
"Ionic is best for thicker, frizz-prone hair tourmaline is great option for dry, curly to wavy hair and ceramic is a great choice for all hair types, especially dry hair." Korab also mentions that the type of technology your blow-dryer uses is equally important. "The cool shot button will help you seal down the cuticle of your hair, to 'lock' in the style you have created. "A good blow-dryer should have speed control as well as a cool shot button," Jennifer Korab, celebrity hairstylist and colorist, tells Shop TODAY. Look for a "cool shot" button and speed control.You probably want to prolong the life of your hair dryer, so before you dig into our top picks, we asked the experts what to look for when it comes time to shop for one. What to look for when shopping for a hair dryer The Shop TODAY team also found some options that are reliable (and popular, based on scores of customer reviews and star ratings), as well as under $100.

That's why we talked to celebrity hairstylists and experts to get the scoop on the best hair dryers around. Let's be honest: The options are endless when it comes down to buying a new one, and it's hard to figure out what's worth the money. And all the dryers are claimed by manufacturers to be "ionic" (they release charged ions).A blow-dryer is the one beauty gadget we likely all have but don't give much thought to - until the frantic morning when that trusty hair dryer goes kaput. There were "ceramic" and "tourmaline" dryers among the high- and low-rated models. Despite big differences in price and wattage, drying time for the 10 hairdryer models we tested didn't vary much. You can buy a hair dryer, also called a blow dryer, for $20, but surely a $200 hotshot with high wattage will dry your hair faster, right? Wrong. We found mixed results, some faster, some slower."Ĭonsumer reports say all hair dryers are called 'ionic' now:

They are often billed as drying faster than standard dryers and often cost a lot more. "You see a lot about ionic hair dryers these days," Levine said. Testers found that the new dryers do not save much time, but they were helpful in adding sheen. The dryers are supposed to bathe the user's hair in negative ions, which attach to positively charged wet hair, and lock in moisture. The Good Housekeeping Institute also tested a new breed of "ionic" hair dryers to see if they delivered. Here's the link for Good Housekeeping's review: goodhousekeeping It sounds as if 'ionic' hair dryers are the same for your hair as ordinary hair dryers. Ozone contributes to smog and can cause lung irritation. More worrisome is that ionic generators generate ozone, which is good high in the atmosphere but bad here at ground level. But this is probably a smaller effect than the use of conditioners (good) or hot air (bad). In the long term, ions are more reactive than other molecules, so they probably cause the hair and/or natural oils to be oxidized and the hair to become more brittle. Coating the hair with gel or some kind of conductive conditioner would have a much stronger and lasting effect than ions, which only exist while the hair dryer is running. This doesn't have much effect, since the "frizzy" effects of static electricity fade within a few minutes anyway.

Having extra charged particles (ions) in the air allows any built-up electrical charge (static electricity) to be transferred through the air to other nearby surfaces. Ordinary blow dryers tend to produce static electricity.

In the short term, the ions produced by an ionic hair dryer help reduce static electricity. How do "ionic" hair dryers affect the hair, short-term and long term?
