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When it comes to hair dryers, very few are buzzier than the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer — but it’s at a high cost. The innovative hair tool will set you back a cool $429, and for that price, the brand claims it can “increase smoothness by 75%, increase shine by up to 132%, and decrease frizz and flyaways by up to 61%,” all while actually protecting hair from damage and drying hair faster than any other dryer out there. Too good to be true? Maybe not.
I try out the best hair tools for a living (seriously!). I also happen to have the type of curly hair that can take up to two days to fully air dry, and my hair stylists need to have saint-like patience. On a humid day (without the right hair products), my aesthetic falls somewhere between Standard Poodle and Bob Ross. Understandably, the brand’s promise of “ultra-fast drying” for shiny, smooth, frizz-free hair is basically a siren song to me. But as a beauty product reviewer, Dyson’s hefty claims also make me immediately skeptical.
I teamed up with the beauty chemists and engineers in the Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab to find out for sure if the Dyson Supersonic lives up to the hype (and price). Our in-Lab tests evaluate speed of drying, air volume flow, weight, noise, air and surface temperatures and cord length. We also sent the hair dryer home with a panel of consumer testers to see how the hair dryer performs outside the Lab in everyday life, not just for me, but for a range of hair types, lengths and textures. Here’s everything you need to know about the Dyson Supersonic.
The specs
- Heat settings: Four
- Speed settings: Three
- Attachments: Five (concentrator, diffuser, gentle air, flyaway smoother, wide-tooth comb)
- Accessories: One (nonslip mat)
- Weight: 1.4 pounds
- Cord length: 8.6 feet
What is so special about the Dyson hair dryer?
- It dries hair fast. It’s true: In our Lab tests, the motor on the Supersonic produced the best airflow compared to any other hair dryer tested, and it dried hair the fastest. For me, that’s under 20 minutes for thick, curly hair that reaches well past my waist. It earned the highest consumer satisfaction score of all the hair dryers we’ve tested, though some consumers thought the Supersonic was almost too good, and said, “The air was so strong, even on low, that the attachment felt necessary for any kind of control.”
- It’s less damaging to hair. Our Lab test showed that the Dyson’s max heat production was “about 10°F lower than the average temperature of the 18 hair dryers in our test,” explains Birnur Aral, Ph.D., former director of the GH Beauty Lab. “Based on this, we can say that the Supersonic has the potential of being less damaging to hair than an average dryer,” Aral says.
- It’s easier to hold. Dyson dropped $71 million on creating the hair dryer, working with over 100 engineers to completely redesign the idea of what a hair dryer looks like. The result: a novel, brushless digital motor that’s much smaller and much lighter than a traditional hair dryer motor. It’s located in the handle rather than the end of the dryer’s head. The innovative design and motor placement makes for a more comfortable drying experience. After a few minutes of holding the hair dryer overhead, my shoulders don’t burn the same way they do with other hair dryers, since the heaviest part of the hair dryer is in my hand, not balanced in a top-heavy nozzle.
- Your hair won’t get caught in the dryer. Since Dyson moved the vent to the bottom of the handle, our testers loved that they didn’t have to be afraid of getting their hair caught on a back vent. That means no more burnt hair smell or cutting tangled strands out of the dryer’s motor (can I get a hallelujah, fellow long-haired ladies?). One drawback is that the filter’s placement poses a learning curve: “If you hold [the handle] toward the end, it closes the vent and restricts airflow,” said one tester from our Lab tests.
There’s also the brand new Supersonic Nural ($499), a souped-up, tech-heavy upgrade that’s equipped with lots of smart sensors, including one that automatically adjusts temperature based on proximity to the scalp; attachment learning that recognizes each attachment and adapts to your previous preferences; and a pause detector to decrease airflow when placed on the table. It also features a new wave and curl diffuser, which has removable prongs for wave and curl styling. We think most of these upgrades are best-suited for salon pros.