Episode 104: How to choose a hair dryer
By Rico
The crazy idea that the hotter the hair dryer will get the quicker it will dry my hair, wrong! Understanding what you use to dry your hair can either help or kill it quick. Let’s take the time to understand some key components when choosing a hair dryer. I came across this tutorial online and it explained in detail the differences in what a good vs. bad hair dryer can do to hair over time.
The Heating Element:
• Cheap hair dryers normally use metal or plastic heating elements that burn with intense and uneven heat. Essentially, they dry your hair by cooking the water out of it – literally boiling it off.
• If you don’t take great pains to protect your hair, prolonged blow drying will make it grow brittle and eventually break, as your hair can’t stand up to being flash-fried on a regular basis. Even products that protect against heat damage can’t hold up to this kind of heat for long.
• With high-end hair dryers, ceramic heating is the standard. Ceramic has remarkable properties of heat conduction – which you may know, because modern space heaters and similar home technology tend to use ceramic.
• This is because ceramic produces “far infrared heat” which is radiant – it penetrates the hair shaft safely, instead of heating from the outside in. This also explains why ceramic flat irons & curling irons are the choice of professionals.
• Ceramic, which can be infused with tourmaline or other elements, produces a gentle heat that means ceramic heating is safer – ceramic space heaters won’t catch things on fire the way metal ones are prone to do, and ceramic hair dryers won’t blast your hair with harmful energy.
“Ionic” drying:
• Cheap hair dryers that use metal or plastic elements diffuse positive ions that cause the (normally neutral) cuticle covering of the hair shaft to open, causing frizz and dull appearance.
• Ionic hair dryers produce negatively charged ions, which cause the cuticle to remain flat, “trapping” moisture, eliminating frizz and giving hair more body
Tourmaline:
• Tourmaline was recently introduced to the hair science for its incredible capability to generate negative ions. With more negative ions, a hair dryer can dry faster (up to 70%) for unbelievably sleeker, shiny hair.
• Tourmaline hair dryers can be combined with tourmaline treated brushes or other heat styling tools like tourmaline flat irons to add to the shiny, sleek effect.
Wattage:
• While wattage varies among hair dryers, we always recommend something 1300 watts or above (unless a travel hair dryer). All of our professional hair dryers fit this category. Wattage directly affects how fast your hair dries (higher watts = more time to snooze in the morning).
• Plus, they dry hair faster than regular dryers and leave it shinier and smoother. This is because they don’t “cook” your hair dry like the old metal or plastic coils did – they actually break down water molecules in your hair instead. Ionic dryers also banish the static electricity that results in a flyaway mess of hair.=Ceramic charges ions negatively – to an extent – but combining it with other
settings
- We recommend a hair dryer with multiple speed settings (standard on professional hair dryers).
- Separate heat settings are also a plus; if your hair is only damp, use cooler settings.
Cool Shot options available on most hair dryers create a blast of cool air which is useful when setting finished styles – you can use it to dry finishing sprays or similar setting products.
Emfs
Many people look for hair dryers that say they produce “low EMFs”, or electromagnetic fields. The old traditional dryers produce EMFs at levels considered potentially dangerous for prolonged use, while today’s professional quality dryers generally produce very low amounts – this is safer for you and also friendlier to the environment.
Information cited from http://www.misikko.com/best-hair-dryer.html. Check out salon tools at All Eyes On Me Hair https://alleyesonmehair.com/product-category/salon-tools/
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