Phillips Tresemme Professional Hairdryer

I have been blessed (if you can call it that) with fine, fairly curly hair that has a tendency to be static and flyaway and any efforts to try and tame it have proved to be fairly fruitless in the past. The invention of hair straighteners and various shiny making products have helped me in my mission to stop looking like Kate Bush, but it takes a lot of time and effort, not to mention sweat and tears!!!!

I've always been fairly amazed ...
...sleek hair armed with nothing more than a round brush and a hairdryer and it was only after several frustrated visits to the salon that I hit upon their secret. I know hairdressers are always going to get better results, as it's much easier to style someone else's hair instead of your own but, when a junior stylist achieved the same results as my usual hairdresser, I realised that much of their success was down to the equipment they use.
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I have been blessed (if you can call it that) with fine, fairly curly hair that has a tendency to be static and flyaway and any efforts to try and tame it have proved to be fairly fruitless in the past. The invention of hair straighteners and various shiny making products have helped me in my mission to stop looking like Kate Bush, but it takes a lot of time and effort, not to mention sweat and tears!!!!

I've always been fairly amazed by my hairdresser's ability to give me immaculately straight and sleek hair armed with nothing more than a round brush and a hairdryer and it was only after several frustrated visits to the salon that I hit upon their secret. I know hairdressers are always going to get better results, as it's much easier to style someone else's hair instead of your own but, when a junior stylist achieved the same results as my usual hairdresser, I realised that much of their success was down to the equipment they use.

For years, high street shops have been selling hairdryers which may be powerful but which lack a vital component that, in my opinion, makes the difference between hair that looks like a bird's nest and the slinky locks of movie stars. It's possibly the simplest part but, for me, the secret of decent blow-drying lies in the concentrator nozzle. It is only very recently that high street shops have decided to replace the almost circular nozzles of yesteryear (which do dry your hair, but blow it every which way in the process until it resembles a haystack) with the professional, slim nozzles. Narrower concentrator nozzles offer much more control and enable you to dry your hair straight and tangle free, which makes such a big difference when you have crazy hair like mine which needs little incentive to do its own thing.

THE HAIRDRYER

As soon as I received my new, shiny hairdryer, I realised that high street shops had finally got it right and I would never again be subjected to powerless or uncontrollable hairdryers. Aesthetically, this product looks like the dryers you will find in your local professional salon in terms of size and shape and it comes with a straightening brush. Ergonomically, it has a smooth handle with a rubber grip which prevents slippage and makes it easier to manoeuvre (as it is quite large). Further to a point raised by Nar, I would also like to add that the body and handle of the hairdryer are heat insulated.

At the time of writing, this hairdryer is £32.99 in Argos, £30 in Boots and will cost between £27 and £30 online, although you will probably end up spending more than you would in a shop with the additional p&p cost. I was lucky enough to get this as a present, but although you can find cheaper versions out there, I would definitely say you do quite well for your money with this hairdryer.

This is a 2000W hairdryer with a long life AC motor, so it's a pretty powerful beast. It has a ceramic element for fast, gentle heat and claims to have something called EHD or Even Heat Distribution Technology! I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and pretend that this is something new, but surely this has been around a while, or we would have burned our scalps years ago?

You have a choice of 9 settings with this product. There are 3 speed settings, 3 heat settings as well as a separate cold shot (a button which allows you to blast your head with cold air once your hair is dry, which apparently helps to hold the style in place) and a separate turbo shot for an extra boost. I'm not really sure why this is necessary, but it sounds good, doesn't it?

There is also an ionic conditioning setting, which can be switched on or off and is indicated by a cool blue indication light. According to the scientists, ionic hairdryers produce a stream of negative ions, which surround each hair on your head, removing static electricity and smoothing the hair follicle to leave you with shiny, slinky and manageable hair. Negative ions also break water into small droplets so more water is absorbed into the hair, which not only makes it dry faster, but produces a conditioning effect. Being a bit thick about science in general, I did wonder if the stream of negative ions produced by my hairdryer might eventually run out, as I cannot understand how on earth this works. I religiously switch my ionic power on when drying my hair, but since I don't understand technology at the best of times, I'm not sure if this will work forever, or even if it works at all. My hair does appear to be more sleek and shiny, but I tend to put that down to the nozzle rather than the funky blue light!

The hairdryer comes complete with a double-sided ceramic straightening brush (as previously mentioned), which enables you to clamp your hair and hold it straight as you dry it. Personally, I find it easier to use a paddle brush which gives good results, but each to their own. The hairdryer has a 3m long cable, so you have plenty of freedom of movement whilst drying your hair and it also has a hanging loop, so that you can hang it on your wall if you so desire. Though, this hairdryer is fairly large, I am told it weighs less at 1.3kg than normal salon dryers do and it does feel fairly light and user friendly.

DOES IT WORK?

Yes it certainly does. Not only does it dry my hair much quicker than my old hairdryer, I find that I can straighten my hair with much less effort than I did before and there is next to no frizz. I also find that my hair is more likely to retain its style when I leave the house, rather than kinking up to be damned the second a slight gust of wind touches it. I'm not 100% convinced by the ionic stuff or the necessity of the turbo boost, though I cannot deny my hair is smoother and requires much less brutality with straightening irons. I do think a lot of that is to do with the concentrator nozzle, but I still think it's well worth the money and would have gladly paid this much myself, if it hadn't been a present. Put it this way, I have noticed a huge improvement since this little piece of kit came into my world and if you have hair as difficult as mine, I would advise you to give it a try.  

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