Brush hair dryers tests: sometimes they rotate

A special place in the market of devices for hair care are hair dryers with automatic rotation of nozzles: the nozzle is attached to the drive, which makes about 100-130 revolutions per minute, rotating the nozzle according to the chosen direction. It is such devices are attributed a magical ability to create a voluminous style “as in the salon”. But, judging by the reviews on the Internet, there are a lot of disappointments about the purchase, too. Let’s figure it out!

Who lives in the market?

Fenov with automatic nozzle rotation in the American market units – a fairly popular Rowenta CF 9220 Brush Activ 1000 a pioneer among the rotating brushes , BaByliss 2735E and AS130E different number of nozzles and power – at 2735E that and another bigger , Philips HP8665 Dynamic Volumebrush, as well as new this year’s Vitek VT-2378, Lamark LK-1245 P and Scarlett IS-533. All of these models took part in our test except the BaByliss AS130E.

We line up in pairs!

In the home appliance market, “twin” appliances are not so uncommon – almost identical models with identical controls, functionality and design. But when the market is as small as it is in the case of rotary brush hair dryers, it’s especially striking.

That’s why in our test the models are presented in pairs: it was interesting to compare similar devices, especially as the consumer often can not decide when choosing between similar models.

“It’s a miracle how easy it is!” or “That’s awfully heavy!”

If you want to choose “rotating” as affectionately dubbed similar models on the net , focusing on reviews on the Internet, you will face diametrically opposed to the evaluation of usability of this technique.

Rotating round brushes lift, curl and comb your strands at the same time – all you have to do is hold the brush correctly by clamping the nozzle rotation key. That’s the main difficulty right there.

There are two things that are the hardest to do:

1. Coordinate, looking in the mirror, the direction of rotation of the nozzles. Until you get used to it and that’s a few days , it’s difficult to choose the direction, so at first it’s best to turn the rotation on next to your hair and make sure the direction is correct. Also, you should not use a high speed of rotation at once. Cases of hair getting tangled in the bristles of the nozzle are not uncommon, so caution and attention are extremely important when working with such devices.

2. Holding the device itself above your head for a long time all models are quite heavy and clutching the rotation button with your thumb. At first it seems that it would be better if this button were fixed, because my fingers and joints get very tired, but then it becomes clear that in case of wrong hair winding, you can immediately stop the rotation by releasing the button, instead of thinking frantically how to do it.

Advice from our test team

Of course, all girls have different hair types and lengths, and different characters: someone followed the manufacturer’s advice to thoroughly separate all the hair into strands, securing them with pins, and someone tried to manage the styling without hairdressing manipulations for 5 minutes. That’s why the same devices received different ratings – from “very bad, I was totally disappointed” to “super, I ran to buy this thing”.

As you guessed, beauty and good results take time and patience. But still, the “collective intelligence” of our apparatuses allowed us to work out some general recommendations. So:

It is not possible to grab too wide strands, despite the large width of the working surface of the nozzles about 10 cm . From a strand width of more than 6-7 cm at the edges of the hair begins to break out, get on the plastic tips of the nozzles and from friction with them become electrified. They don’t get that effect if they’re not working on a wide strand!

The choice of speed if any also depends on the type of hair: for thicker hair is the second, as the first hair dryer is difficult to comb them. The 4 devices which have no rotating speed regulation, most of them were not fast enough: the nozzles couldn’t manage to comb the strands wider than 3-4 cm.

These hair dryers do not cope well with the creation of volume at the roots, so before you lay them dry with a powerful hair dryer with a concentrator nozzle.

The models with natural bristles are more gentle to the hair, after styling hair is more shiny and looks well-groomed. However, natural bristles frizz and break, so the storage of nozzles in plastic containers is strictly mandatory!

Hair dryers can be used as straighteners: just pull the strands tighter and run the nozzle along the entire length. Some girls complained that instead of curling, the nozzles straightened their hair – “unexpectedly!”. However, this is a consequence of a purely technical error: in order to create volume and curl hair, it is necessary to stop the rotation of the nozzle all the time when the strand is curled, and warm up a few seconds without rotation.

Technical tricks

It is believed that the use of ceramic in the coating of the nozzles contributes to a more even distribution of heat over the surface, and contact with ceramic is less harmful to the hair than contact with metal. However, no big difference is felt: all nozzles of all hair dryers after 5 minutes of work at full power are so hot that you need a tack or towel to change the nozzle.

Ceramics is declared in all models, except Lamark LK-1245. Similar story with ionization a stream of negatively charged particles, responsible for removing static electricity from the hair . The function is claimed in all models except Lamark LK-1245, but again, no one noticed a big difference.

Constructional approach

And what is definitely noticeable is the difference in design. Note that the wires of all models have a swivel mount and rotate, and therefore do not get tangled. The nozzles of all models attach and detach very conveniently. But there is a side effect.

The Rowenta, Philips and Lamark have both circular nozzles that rotate, the others have only one, the big one, the main one.Also these models have adjustable speed.

BaByliss has the richest and most elaborated set, though how to use the straightener head was left out of the test: it is not explained in the instructions, and no one could manage it well.

Rowenta has the longest cord – 220 cm. The others had 180cm.

BaByliss and Scarlett have removable air intake grills, the others have not thought of this point, and in vain: there are enough reviews on the Internet that the clogged dirt overheats the motors of such hair dryers, and the devices are turned off.

Rowenta and Philips have big loops, so you can hang them on any hook.

The Vitek and Lamark have very small loops, only very thin hooks to hang them on, the BaByliss and Scarlett have no loops at all.

Thank you to the representative offices of the manufacturing companies for providing the equipment.