The Halo uses infrared light to dry water on the hair’s surface, leading to less damage to the hair itself, and the only real downside in sight is perhaps an upside for those looking for a calmer way to dry: Its muted flow is not as powerful as other brands’. This compact blow dryer has all the power and functionality of a full-sized one. We found it intuitive to use and all of the buttons are where they should be, making it easy to push and move between different speeds and heat, even with the smaller design. The price is a little steep, but it works as well as other T3 blow dryers, except that it folds up. The dryer also has auto-dual voltage, meaning it can be used anywhere in the world — so no matter where your travels take you, a sleek blowout will always be available. It's worth noting that the highest heat setting isn't super hot, but it didn't bother us, as it kept us from burning our hair. You should always take hair damage into consideration because you don't want to make matters worse by frying your hair. According to Stewart, if you have heat damage, try drying hair on a low setting with warm or cool air instead of with hot air on a high setting. "In addition, you can use a heat protectant or serum prior to blow drying to protect your strands," she says. Bumble and bumble Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat & UV Protective Primer is one of our favorites because it provides heat and UV protection, moisturizes, detangles, and cuts down frizz. Katy Olson is a beauty buff and professional journalist with naturally curly hair. For this article, she drew on research from the InStyle editors who tested each hair dryer.

The buttons’ placement feels crowded, making it easy to accidentally adjust your settings mid-blowout.The hair dryer doesn’t come with attachments for different hair textures, and it’s heavier than we’d like it to be. Ceramic: Contain a special ceramic coating to help distribute heat more evenly to hair while avoiding damage. Our fine hair tends to get frizzy, but this hair dryer tamped down on our flyaways while amping up our much-needed volume. After every blowout, our hair looked smooth, straight and healthy. Options are seemingly endless on the attachment front, but your hair type will drive your decisions there too. With a super chic vortex design that helps to control airflow and a matte caramel colorway, the Pattern’s good looks are only the beginning of its story as a curl-enhancing hot tool. Designed with "curlies, coilies and tight textures" in mind, the Pattern Blow Dryer absolutely delivers.

The Hyper Air comes with two attachments, the IQ 2-in-1 Concentrator and the IQ Styling Brush. The concentrator includes a dial to toggle between wide and narrow airflow, and users can rotate the attachment itself to ensure that the airflow is always in line with a brush while blowing out hair. A diffuser is also available, although it's sold separately, which was disappointing. We noted that despite its compact size, the IQ2 produced a surprisingly loud noise, making it difficult to hear others while the product was in use. For a truly professional-quality tool, though, the cost and the volume are no doubt justifiable. Yet the dryer’s features aren't just for the pros. Anyone who uses a dryer daily will appreciate the tool's longevity (an A/C motor that lasts 2,000 hours), its efficiency (the dual-filtration system drops energy use by 70 percent), and its impressive multitude of settings (12 heat, speed and ion settings). Equipped with one of the longest nozzle attachments we tested meant that we could direct heat in specific sections. We were particularly pleased that using the nozzle in such a targeted way didn’t result in a scorching sensation. This hair dryer is definitely a splurge — but we swear it's worth it. Our hair looked great when we finished plopping with the hand attachment. Our curl texture looked natural and there was minimal frizz. We had a few flyaways, but it was nothing compared to how it usually looks. All that said, the quality of the blowout rendered by the INFINITIPRO makes it the top choice on our list for those looking to bust frizz, whether in a straight blowout or a curly ‘do. It comes with a concentrator and a diffuser, too, making the process even easier.As the cute green color chipped off when we dropped it, the hair dryer may not be as durable as some of the other options on this list. Although first impressions aren’t everything, the sleek design of this T3 hair dryer nearly won us over, although we were curious whether such a small hair dryer would be powerful enough for a proper blowout. We have thin hair, and not a lot of it, so we need our hair dryer to be strong enough to whip up a serious amount of volume, and this little guy did just that.