Supersonic and Superbroke
My hair takes forever to dry—with or without a hair dryer. It holds water like a stage five clinger. Just ask any of my friends who have waited 2+ hours for me to get ready to go out, the majority of which I spend drying my hair. My smartest friends began lying to me about the time an event started, telling me it started 30 minutes before it actually did to give me some buffer time to be punctual (even with 30 extra minutes, I was still usually late). Being punctual is something I continue to struggle with—mostly due to how long it takes me to dry my hair—and I am constantly looking for products or tools that promise to “cut styling time in half” or do more than one thing at the same time, like style/heat protect/smooth hair/add volume/add three extra arms to my body so I can do my makeup and hair simultaneously. Unfortunately, these promises (especially the extra limbs) tend to fall short of their claims (product wise, I actually do like Oribe Royal Blowout Heat Styling Spray which I've found does cut down on drying time, provides heat protection, and adds shine).
The main thing that seems to make a huge difference in how quickly I can dry my hair, and how good it looks after drying, is the type of hair dryer I use. In high school, I repeatedly passed a cheap Conair hair dryer over my strands, my arms shaking from the effort to hold it up for the three hours it took to get my hair completely dry. I upgraded to the Remington Pro Hair Dryer with Pearl Ceramic Technology (just a bonus that it was pink and brown) when I went to college—shocked and grateful that my mom was willing to fork over $40 to buy me a hair dryer. She has always had fine, thin hair and never shared in my battle with thick, weirdly wavy in some parts, weirdly curly in other parts, slower than paint drying head of hair. The Remington definitely pulled its weight for a few years before dying with a sad little puff of smoke from its motor. Following a small and intimate ceremony, I laid her to rest in my trashcan, thanking her for all the good times we shared together.
My first discovery of a “nice” hair dryer, aka one accompanied by a $100 and up price tag, was my friend’s Sedu Revolution Pro, promising an ROI to cut drying time by 70%. There have been several generations of the Sedu hair dryer since I first used it years ago, but it was one of the first professional hair dryers available to the masses that was both compact and powerful—light weight, multiple heat settings, and 2,000 watts of power. I relished every chance I got to borrow it from my friend but decided it was not the dryer for me when I saw how many times she had to get hers replaced. Without warning, it would mysteriously stop working every couple of months, which wasn’t a huge deal as long as it was under warranty, but it was definitely inconvenient. When I finally decided to invest in an upscale hair dryer I asked for recommendations from friends, my hair stylist, and the strangers who provided endless reviews on retailer sites like Amazon or Ulta.
I finally settled on the T3 Featherweight Hair Dryer and immediately fell in love with how it made my hair feel silky, shiny, and smooth. My hair even looked healthier, which was hard to achieve after being barraged with blonde highlights and daily use of a straightener. While the T3 was a lot heavier than a feather, and heavier than the Sedu, it did cut down on my drying time—meaning I didn’t have to strain my weak arms by holding it up for too long. I even bought my mom one for Christmas (just trying to pay it forward with good hair dryer karma) because the Tourmaline® SoftAire™ technology and the ion-enriched airflow dries large sections of hair quickly and gently—helping to prevent damage and breakage—especially important for her fine, delicate hair.
I was going about my day, happy with my T3, when the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer hit the shelves in 2016. As I stared at it through a store window, I’m pretty sure I started salivating—inside, covered in a sleek silver body with a pop of pink, lived Dyson’s famously powerful motor technology. I reeled in horror at the price tag, four hundred dollars? Impossible! Insane! But this lust, this temptation, must be what a married woman feels like when she watches the incredibly hot pool boy clean her filters—wondering if the brief moment of ecstasy is worth the price of infidelity. I thought of my T3, how happy we had been together, how safe and comfortable I felt when I only paid $150 for her when she was on sale at Sephora. How could I abandon her for that Supersonic temptress? And more importantly, how could I ever justify spending that much money on a hair dryer? My answer came in a moment of fate a few months later, when the motor on my T3 started to spark and flame, then with a loud pop, met its untimely death on my bathroom floor. That afternoon, after double checking my credit card balance, I only felt a slight twinge of guilt as I took a deep breath, added the Dyson hair dryer to my cart, and chose 2-day delivery at checkout.
The verdict: the Supersonic left me super broke—but for me, it was worth every penny. The Dyson comes with multiple magnetic attachments (how cool is that?), a two year warranty, and took my total hair drying time down from 30-45 minutes to an unprecedented 10-15 minutes. My hair is smooth and shiny and I have become more punctual (I’ll admit I devote the time saved drying my hair to perfecting my liquid eyeliner cat eye, so I am still a little late). If you don’t have thick, impossible hair like mine, or if you would rather spend that kind of money on something practical, like rent or groceries, you might be better suited to a hair dryer like the T3, the newest version is the T3 featherweight Luxe 2i (or check out a few other great options I’ve linked below). But if you’re feeling tempted, feel free to justify the purchase with the thought of my T3 giving up her life for girls like us to live happily ever after with the Dyson Supersonic at our side.
