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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