These are the 13 Best Hair Dryers of 2023, tested by PEOPLE

We independently research, test, review, and recommend the best products—learn more about our process. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.

If you've ever gotten a blowout at the hair salon, you know how unstoppable you feel with all of that extra volume and shine. But if you want to recreate that experience at home, you're going to need to start with an incredible hair dryer.

Celebrities like Jessica Alba and Lady Gaga have expressed their love for the famous Dyson hair dryers, and let's face it, who doesn't want to achieve A-lister hair? While it can be easy to buy into trends, we wanted to work our own magic and try a range of popular tools to see which ones deserve the PEOPLE Tested seal of approval.

Just don't forget to use a heat protectant before blasting your wet strands with your new hair dryer. Without further ado, let's jump into our best picks – you may just find your next beauty essential below.

PEOPLE Tested Winners:

Best Overall: Hot Tools Pro Artist Ionic Hair Dryer
Best Budget: Conair InfinitiPRO Hair Dryer with Dual Ion Therapy
Best Investment: T3 AireLuxe Ionic Hair Dryer
Best Quick Dry: ghd Air 1600W Professional Hair Dryer
Best Attachments: Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer
Best for Curly Hair: DevaDryer & DevaFuser For All Curl Kind
Best for Thick Hair: BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Dryer
Best for Fine Hair: CHI Lava Hair Dryer
Best for Volume: ghd Helios Advanced Professional Hair Dryer
Best for Shine: Hot Tools Professional Turbo Ceramic + Ionic Lightweight Dryer

Best Overall: Hot Tools Pro Artist Black Gold 2000 Watt Ionic Hair Dryer

Buy on Amazon Buy on Hottools.com

Pros:

4 heat, 3 speed, and 4 styling settings
Two extra attachments
Reasonable price

Cons:

Extra settings may be confusing for some

This sleek hair dryer from Hot Tools scored a solid 5 stars across all testing categories – the only product to achieve a perfect score in this entire roundup. The styling tool has 2,000 watts of drying ability (in other words, it's incredibly fast) and a plethora of features such as multiple speed and heat settings, a turbo boost button, and a cool shot and ionizer switch to amp up the volume or smoothness of your hair.

We put this dryer to the real test by trying it out on a humid day in New York City (the ultimate recipe for frizzy strands) and still were met with fabulously shiny results. A blowout took just about 20 minutes with this Hot Tools dryer, which is incredibly impressive. Best of all, this hair dryer is made for use on all hair types, but with the addition of the diffuser attachment, it's even easier to smooth frizz and control your curls.

For only $81, this hair dryer had all of the perks and none of the crazy expensive prices. Being one of our most budget-friendly (and best performing) dryers of the day, we had to give this tool a solid five-stars.

Price at time of publish: $81.12

Hair type: All | Weight: 2.75 lbs | Wattage: 2000 | Settings: 4 heat, 3 speed, cool shot, turbo, volume or smooth | Attachments: 2 concentrators, diffuser

Best Budget: Conair InfinitiPRO By Conair SmoothWrap Hair Dryer with Dual Ion Therapy

Buy on Ulta Buy on Amazon Buy on Target

Pros:

Powerful shot
Salon-quality results
Low price tag

Cons:

A little heavy-handed

Smooth and voluminous hair has never been so attainable as with this hair dryer from Conair. Built with dual ion therapy and ceramic technology to preserve the natural nourishment of your hair, this product works overtime to produce professional results for just $59.99. When we put this model to the test, we saw fully-dried results in just four minutes (high speed and low heat settings, if you want to recreate). And that's without any attachments — talk about record time.

But speaking of the attachments, the addition of the concentrator and diffuser make this hair dryer that much more of a steal. We loved how smooth our strands looked and felt after tacking on the concentrator, and we appreciated the option to choose from one of these two styling heads to achieve our desired look while still paying a generally low price — you usually can't even find standalone dryers for this amount. Whether you choose to use this hair dryer with or without the attachments, you're sure to get a fast and smooth blowout.

Price at time of publish: $59.99

Hair type: All | Weight: 2.4 lbs Wattage: 1875 | Settings: 3 heat, 2 speed, cool shot | Attachments: Concentrator, diffuser

Best Investment: T3 Aireluxe Professional Hair Dryer

Buy on T3micro.com Buy on Amazon

Pros:

Luxe design
Soft and silky results
Quick drying

Cons:

Auto-pause feature is somewhat useless

We tested (and loved) the T3 Cura hair dryer, but the T3 Aireluxe is the newest model, and it has one more speed setting than the discontinued T3 Cura. This ergonomic hair dryer comes in both black and white and has five powerful heat settings and three speeds to create a custom blowout. It comes with two concentrators, one for drying and one for styling, while also having an auto-pause sensor that is meant to occasionally shut off airflow for temperature-controlled styling. "It took about nine minutes to dry half of my head, which was pretty fast, considering I had the heat set on the second lowest temperature with the fan on low," our tester shared after a quick blow dry.

While our tester commented on how smooth and shiny their hair looked after using this T3 tool, they mentioned that the dryer's auto-pause feature doesn't do much. However, this did not impact their view of the dryer too deeply, as they later commented that it is an excellent, easy-to-use hair dryer with all of the necessary features.

Price at time of publish: $199

Hair type: All | Weight: 17.1 oz | Wattage: 1875 | Settings: 5 heat, 3 speed | Attachments: 2 concentrators (drying and styling)

Best Quick Dry: ghd Air 1600W Professional Hair Dryer

Buy on Sephora Buy on Amazon Buy on Ulta

Pros:

Dry hair in 7 minutes
Performed well on damaged, color-treated hair
Smooth and silky strands

Cons:

Not as many attachments as you'd expect with a professional-grade product

The Ghd Air 1600W Professional Hair Dryer is a sleek black tool with, just as it says, 1,600 watts of power. With three heat and two speed settings plus a cool shot and concentrator attachment, this hair dryer is well-equipped when it comes to quick-drying. It dried half of our hair (we sectioned it off for styling purposes) in seven minutes while on the low setting, a true testament to its horsepower. Our strands were left silky-smooth as a result of this dryer, making this a must-have during exceedingly dry or humid times of year.

We also appreciated how well it worked with color-treated hair, making frizzy ends smooth and not causing any visible damage to our hair. But outside of its fast-drying technology and voluminous results, we do feel that more attachments should be included with this purchase since it's a salon-quality product.

Price at time of publish: $199

Hair type: All | Weight: 3.39 lbs | Wattage: 1600 | Settings: 3 heat, 2 speed | Attachments: 1 concentrator

Best Attachments: Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer

Buy on Sephora Buy on Ulta

Pros:

7 heat and speed settings
5 styling attachments
Fast drying time

Cons:

A little complicated to figure out at first

Easily the celebrity of the group, the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer is the one that has us talking. Outside of its impeccable drying time (under five minutes!) and inventive design, the standout for this product was the five attachments that came with this $429 hair dryer. Inside the box you'll find a diffuser, gentle air attachment, wide-tooth comb, styling concentrator and flyaway attachment – all which can be joined together magnetically. Once we spent some time with the machine and got the hang of the attachments, we were blown away by how quickly and effectively we achieved the blowouts of our dreams.

The only question – how exactly do you use those magical attachments? If you own the coveted Dyson Airwrap then you may be accustomed to the brand's advanced fixtures, but if you're a novice like us, you may be a little confused by the attachments upon first use. In this case, be sure to read those instruction manuals before crafting your perfect blowout.

Price at time of publish: $429

Hair type: All | Weight: 1.8 lbs | Wattage: 1600 | Settings: 4 heat, 3 speed | Attachments: Flyaway attachment, styling concentrator, diffuser, gentle air attachment, wide-tooth comb

Best for Curly Hair: DevaDryer & DevaFuser For All Curl Kind

Buy on Ulta Buy on Devacurl.com

Pros:

Innovative diffuser head
Great for curly and textured hair
DevaFuser fits most commercial hair dryers

Cons:

May take some practice to get used to the unconventional diffuser

The DevaDryer may look like your typical hair dryer until you add on its hand-shaped diffuser, a style designed to dry textured hair while preserving natural curls. When tested against curly hair, we noticed that there was a significantly shorter dry time than other hair dryers — 8 minutes for the DevaDryer, whereas most others took about 20 minutes with a diffuser attachment. This dryer also comes with an additional concentrator for sleek blowouts, should you want to switch up your style.

Overall, we had little to no complaints about this dryer — especially because it so beautifully kept the shape of natural curls. All it takes it a little practice to get used to this hand-shaped attachment, but you'll be styling like a pro before you know it. If you're looking for a blowout that compliments your natural texture and has a fun, new design, then this could be the one for you.

Price at time of publish: $180

Hair type: Curly | Weight: 1.68 lbs | Wattage: 1600 | Settings: 3 heat, 2 speed, cool shot | Attachments: Diffuser, concentrator

Best for Thick Hair: BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Dryer

Buy on Ulta Buy on Amazon

Pros:

Lightweight handling
Easy-to-use design
Sleek, smooth results

Cons:

Hot setting was very intense

It's not a walk in the park for people with thick hair to get a good blowout (and forget a quick one), but the BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Dryer does all that and more for you beauties with thick hair. This hair dryer's high torque motor and powerful 2,000 watts of power make this a machine that can cut through the noise (and the density of your hair) to leave you with a blowout that's sleek and shiny in record time. We saw voluminous results in minutes while we dried our thick hair in sections (parted in thirds for better observation). It was easy to use each button and switch up the speeds or heat settings, which we loved.

Be careful when choosing the right temperature, because these heat settings are no joke. We stayed at medium temperature to dry our strands in sections, as the hottest setting got to be way too hot on our skin. However, the medium temperature was effective enough to get our hair dried and ready for the day. We'd say this dryer is definitely up to the thick-hair challenge.

Price at time of publish: $89.99

Hair type: All | Weight: 1.92 lbs | Wattage: 2000 | Settings: 3 heat, 2 speed, cool shot | Attachments: Concentrator

Best for Fine Hair: CHI Lava Hair Dryer

Buy on Ulta Buy on Chi.com

Pros:

Gentle heat
Compact design
Long cord for hard-to-reach outlets

Cons:

Scratches easily when dropped
Slightly expensive

Fine hair usually has a shorter dry time, whether that be naturally or with the help of a hair dryer, but extra care has to be taken with thinner strands. The CHI Lava Hair Dryer is a great choice for someone with fine hair, as this tool is specially made with a volcanic and ceramic stone heater that is designed to produce effective, yet gentle heat while in use — resulting in a lot less damage. We appreciated how ergonomic the hair dryer was, never making our wrists feel tired or sore, thanks to its lightweight design. Its svelte frame is even small enough to be packed into a weekender bag (because let's face it, nobody wants to use a dingy hotel hair dryer).

We wished the price was a little lower, as it has pretty standard settings (low, medium, and high heat, plus a cool shot), but we can understand its $150 price tag due to its volcanic and ceramic materials. It scuffed up pretty easily when we dropped it, so we recommend packing it safely if you take it on any weekend trips. All in all, we appreciated this dryer for thinner hair types because of its built-in protection and add-on attachments which can be used for an even gentler dry — but at the end of the day, this sleek machine can be used for any hair types that are in need of a more mellow dry.

Price at time of publish: $149.99

Hair type: All | Weight: Unlisted | Wattage: Unlisted | Settings: 3 heat, cold shot | Attachments: Smoothing comb, air concentrator, diffuser

Best for Volume: ghd Helios 1875W Advanced Professional Hair Dryer

Buy on Sephora Buy on Amazon

Pros:

Easy to control
Lifts at the roots
Long cord length

Cons:

No third air setting

Dolly Parton did say, "The higher the hair, the closer to heaven," and that sounds like gospel to us. If you want some extra oomph in your next at-home blowout, then we suggest turning to the Ghd Helios 1875W Advanced Professional Hair Dryer for your self-styling needs. We found this dryer to be incredibly easy to use, thanks to its lightweight body and accessible buttons (a trait you'd be surprised to learn is pretty rare). In addition to its ergonomic design, we found that this tool gave us a quick and shiny dry as well as some considerable lift at the roots, making this a favorite hair dryer for our volume lovers.

Its long (9 feet, to be exact) cord makes it easy to plug into those hard-to-reach outlets and do all of the magic necessary for your styling session — all the more reasons to love this tool. While there was much to praise about this dryer, we did wish it had a third speed setting, as the low, medium, and high speeds are preferred to achieve those perfect curls during the blowout process. Regardless, we love the lift that we get from this magical tool from Ghd.

Price at time of publish: $279

Hair type: All | Weight: 1.7 lbs | Wattage: 1875 | Settings: 3 heat, 2 speed, cool shot | Attachments: None

Best for Shine: Hot Tools Professional Turbo Ceramic + Ionic Lightweight Dryer

Buy on Ulta Buy on Amazon

Pros:

Reasonable price for high quality
Great for long hair
High-shine results

Cons:

Purple packaging

Who doesn't love an extra dose of shine sans heavy hair products? Enter: the Hot Tools Professional Turbo Ceramic + Ionic Lightweight Dryer. We thought this hair dryer made our hair significantly less frizzy than the others we'd tried, which is incredible for the low price tag it touts. This $60 box comes with a diffuser, comb attachment, and concentrator nozzle — a stunning amount of extras for a tool that performs this well. After just four and a half minutes, we had half of our hair completely dry, which was record timing for us. We loved its long cord for easy access and worry-free plug-ins, too.

For its attractive price and even styling, there were little to no qualms to be had about this Hot Tools dryer — besides of course, the purple packaging. We figured that for such a sleek machine that shapes even shinier strands, we'd love the design a little more. But if aesthetics aren't top of mind (besides for your hair, of course), then it's a minor complaint that should be overlooked for this hair dryer's amazing price and even better blowouts.

Price at time of publish: $59.99

Hair type: All | Weight: 1 lb | Wattage: 1875 | Settings: 3 heat, 3 speed, Cool shot | Attachments: Diffuser, comb, concentrator nozzle

Best Ionic: Instyler Blu Turbo Ionic Hair Dryer

Buy on Amazon Buy on Walmart

Pros:

Adjustable air speed nozzle
Great for shine
Several customizable features

Cons:

Can get too hot very quickly

If you've ever seen the word "ionic" on a hair dryer and wondered what it meant, you're not alone. Celebrity hairstylist Renato Campora explains: "An ionic hair dryer is a type of hair dryer that has a negative ionic charge. When these negative ions react with the positive ions in your hair, it helps to close the damaged cuticles of the hair." The Instyler hair dryer is equipped with several heat and speed settings while also coming with two styling attachments and a turbo setting – a lot of features packed in at a great value.

"The intent is to have long-lasting smoothness, shine and to be able to style your hair the way that you want to," Campora elaborates. "Ionic hair dryers set the hair well for styling, and help to maintain shine longer."

The customizable speed nozzle is a feature unique to this product, and we loved it for its easy-to-use design. Switching from one setting to another (there are several, with ion customization via a turbo ionic switch being one of them), was a breeze thanks to its smartly-placed buttons and airflow dial, making for the perfect blowout in a shorter amount of time. But when it comes to temperature, that was an area of concern for us — it ran fairly hot and needs a third, more medium setting in our minds.

Price at time of publish: $89.99

Hair type: All | Weight: 0.84 lbs | Wattage: 2,000 | Settings: 2 heat, customizable speed | Attachments: Concentrator, diffuser

Best Design: Amika The CEO 360° Lightweight Powerhouse Hair Dryer

Buy on Sephora Buy on QVC

Pros:

Gentle yet effective heat
Lightweight
Straightforward design

Cons:

Pricey
Packaging may not be for everyone

We loved the Amika CEO 360° Lightweight Powerhouse not only for its funky mosaic packaging, but also for its advanced design and functionality. This ionic dryer utilizes infrared heat to lock in moisture instead of blasting your strands with dry heat — a tactic that makes the dryer feel less aggressive than others (and gentler on our strands). The rotating dials that control the speed and heat level were easy enough to use while styling and the cool shot button was a nice addition for shaping our voluptuous blowouts.

While we appreciated this hair dryer for its fun prints and intuitive design, we do think the price is a bit high compared to some of the others on this list. If you want a sleek, black hair dryer and shy away from loud prints and colors, this may not be the hair dryer for you. However, we don't think you should judge a book by its cover (or maybe pink prints are right up your alley — and in that case, judge away), so this Amika tool is worth trying if you're in the market.

Price at time of publish: $200

Hair type: All | Weight: 1.45 lbs | Wattage: 1875 | Settings: 3 heat, 2 speed, cool shot | Attachments: Two concentrators

Best for Travel: T3 Fit Hair Dryer

Buy on Sephora Buy on Ulta

Pros:

Compact design
Non-damaging on color-treated hair
Easy-to-wrap cord

Cons:

Slightly frizzy hair after use

No one likes to use those small hotel hair dryers, so you might as well invest in a good travel hair dryer that can save your strands while you're on vacation. The T3 Fit is a compact hair dryer that weighs less than a pound (perfect for stowing in a suitcase) and is around 30 percent smaller than a standard hair dryer, making this a must-have on your future getaways. We appreciated how sturdy this tool felt despite its frame and light weight, and we loved the velcro attachment on the cord for easy wrapping. This hair dryer's cool shot was super easy to access because of its placement on the inside of the handle and a combination of the speed and heat settings gave us dry strands in 8 minutes.

We did notice a bit of frizz after our initial test, but we think that this could have been avoided if we'd used the concentrator included (wisdom we now pass on to you). Overall, we think the price tag is worthy of the great results, quick dry time, and easy portability that you get with this small but mighty T3 dryer that's just begging to be your next travel buddy.

Price at time of publish: $149.99

Hair type: All | Weight: 0.78 lbs | Wattage: 1600 | Settings: 3 heat, 2 speed, cool shot | Attachments: Concentrator

Things to Consider Before Buying a Hair Dryer

Hair Type

The biggest factor to consider when shopping for a new hair dryer is the type of hair that you have. Oftentimes fine, thinner hair will require different hair dryer attachments than curly or textured hair, so identifying your hair type and catering to it will deliver the best results. While there is no "type" of hair dryer that works best for certain hair types, Justine Marjan, Ghd Brand Ambassador and celebrity hairstylist to Khloé Kardashian and Ashley Graham, puts hair health at the forefront when it comes to blow drying. It's of peak importance that the dryer does "not get too hot, so that the hair health is protected," says Marjan — which goes for any hair type.

Features

Each and every hair dryer comes with its own set of features, but it's up to you to decide which ones are worth buying into. If customizable speed and several heat settings is up on your list of priorities, then keeping an eye out for multiple settings is important (think the Instyler Blu Turbo and its customizable speed dial). Cool shot buttons and special features like turbo or volume settings are an added perk, as well.

Attachments

Many hair dryers will come with a concentrator, but attachments can go as far as wide-tooth combs and flyaway treatments (ahem, Dyson Supersonic). Marjan pointed out how versatile your hair dryer can be once you add attachments, depending on what look you're going for. "You can use a comb attachment to stretch out curls, a wide styling hair dryer nozzle for smooth blow dries, a diffuser to shape curls, or no attachment for added volume," she explains. Finding which attachments work for your hair will dictate whether or not you need them in tandem with your hair dryer.

FAQs

What is a good wattage for a hair dryer?

The wattage level on your hair dryer is a great indicator of how hot the blow dryer can get and how quickly it will blow dry your hair. For the fastest (and safest) results, 1800 to 1850 watts are the sweet spots. Many of our picks are a little higher than this mark, like the Amika CEO and Ghd Helios, which come in at 1875 watts.

However, generally anything at or below 2000 watts is safe to use at home. Anything with a low wattage will take a little longer to fully dry your hair, which means our picks at 1600 watts (like the Ghd Air or DevaDryer) might take a bit longer to get that full blowout, but your hair may sustain less heat damage in the long run. Regardless, always use a heat protectant before you get to styling.

How much does a hair dryer cost?

The price of a hair dryer varies depending on the brand, materials, functionality, and attachments included with the purchase. You can nab a great-performing dryer at prices as low as $60 (see the Conair InfinitiPRO for our best budget pick), or you can splurge on higher-priced tools like the T3 AireLuxe, which goes for $200.

Most will usually range between $150 to $200, making hair dryers somewhat of an investment for many shoppers — which means you need to take careful consideration before pressing the "purchase" button. Lucky for you, that's why we're here.

Which nozzles should you use with a hair dryer?

There are several attachments and nozzles that a hair dryer can come with, the most popular being a concentrator or nozzle. Concentrators funnel the air coming out of the hair dryer into a targeted area, making the hair easier to manipulate for certain hairstyles (like the lovely flippy ends of a blowout). Diffusers are another popular attachment for preserving and drying natural curls and providing volume. This type of nozzle funnels the air over a wider area than the physical tool's opening allows for, expanding the dryer's reach and providing a gentler airflow than a direct blast. If you want to splurge on a dryer with more attachments, like the Dyson Supersonic, you can experiment with add-ons like flyaway attachments, gentle air nozzles, wide-tooth combs, and more to perfect your hair-drying routine.

How We Tested

Our testers tried out 32 different hair dryers and rated them on a scale from one to five based on ease of use, features, drying performance, the final blowout look, and overall value. After opening up the hair dryer and observing initial thoughts, the testers evaluated how heavy or lightweight each was in the hand, and then they were put to the test. Our testers wet half of their heads with a spray bottle and set a timer to track how long it took to dry their hair with the hair dryer while using their unique features and attachments. The testers then evaluated if their hair ended up looking the same, better, or worse than the already styled half of their head and recorded their answers.

What Is People Tested?

We created the PEOPLE Tested seal of approval to help you find the very best products for your life. We use our unique methodology to test products in three labs across the country and with our network of home testers to determine their effectiveness, durability, ease of use, and so much more. Based on the results, we rate and recommend products so you can find the right one for your needs.

But we don't stop there: We also regularly re-review the categories in which we've awarded the PEOPLE Tested seal of approval — because the best product of today might not be the best of tomorrow. And by the way, companies can never buy our recommendation: Their products must earn it, fair and square.

In short, PEOPLE Tested provides recommendations you can trust — every day, every purchase.