How often should you replace your hairdryer?

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Stay forward of the development in trend and past with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit publication

The humble hairdryer has a spot in each residence. But have you seen how a lot they’ve developed?

It wasn’t way back after we all had a reasonably normal piece of equipment to dry our tresses with on hair-wash day. The common value of a good hairdryer was round £30 and changing them solely appeared to occur in the event that they blew up or began getting actually scorching.

We are most likely extra safety-savvy nowadays, however many people nonetheless preserve our hairdryers for a really very long time. And now that they’ve skyrocketed in value, it’s a hardly a shock. Pop into your native Boots or Superdrug, and you’ll see an array of hairdryers starting from £30 to £300 – with much more choices obtainable beneath and above these value factors. It’s a marvel we all know the place to start out.

How have hairdryers developed?

“The technology has changed, so the sizes have become more portable, they’re cordless and a lot lighter to hold,” says Kliff Stephanou, inventive director, holistic hairdresser and educator for the House of Keune By Bloom London. “They’re also designed not to overheat, and the heat is evenly distributed.”

Michael Douglas, hairstylist and founding father of mdlondon, believes it’s solely in the previous few years that important modifications have come about, noting hairdryers all the time used alternating present (AC), which is the kind of electrical energy that feeds into it. “It’s quite a simple device, really,” he says. “But trying to make them small is quite difficult, because it generates so much heat. If you make them small, the inside can start to melt, so traditional hairdryers have always been very big and bulky.”

Thanks to advances in expertise, nevertheless, direct present (DC) – a special kind of electrical energy, which is basically extra highly effective – may very well be used inside hairdryers, Douglas continues: “So that’s what really changed – the brushless DC motor. It can suck in more air more efficiently, and therefore blow more air out efficiently. And that meant the hairdryer could get a lot smaller.”

Douglas additionally says the nozzles and attachments have turn into much more necessary: “Back in the 80s and 90s, nobody used a nozzle on a hairdryer,” he states. “Now, people get in touch with me asking how to get rid of frizzy hair, or they’ve got flyaways or flat hair. They want body or shine and they’re all asking for a shampoo – but they just need a good blow-dry. Every single one of those problems is solved with a hairdryer, a brush and a nozzle.”

What should we be on the lookout for in a hairdryer?

According to Remington’s advertising and marketing supervisor, Rebecca Veal, the tech we should all be searching for in a brand new hairdryer consists of ionic conditioning (“this disperses millions of negative ions onto the hair, to neutralise static that can be caused by heat styling,” she says); a cool or chilly shot to set a method in place; customisable warmth and velocity settings, so you can discover the suitable setting for your hair kind; warmth sensors to stop the air temperature reaching extremes and due to this fact defending your hair, and styling attachments for creating the look you need.

But Stephanou says it actually is determined by your hair kind, your utilization, and what you need to get out of it as a styling software. “If you’re drying your hair every day, or you have fine hair, you want to minimise that heat, so I would invest in a really good hairdryer – probably a Dyson or maybe a Shark,” he says. “If someone has very coarse or hard-to-manage hair, I would say a Parlux or a ghd – those dryers are quite good, too.”

How a lot should you spend?

Veal says: “The price range is typically driven by the motor type and inclusion of additional features. The more features and technology the dryer has, the higher the price. With basic dryers, the airflow will not be particularly powerful, making drying time longer, and it will just dry your hair. These dryers usually have two dry settings (low and high speed) and include just a concentrator attachment.

“Under £150 dryers usually feature DC, HTDC or AC motors and are suitable for everyday use. Over £150 dryers typically use a new generation of motor called BLDC – these motors are extremely powerful, use less heat and are also lighter weight.”

Stephanou stresses you don’t must spend an excessive amount of on a hairdryer, however once more, it relies upon how often you’re blow-drying your hair. “If you’re drying your hair a lot, you probably want spend a little more money, but there are other brands, like BaByliss, that can give you great results.”

And don’t overlook, you don’t all the time should blow-dry your hair, he provides, referencing the social media movies the place folks have wrapped their moist hair in a dressing robe belt, gone to mattress and woken up with large bouncy curls, so warmth styling isn’t all the time the reply.

How often should you replace your hairdryer?

In excellent news, all our consultants agree you shouldn’t must replace a hairdryer very often, however you do must take care of it.

“It’s really just cleaning the filter at the back of the dryer,” says Douglas, including that some designs now have ‘self-clean’ capabilities. And how often you clear it is determined by how often you use it – and the way clear your home is!

“Let’s say you blow-dry your hair four times a week, it then depends how hot you use your dryer, how thick your hair is, how long it takes to dry – there are quite a lot of variables there,” he provides. “And then, one of the most interesting things is, how dusty is your house? How new is your carpet? And whether you have pets. How much dust is getting sucked into the back of it?

“If you’re maintaining it pretty well, though, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t get five to eight years out of it.”

5 of one of the best hairdryers

1. Dyson Supersonic Hairdryer, from £279.99

2. Remington ONE Dry & Style Hair Dryer with Diffuser, £66.65, Argos

3. MD London BLOW Hair Dryer Casal Blue, £195

4. BaByliss 2300 Styler Dryer, £67.50 (beforehand £90)

5. Shark VelocityStyle 3-in-1 Hair Dryer, £199.99