Having one of the best hair dryers is a must if you want your locks to look their best, but there are a lot of options to choose from. We've tested out a wide range of models, at different budgets and with different USPs, to help point you in the right direction. This roundup includes everything from simple-but-effective budget blow dryers to fancier brush dryers and models geared more towards hair health or styling.
When choosing the best hair dryer for you, there are a range of factors to consider. How powerful it is? Are there a range of heat and speed settings? What tools are included? Is it comfortable to use for extended periods? Is there a cool shot to set your style? Our experienced review team considers all these things when testing hair dryers, and you'll find a summary of their findings with each product entry below.
Read on for our top picks for a range of different customers and needs. And while you're sorting your grooming setup, you might also want to check out our guides to the best hair straighteners and the best Dyson Airwrap dupes.
Best hair dryer: quick list
Best overall
Lightweight, quiet and efficient, the GHD Helios is the best hair dryer for most people. A great all-rounder that'll dry long, damp hair in under a minute.
Best cheap
This affordable hair dryer offers fast drying times and is pretty lightweight. It's great for smaller budgets, but doesn't pack the power of pricier models.
Best premium
This tech-packed hair dryer adjusts temperature to protect your scalp, and drops to low-power mode when put down. It's also efficient and effective at styling different hair types.
Best lightweight
The T3 AirLuxe is impressively light for a full-sized hair dryer. It also comes packed with features, including a volume boost and lots of heat settings. Another fab all-rounder.
Best brush dryer
Great for when you don't have the time or skill to fully blow-dry your hair with barrel brushes, it will give your hair lots of volume you expect from a professional blow-dry.
Best for curly hair
This is excellent for curls, shipping with an advanced diffuser with extendable prongs for an even dry. It can also automatically adjust the temperature and air flow.
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Best hair dryer for travel
The Flight+ is super compact, it has a dual-voltage dial for foreign travel, and while it's a bit low on power and features it delivers good results.
Best mini dryer
Small but powerful, the T3 Fit is the best mini hair dryer around. The IonAir technology delivers glossy and healthy results, and it's great for frizzy hair.
Best Dyson alternative
With a brushless motor for fragile strands and intelligent thermo sensors to monitor temperatures, this minimizes heat damage while costing much less than a Dyson.
For damaged hair
It's a little tricky to master, but the Zuvi's unique approach to hair drying promises to protect your locks. It's efficient, although not great at tackling frizz.
Best for styling
Shark's slightly more affordable take on the Dyson Airwrap can quickly shift between hair drying and multi-styling, performed excellently on test, and is very versatile.
The best hair dryer for most people
For our money, the GHD Helios is the best hair dryer on the market right now. On test, we found it delivered shiny locks in double-quick time. In fact, in terms of drying times, it's one of the fastest models we've tested. The design is well-balanced and comfortable to use, it's not too noisy, and the cord is the longest of any model here. Three wind speeds and three temperatures (plus cool shot) give you plenty of control over your styling.
We're big fans of the stylish design – it has the feel of a salon styler – and the fact that it comes in a range of colorways means you can pick the version that fits with your dressing room decor. You'll get a concentrator included, and there's a compatible diffuser available to purchase if you need one.
While our reviewer was impressed with how well this hair dryer minimized frizz, they did note that because of the fast drying times, the results could lack a little volume and bounce. The price might also put some people off – while it's not the most expensive model on the market (it's in TechRadar's upper-mid price bracket), it's still a bit of an investment. However, the brushless motor should help ensure a long lifespan.
Read our full GHD Helios review
The best budget hair dryer
Not everyone needs an ultra-fancy hair dryer. If you're on a budget and just want something simple, the Hot Tools Pro Signature Salon (also known as the Hot Tools Pro Signature Salon 1875 Watts Ionic AC Motor) is the best cheap hair dryer we've tested.
It's not the fanciest model on this list, not does it have the premium feel of pricier hair dryers. However, it does the job, taking our reviewer's shoulder-length fine hair from wet to dry on the hottest setting in a similar time to more expensive models in this list. You have two speed settings to choose from, and three heats, although on test we found the lowest one was too cool to be of any use. It's not super-bulky or heavy, although the cord is a little short at 1.8m. We were also a little disappointed to see that the filter isn’t removable, which makes cleaning the hair dryer fiddly. However, for the price it's an excellent buy.
Read our full Hot Tools Pro Signature Salon Ionic AC motor review
The best premium hair dryer
It'll be out of many people's budgets, but if you have cash to splash and want the best of the best, the Dyson Supersonic Nural is it. It has features you won't find on any another hair dryer. For example, in Auto mode, a sensor monitors how close the dryer is to your head, and adjusts heat so there's a constant temperature on your scalp, allowing for precision styling with less heat damage. The Nural also knows when it has been put down, and swaps to low-power mode in response.
It comes with a wide range of well designed attachments for different hair types – so not just your regular concentrator, but a comb attachment for coily hair, a very effective flyaway-flattening tool (using tech borrowed from the Dyson Airwrap) and a two-in-one diffuser that dries and defines curls. The Nural is also smart enough to know which tool is clipped on and switches to the last-used temperature and speed, to save you from manually adjusting each time. Bells and whistles aside, it's powerful and efficient yet lightweight and comfortable to hold (if we're being picky, we'd prefer a slightly longer handle).
If you aren't fussed about all the sensors but like the sleek design, the original and super-popular Dyson Supersonic might be a better fit – see all the differences in our Dyson Supersonic vs Nural comparison article.
Read our full Dyson Supersonic Nural review
The best lightweight hair dryer
While the T3 AireLuxe is impressively lightweight for a 'full sized' hairdryer, and the build is well-balanced so it's comfortable to hold, too. It comes packed with features and settings: there's a fantastic ion generator to get rid of frizz, volume boost switch for salon-style blowouts, and 'RapidAire IQ technology', which widens the airflow for quicker drying. Most dryers in this list offer three temperature settings, while the AireLuxe comes with five – although we did think the hottest of those could have been a bit hotter. Two concentrator nozzles come included, and there's a compatible diffuser and smoothing comb which cost extra.
The AireLuxe costs around the same as our #1 pick, the GHD Helios, and might even be a better choice for some people – specifically anyone looking for lots of styling controls and a lighter build, without shelling out for a Dyson (#3, only marginally lighter than the AireLuxe).
If you want compact-plus-lightweight, check out the T3 Fit (#4) and T3 Afar (#9), which are less powerful but smaller and more travel-friendly. Note: there is now a slightly lighter hair dryer from the same T3 line, but in our T3 Featherweight StyleMax review, our tester found it didn't perform as well as the AireLuxe.
Read our full T3 AirLuxe review
The best hair dryer with a brush
The Revlon Pro Collection One-Step Dryer & Volumiser is the best brush hair dryer we've tested. It's effectively a large brush with air vents below the bristles to style your hair as you dry it, and it gave our tester's fine hair a decent shine and kind of volume they'd typically only get from a professional blow-dry. In fact, we'd consider this one of the best hairdryers for fine hair.
The One-Step has two heat settings, plus a cold shot to set your style. While it's great at delivering voluminous, bouncy blowdries fairly quickly and easily, that's all it's really designed to do. For example, if you want to rough-dry your hair, a dedicated hairdryer is a much better tool for the job. Our testers also found it noisy and heavy. If you're looking for a more versatile multi-styler, check out the Shark FlexStyle (#10).
Read our full Revlon Pro Collection One-Step Dryer and Volumiser review
The best hair dryer for curly hair
For those that have curly hair, a diffuser is a must as it disperses the air stream to ensure the curl pattern of the hair isn’t disrupted. However, while many hair dryers ship with a diffuser, the Shark Style iQ, which is known as the Shark HyperAir in the US, goes one step further. The diffuser it ships with has extendable prongs that help ensure hair dries evenly, from roots to ends, reducing the risk of heat damage. Even better, the hair dryer will automatically adjust the temperature and airflow settings when you connect the diffuser and other attachments it comes with, so ensure they're at the optimum. On test, we found it was fast and efficient at drying hair too.
On the down-side, the attachments are bulkier than we'd expect, and we were disappointed to find that it lacks a removable filter. If you really want to push the boat out, we also really rate the Dyson Supersonic (#3) for curls – that model has a two-part diffuser that defines, as well as drying curls.
Read our full Shark Style iQ hair dryer review
The best hair dryer for travel
Finding a good hair dryer for travel can be a challenge: it has to be light and compact for easy packing, but it needs to achieve this without being underpowered and while having enough controls to do a good job. And ideally it should work with any country's power supply. The GHD Flight+ succeeds in most of these areas.
The main USP here is its ability to toggle between 240V and 120V of power, but it also comes with a folding handle that makes it much more packable. However, it's far from the most powerful hair dryer we've tested – it took our reviewer nearly eight minutes to rough dry her long, fine hair on its fastest setting, and left if feeling soft but frizzy and lacking in shine. There are also fewer setting options than most hair dryers: two speeds and just one heat setting plus cool shot.
It's decent value for money and good quality, but if you don't need that swappable voltage then there are plenty of other options available to you. For example, the T3 Afar is lightweight and folds up for easy transport, and it comes with more temperature and speed settings.
Read our full GHD Flight+ hair dryer review
The best mini hair dryer
The T3 Fit is light and compact yet pretty powerful, and boasts a lot of features for such a small hair dryer. Like the AireLuxe (#4), there's IonAir technology to widen the airstream to dry hair gently yet efficiently. Here you'll also find an Ion Generator, which saturates the airflow with negative ions, designed to create a smoother finish. Our testers found this worked well – we'd recommend this model to anyone who struggles with frizz. There's a perfectly acceptable range of speed and heat settings, including a cool shot option to set your style.
The mini size means it's great for popping into your bag for weekends away, but if you want something even more travel-friendly, check out the GHD Flight Plus (#7) with its toggleable voltage, or the T3 Afar.
Read more: T3 Air hair dryer review
The best Dyson alternative hair dryer
The Laifen Swift bears a striking resemblance to the ultra-popular Dyson Supersonic range (#2) but comes in at a far more pocket-friendly price. It packs some pretty cool tech – intelligent thermal sensors designed to monitor temperature in real time to minimize heat damage.
Much like the name implies, the Laifen Swift offers rapid hair drying with its high-powered jets of ionized air. During our testing, we were impressed that this hair dryer could completely dry damp, thick, medium-length hair on its highest setting in about seven minutes. It's not as powerful as the original Dyson Supersonic (which clocked four and a half minutes in the same test), but it's a very decent alternative. For less porous and thinner hair, expect your hair to dry in around five and a half minutes, which is roughly in line with the manufacturer’s claims.
It goes get a bit hot during use, but not uncomfortably so – though watch out for the accessories, which heat up too. Luckily, they are easily removed, thanks to the magnetic fixture. This hair dryer isn't currently available in the UK and it doesn't look like it's going to be any time soon.
Read our full Laifen Swift review
The best dryer for damaged hair
The Zuvi Halo is unusual in our ranking in that instead of relying on heat to dry your locks, it harnesses a combination of targeted airflow with 'safe infrared light energy' to get rid of the water on the hair's surface, kind of like how the sun evaporates rainwater. If you have damaged hair and need something gentle, it's well worth checking out; our reviewer found her hair felt noticeably healthier after the testing period using the Zuvi Halo. It also got her hair dry quickly and efficiently.
Rather than your standard independent heat and airflow adjustment options, the Halo offers five drying presets – Care, Fast, Soft, Style and Cool – each designed to priotritize a different thing. That limits how much control you have, and it's confusing to figure out at first. Our tester also noted mixed results when it came to styling, with not all modes proving successful for her hair type.
If you have the budget for it, the Supersonic Nural (#3) is also great for damaged hair, thanks to the Auto mode that adjusts temperature based on how close the dryer is to your head, meaning you can dry your hair efficiently with no excess heat.
Read our full Zuvi Halo review
The best styling hair dryer
The Shark FlexStyle – or to give its full name, the Shark FlexStyle Air Styling & Hair Drying System – is part of an emerging category of hair dryers that transform into multi-stylers (the most popular and prominent example is the Dyson Airwrap). Once you've figured out the array of attachments and styling options, it's pretty easy to get started with. We tested it on both fine, finer, shoulder-length hair and longer, thicker hair, and found it dried both very efficiently. We liked the rotating barrel design and were impressed with the paddle brush, which is the best we've tried.
It's not perfect, though. While the FlexStyle comes with five different styling options – curl, straighten, volumize, smooth, and define – on test we found it didn't really excel at any of them, and that the results lacked staying power.
Read our full Shark FlexStyle review
How to choose the best hair dryer for you
When it comes to buying the best hair dryer for you, there are a number of things to consider.
Power and setting
Primarily, most people want something that will dry their hair quickly and efficiently. On that front, you want to consider windspeed and temperature. For windspeed power, the spec you're looking at here is wattage: higher wattage generally means more power and quicker drying. There's no spec to indicate how hot a hair dryer is going to be, and bear in mind that too much heat will fry your hair, so it's not just a case of the-hotter-the-better, either.
It's also worth factoring in the settings on offer. Most of today's best hair dryers come with three speed options and three temperature options, plus a cool shot to set your style. This gives you a decent amount of control over how you want to dry your hair, and whether you want to prioritize speed or control / hair health.
Weight and size
Another thing to factor in is how comfortable a hair dryer will be to use – and especially if you have longer or thicker hair, and are going to need to be wielding it for a relatively long time. For this, look at weight and size. How the weight is distributed will also play into this; the Supersonics have most of their weight in the handle, which makes them more comfortable to hold than models that weight the same but have heavier barrel sections.
Note that high wattage hair dryers are usually powered by an AC (alternating current) motor, which makes them heavier. Lower wattage hair dryers are more lightweight because they tend to use lighter DC (direct current) motors but they’re not as powerful.
Cord length
Do not underestimate how annoying a short cord can be. Especially worth factoring in if your home's power outlets aren't located near your mirrors.
Tools
Most hair dryers will come with your basic concentrator nozzle, and many also have the option of a diffuser for curly hair. If you have more specific styling needs, some premium options offer more advanced tools. The standout here is Dyson, which has engineered a wide range of tools for different hair types and lengths.
Of course, you don't just need to go for a basic hair dryer – there are plenty of styling tools that also dry hair. If you just want to do bouncy blow-dries, you could opt for a dedicated brush dryer. We're also seeing more options that convert from hair dryer to styler (the Dyson AirWrap and Shark FlexStyle, for example), offering greater flexibility.
Extra features
A cool shot to set your style is worth keeping an eye out for if you're doing anything other than just rough-drying your hair.
You might want to opt for a hair dryer with 'ionic technology'. These models release charged ions with the aim of smoothing hair as it dries it, and reducing flyaways.
Heating element
If you're more particular about hair health, it's worth looking into which heating element your hair dryer comes with. This is the part that warms the air before its projected from the barrel. Dyers with metal elements tend to be more affordable but will cause more heat damage, while ceramic elements distribute heat more evenly, and thus should be gentler on your hair. Finally, tourmaline elements release negative ions in the airflow, which speeds up evaporation of the water molecules reducing drying time and making hair appear smoother.
Once you've chosen your new hair dryer, it may be helpful to check out our guides on how to blow dry your hair the right way and which hair dryer settings you should use to get the results you want without doing any damage.
Frequently asked questions about hair dryers
Which hair dryer brand is best?
From our at-home testing we can say with confidence that the best hair dryer brand is GHD. We love the GHD Helios. It's quick to heat up and has a super-fast hair drying time, and it looks good too. If you want something more feature-heavy, then we also really rate Dyson. This brand shook up the hair dryer market when it launched the original Supersonic, and is continuing to introduce innovative solutions to all our haircare woes. Elsewhere, Revlon, T3 and Shark are all worth a look-in when weighing up your options.
What hair dryer is best for curly hair?
Those with curly hair should opt for a hair dryer that includes / has a compatible diffuser. This attachment, which has a head much wider than the barrel of a hair dryer, features prongs designed to lit each strand of hair so the hot air can penetrate it. At the same time, the diffuser disperses the air stream to ensure the curl pattern of the hair isn’t disrupted.
While many hair dryers come with a diffuser, some are more specialized than others. Shark makes a diffuser with extendable prongs, for example, while Dyson makes one where the prongs can be removed to leave a dome, which helps shape and define curls.
Is a hair dryer harmful to hair?
Using any heat on your hair will damage the outer protective coating, known as a cuticle layer. Tiny holes will start to appear, and continued use of high heat will see these grow bigger and bigger, with the cuticle layer disintegrating completely, leaving the inner layer of hair strands. When these are exposed, the strands very quickly suffer from breakage.
However, leaving your hair to dry naturally isn't an option for many of us. With that in mind, if you are planning on using a hair dryer, apply a heat protection styling spray before blow drying, and keep the heat level to a medium, to reduce the amount of damage a hair dryer causes to your hair.
How we tested these hair dryers
To test the products we've featured in this best hair dryers guide we take in to account the speed settings, temperature settings and how well they blow dry hair. We also monitored the sound level, and factored in how comfortable and balanced they were to use. We also considered cable length, and handy features like hanging loops, cord storage, and even cool shot buttons.
Our review panel all have different hair types so to compare the hair dryers we access the specifications and review verdicts to ensure they are ordered correctly in this guide.
Meet our reviewers
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Vicky has reviewed a lot of hair dryers for us over the years. She's reviewed the GHD Helios, Shark FlexStyle and Revlon Pro Collection One Step Dryer and Volumiser in this guide. Vicky has thin, should length hair with a natural curl.
TechRadar's Lifestyle Managing Ed Josie has a keen eye for the cool shot on hair dryers, amongst other essential features. She's reviewed the Laifen Swift in this round-up. Josie has thick, medium-length hair.
A regular contributor for TechRadar, Emily has reviewed various appliances for the home, including hair dryers. She has reviewed the T3 Fit in this buyer's guide. Emily has long, wavy hair that’s prone to frizz.
