If you heat-style your hair, you know how important a good blowdryer is in your routine. I've tested my fair share over the years (at least 75), and I have long hair that retains water. I know which ones work well and which ones just don't cut it. You don't have to spend an arm and a leg to get great results, either. However, luxury dryers do offer unparalleled technology, which takes more than just "hair drying" into consideration (think scalp health, etc.). If you're someone concerned with hair damage or thinning, this may be something to keep in mind. Here, we break down the best hair dryer at every price point, ranging from $25 to $475, so you can find the best fit for your hair type and budget.
The Best Hair Dryer for Every Budget
The Best Hair Dryer at Every Price Point
Best Hair Dryer Under $25: REVLON Turbo Hair Dryer
There's a reason this hair dryer has more than 23,000 positive reviews on Amazon: it's affordable and works well without frying your hair. There are three heat settings, a cold shot button (don't forget to use this at the end to lock in shine and smoothness) and a turbo button, which boosts airflow. It's also not too heavy, weighing just under 2 pounds.
Best Hair Dryer Under $50: Wavytalk Blown Away
Available in seven different colors, this hair dryer offers three temperature settings, three attachments (a comb, a diffuser and a concentrated nozzle), and supercharged airflow. This means hair dries noticeably faster. Of course there's also a cool-shot button and ionic frizz reduction, the brand says its "double-layer removable filter prevents hair from getting caught or tangled inside."
Best Hair Dryer Under $100: Laifen SE Lite
This high-speed dryer is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also fast-drying. According to the brand, it uses 150 million negative ions to neutralize static and make hair shiny and smooth. And, it weighs less than a pound and comes in five pretty pastel shades, including this milky purple that I love.
Best Hair Dryer Under $150: Conair InfinitiPRO DigitalAIRE 2.0
A great pick if you have frizzy hair, this four-speed blowdryer comes with a Frizz Defense attachment that syncs up with the dryer's built-in Advanced Plasma technology to keep hair smooth. I also can't leave out one of my favorite features: The handle folds, which makes it great for traveling, and the dryer uses smart voltage technology, which means it will adjust to foreign voltage automatically.
Best Hair Dryer Under $200: Shark Beauty SpeedStyle Pro Flex Professional Performance High-Velocity Hair Dryer System
There are so many things we love about this dryer, and the first one is the built-in Scalp Shield technology, which is designed to protect new hair growth from extreme heat. Second, the airflow is super powerful and reaches 100 mph in less than a second. Third, the handle folds to make the dryer compact and easy for travel. And lastly, you can choose which three attachments you want when you purchase the dryer, so you don't end up wasting the ones you won't use.
Best Hair Dryer Under $250: T3 Featherweight StyleMax
Available in blush and white, this sleek, 1-pound dryer uses the brand's proprietary StyleMax technology to auto-customize one of its five heat and three speed settings based on your hair texture and styling goals. This allows it to dry the hair quickly, but without damage. It also comes with four attachments: a drying concentrator, a styling concentrator, a SoftTouch 3 diffuser and a smoothing comb.
Best Hair Dryer Under $300: ghd HELIOS 1875W Advanced Professional Hair Dryer
A best-seller with tons of beauty awards to its name, this dryer is also beloved by stylists. It's available in five colors (the brand also drops limited-edition shades every now and then), and it weighs 1.2 pounds. It also comes with the brand's uniquely contoured nozzle attachment, which lets you smooth from root to tip for noticeably sleeker results.
Best Hair Dryer Under $350: Bio-Ionic Smart-X High Efficiency Hair Dryer + Diffuser
Extremely lightweight, this sleek, high-performance dryer weighs less than a pound so you can style to your heart's content without straining your wrist and/or arm. This also makes it great for travel! According to the brand, it dries hair 75 percent faster with "more air pressure and less heat for an overall healthier dry" than competing blowdryers. Another fun feature is the self-cleaning function, which will help keep the dryer in tip-top condition for years to come.
Best Hair Dryer Under $400: RevAir Reverse-Air Hair Dryer
Calling all curly and coily girls! You may have seen this unique and patented hair dryer (I promise you've never seen anything like it) on TikTok, as it's become quite the viral sensation. Designed for types 3 and 4 hair, it uses gentle vacuum suction to send air down the hair strands in the direction the cuticles go. This helps the cuticle lay flat and smooth, protects the hair from damage, preserves curl pattern and boosts shine. It dries hair much faster than traditional dryers, and works on natural hair, braids, extensions, locs, wigs and twist outs.
Best Hair Dryer Under $450: Dyson Supersonic
The blowdryer that revolutionized the category, this OG is still a favorite in the hair-care world (we also love the newer Nural model). Powered by precision engineering and Air Multipliers technology, it dries hair using a "high-pressure jet of controlled air" while protecting strands from heat damage. In testing, it helped increase smoothness by 75 percent and shine by up to 132 percent. It also comes with five attachments that help smooth and style all hair types.
Best Hair Dryer Under $500: L’Oréal Professionnel AirLight Pro
Get salon-quality results with this high-tech hair dryer, which augments the convection heat with infrared light to dry hair faster without damage. Developed with the help of professional hairstylists and tested on their clients, this blowdryer proved in testing to dry hair 14-percent faster than its competitors while using 11 percent less energy. It also comes with a concentrator nozzle and diffuser attachment.
