The 4 Best Hair Dryers of 2025

Compared with the Rusk W8less, the Amika Accomplice Compact Dryer (currently unavailable) is heavier, limited to a lower max temperature (215 °F), and double the price. However, its 9.5-foot cord ties with that of the GHD Helios for the second-longest cord among the dryers we’ve tried.

In our testing, the BaBylissPro Nano Titanium Dryer produced a whining sound that was worse than any noise from competitors.

At 1 pound, the BaBylissPro Rapido Dryer is an ultra-lightweight dryer, and it comes with a 9-foot cord, but it’s slower and more than double the price of the Rusk W8less. (We’d go with the company’s Carrera2 over this one if we had to choose between the two.)

The Bellissima Italia Diffon Supreme XL can only diffuse waves and curls. It has an enormous mouth (perfect for a thick head of curls), an 8.5-foot cord, plus three heat settings and two speed settings, none of which are especially hot or fast—purposefully, the company says, to encourage the natural curl to fully develop while drying. The buttons are awkwardly placed, and the cool shot is lukewarm. This dryer is expensive (double the cost of our top pick) but for people who are willing to spend a lot more to save time drying and defining curls, this device might be a worthwhile buy.

The Bio Ionic 10X Ultralight Speed Dryer is a tad lighter (0.92 pounds) than our top pick and has a slightly longer cord. However, the dryer doesn’t have separate wind-speed and temperature-control settings (if you want hot air, it must also be fast).

At an impressive 11 feet long, the currently unavailable CHI Touch 2 Dryer’s cord is the longest of any dryer we’ve tested, but this dryer is more expensive and much slower than the Rusk W8less. It also has a mere one year of warranty coverage, and its nonintuitive touchscreen felt gimmicky.

The Conair InfinitiPro SmoothWrap Hair Dryer is slower and has a shorter cord than all of our picks. However, it is lightweight (a pound), and it reaches temperatures above 245 °F.

The retro-looking Conair Pro Yellow Bird Hair Dryer is one of the hottest dryers we’ve tested (reaching over 245 °F). But at a pound and a half, it also ties for the heaviest dryer we’ve looked at. Its buttons are strangely placed and unlabeled, and it doesn’t have a cool shot. It used to be our favorite dryer that came with a straightening pick, but we now prefer the Pattern Blow Dryer.

The DevaDryer by DevaCurl is slower and heavier than our picks. However, after a few wash-and-go tests, our curly-haired testers found that they liked using the included DevaFuser attachment, a unique hand-shaped diffuser that helps dry curls and waves without losing definition. You can buy a universal-fit version of the DevaFuser for any attachment-compatible hair dryer.

At 1.3 pounds, the Drybar Buttercup Blow Dryer is heavier than our picks. The air speed is also slower, at just over 30 mph measured at a distance of 2 inches.

Elchim offers an impressive warranty and repair program that covers all its hair dryers. At 1.2 pounds, however, the Elchim Classic 2001 is heavier than our picks, and we found the handle to be thick and awkward to hold.

The gorgeous GHD Helios 1875W Advanced Professional Hair Dryer is heavier and slower than our pick, the Rusk W8less—and three times the price. However, at over 9.5 feet, its cord ties with that of the Amika Accomplice for the second-longest cord of any hair dryer we’ve tested, and this dryer is especially beautiful.

Undeserved hype (and proximity to celebrity hair) aside, the Harry Josh Pro Tools Pro Dryer 2000 has one major design drawback: At 1.21 pounds, the dryer was on the heavier side of the short-nozzle models we tested. Like our top pick, this model is warrantied for two years.

The lightweight and long-corded Hot Tools Professional Black Gold Turbo Ionic Salon Dryer is a little heavier than and not as fast as the Rusk W8less, and it’s typically more expensive, too. On top of that, owner reviews allege poor longevity. (This dryer is covered by a whopping seven-year warranty, though.)

The Hot Tools Professional Black Gold Turbo Ionic Salon Dryer (DC Motor) is extremely light at only 14 ounces. But it also has the most buttons and slides and switches of any hair dryer we’ve ever tested, including a cool-shot button, a power-boost slide, an ion select wheel, and switches for speed and temp—whew! It’s also one of the slower dryers we’ve tested.

The Hot Tools Pro Artist White Gold Digital Salon Dryer (currently unavailable), the Panasonic Nanoe EH-NA65, and the Panasonic Nanoe EH-NA67 were all slower, heavier, and more expensive than the Rusk W8less. (See Wirecutter’s review of the lighter-weight, foldable Panasonic Nanoe Compact Quick-Dry Hair Dryer.)

Of the Dyson Supersonic lookalikes, the Karrong F350 seemed the most promising to us, but it ended up being half as fast, with no way to control speed separately from temperature—the hotter it got, the faster it got. Also, there was no warranty information to be found.

The buttons on the discontinued Parlux 3200 we tested are positioned on the side, and they made the dryer hard for us to hold without getting poked in the hand. (The 3200 Plus and the 3200 Ceramic Ionic have similar button placement.)

The Remington Damage Protection Hair Dryer D3190 comes with a diffuser and a concentrator, but it’s bulkier and heavier than other models we tested.

The Revlon 1875-Watt Infrared Hair Dryer produced a wind speed of 45 mph (measured directly in front of the nozzle), slower than the speed we got from our picks. It weighs just over a pound, has a cord measuring 5.5 feet, and comes with a concentrator and a diffuser. But the mediocre specs, along with the gimmicky red lights that flash while you’re blow-drying, kept this dryer from being a pick, even though it was a particularly inexpensive model at the time of our tests.

Although the 1,875-watt Revlon Compact Styler is a wallet saver at around $10, the savings do not make up for the dryer’s added heft, its lack of attachments, and its reduced wind speeds compared with those of our picks.

The Rusk Pro Speed Titanium Hair Dryer, which the company suggested as a replacement for the discontinued CTC Lite model we previously recommended, is nearly double the price of the Rusk W8less and has the same cord length, heat settings and speeds, and two-year warranty. It does, however, always come with a diffuser (the W8less does not).

The Shark HyperAir is heavier and has a shorter cord than the Dyson Supersonic (1.2 pounds and 96 usable inches, respectively, versus the Dyson’s 1 pound and 105 inches). Our testers found that it was just as fast and hot for around half the price or less, depending on the chosen kit. However, we’ve found the Shark SpeedStyle performs just as well as the HyperAir, and regularly costs less.

The wind emitted by the lightweight Trezoro 9300, an Amazon best seller, is very fast and hot (especially for the dryer’s price). However, at the time of testing, customer service was only reachable via a Hotmail address (and since then, quite a few reviews have lamented their customer service experience). We think the less expensive InfinitiPro by Conair is a better value overall.

Shannon Palus contributed reporting. This article was edited by Tracy Vence and Kalee Thompson.