Our contributing beauty editor's Dyson Supersonic r Hair Dryer review – is this professional-level tool worth the extra spend?

When it comes to brands whose beauty launches get immediate attention, Dyson is very high on the list. After the brand first launched the first Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer back in 2016, it quickly became the styling tool on everyone’s lips. If it cost almost £400, it had to be the best hair dryer ever, surely?

Fast forward almost a decade and it’s far from the only hair tool in this price bracket, with competitors like the Zuvi Halo Hair Dryer and other hot tools, such as the ghd Duet Style, also falling around the £400 mark. It’s also now one of three hair dryers in the brand’s portfolio, sitting alongside the Dyson Supersonic Nural and Supersonic r – which this review focuses on.

Originally launching as a professional-only tool, unveiled at New York Fashion week in February 2024, a year later Dyson made the Supersonic r available to consumers for at-home use, too. Having tried the brand’s other hair dryers, not to mention the famous Dyson Airwrap models, I’m pretty familiar with the rest of the hairstyling portfolio – which is why I've shared a detailed breakdown of the Supersonic r. Here’s what I made of the professional-to-consumer pivot…

Our contributing beauty editor's full Dyson Supersonic r Professional Hair Dryer review

Our first impressions of the Dyson Supersonic r Professional Hair Dryer

The Dyson r hair dryer comes in a cuboid rectangular box with each of the attachments wrapped in cardboard. If I didn’t trust that the engineers at Dyson know what they’re talking about and wouldn’t have put out a dud product, I’d have questioned how this lightweight, letter r-shaped pipe could possibly pack in powerful hair drying capabilities. It is. So. Light. The main tool weighs just 325 grams, worlds away from some heavier armache-inducing designs.

I am always a little disappointed when a hair tool – especially an expensive one from a premium brand – doesn’t come with some kind of case, particularly if it has a lot of attachments. For a tool that costs £450, no matter how incredible the engineering or how versatile the attachment range, it feels like a miss to not even have an accompanying dust bag. But the signature Dyson versatility is here with the attachment selection: in the Curly + Coily bundle, which I tested, you get a diffuser, flyaway smoother, concentrator nozzle, comb and gentle air attachment.

The plug, above, is also quite big – not as big as the Airstrait's, but given what I know about putting some of the tech in a larger plug to allow for the actual tool to be more lightweight, it's likely that the same phenomenon is at play here. Those quibbles aside, everything is as pleasingly sleek as you’d expect from a Dyson tool; I particularly love the blush colourway.

How does the Dyson Supersonic r Professional Hair Dryer perform?

It’s not the most powerful hair dryer I’ve ever used, but it does pack in very decent power, the airflow whooshing out of the end of the curved pipe with gusto when you first turn on the dryer. There’s a little bit of a whistle tone, but this doesn’t particularly bother me – my key takeaway is that it’s surprisingly quiet, and you could easily have a conversation over it. That concentrated nozzle is also nice and narrow, meaning you can get right into the roots with great precision to dry and smooth. The gentle airflow attachment does its job well, ideal for those who prefer a more gentle drying experience, and as ever the smoothing attachment flattens any flyaways as an excellent final step.

Outside of testing tools as part of my work as a beauty journalist, by choice I’ll only use a hair dryer with a diffuser – rough drying is a no for curly hair like mine – and so otherwise I’ll tend to use the Airstrait (my go-to) or one of the best hot brushes. That’s my roundabout way of saying that I was most looking forward to testing the diffuser attachment here. The r’s boasts a larger surface area than previous Supersonic models; my one critique of the first diffuser was that despite the superior airflow, it was pretty small. While it’s still on the small side, it did a great job of drying my natural curls and waves super gently for great definition.

What is a great touch is that all of these attachments are equipped with Dyson’s new-ish RFID chips. These remembered your last programmed settings – so, if you dry with your diffuser on a low speed and low heat, but your concentrator nozzle or flyaway attachment with faster airflow, those settings will be remembered when you next clip on the respective attachments. Pretty clever, hey?

How does the Dyson Supersonic r Professional Hair Dryer compare?

In terms of weight, the Supersonic r is pretty much unrivalled, particularly when you consider the airflow and power that’s packed into this compact model. As well as the lightweight, ergonomic and easy-to-hold design, at 2.8m the r’s cable is longer than other Dyson models, which lends the dryer well to professional settings like salons or sets.

On the highest heat setting, I did notice it feels very hot when it’s held close to the scalp – it doesn’t have the motion sensor of the Dyson Nural Hair Dryer, which was designed with scalp care as the priority and is also equipped with the aforementioned RFID chips. Between these two dryers, the extra money is mostly getting you a sleeker, more lightweight design that lends itself well to focused styling.

Should you buy the Dyson Supersonic r Professional Hair Dryer?

There’s no denying that this is another well-designed, powerful tool from Dyson. It performs well, does what a good dryer should do and leaves hair feeling healthy. However, as the Supersonic r was designed for professional hairstylists, I don’t know if I’m convinced that the average consumer will notice a marked difference between this and the already excellent Supersonic, as was the case with the Nural’s marked upgrades.

Things like its lightweight feel, compact design, quiet output and decent power are all things that a consumer will appreciate at home, don’t get me wrong. But they’ll really stand out to someone who uses a hair dryer for many hours in a working day, i.e. the hairdressers for whom they were originally designed. If you can easily afford it and want a uniquely-designed, ultra lightweight dryer that's worthy of a hairdresser's kit, I don't think you'll be disappointed if you want to upgrade a more basic model – but I wouldn't say there's a massive rush to swap out an already excellent Supersonic if that's your current tool and you have no major issues with it.