and ultra-fast drying power. This tool also measures and regulates temperatures 1,000 times per second to ensure consistent air temperature — so instead of getting hotter as it runs, the Shark minimizes heat exposure.
The Shark styler rotates into a hair dryer, which is ergonomic and convenient. We thought this standout feature gave better angle control when styling and drying.
One tester with 4B curls noted that, although it gave her a salon-level blowout, it did take some time to get the hang of. She wrote: “It got tangled in my hair at times as I was twisting the brush to curl the ends.” However, overall, she felt it was easy to use, lightweight and can be used to recreate all kinds of hairstyles.
Another tester with straight hair wrote: “I think this dryer does the same things as the Dyson for much less. Granted it doesn’t have the ultra-premium feel but I also think this is a better bet if you’re looking for one device to do it all.” She added: “I mainly used the round brush, oval brush, curling and regular drying attachments. I like that I can quickly dry my hair, add volume or give some bouncy wavy, curls. I reach for this tool more than any other hair tool I have. There is a learning curve with these kinds of stylers if you’re used to a normal dryer or even blow dry brush, but once you get it, it’s easy.”
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