Is Hershesons’ The Great Hairdryer the secret to great hair days? Our Beauty Ed finds out

With a name like Hershesons The Great Hairdryer, it’s clear from the off that this is a tool confident in its abilities.

Hershesons are on the record having said that they’d only ever release a hairdryer if they believed it was the best hairdryer in the world. So here you have it, this must be the tool to end all tools. It’s a big claim – and one that certainly piqued my interest. 

I’m normally a bit cynical when a brand makes outlandish promises, but, if there’s anyone who knows what makes a good hairdryer, it’s the stylists who spend all day, every day using them. The Hershesons’ team are not only picking up a hairdryer repeatedly throughout a day working in a salon, but styling a range of hair types and lengths, giving them a very clear idea of what’s going to please the crowd and what won’t. I’m not a pro hairdresser, so will it still deliver for an uncoordinated Beauty Editor with tricky, thick, naturally curly and frizz-prone hair? I put it to the test to find out… 

Hershesons The Great Hairdryer SPECIFICATIONS

• RRP: £295 
• Added extras: Narrow nozzle, wide nozzle, diffuser 
• Weight: 294g
• Power: 220-240V
• Warranty: 2 years

My first impression of the Hershesons The Great Hairdryer

Hairdryers have started to look slightly different in recent years. No longer bulky, arm-ache-inducing things with big clunky motors, they’re smaller, slimmer and more streamlined. Hershesons The Great Hairdryer fits this updated brief to a tee, with a compact size that’s comparable to a travel hairdryer. 

On picking it up out of the box, the first thing you notice is that it’s impressively light, weighing less than a can of Coke. The weight is pretty evenly distributed between the front and back of the tool, and it points up slightly on the end with the nozzle, which helps you get a good downward angle for sleek styling. 

The second thing you notice is the colour. It’s Hershesons’ signature royal blue with shiny silver detailing, which makes for a vibrant alternative to your classic black hairdryer. Even the plastic coating is appealing, with a matte finish that looks expensive and feels nice to hold. 

As for bells and whistles features, Hershesons The Great Hairdryer uses something I hadn’t heard of before, called the Venturi Effect, which, is essentially a specially shaped air outlet that increases airflow by creating a vacuum. This gives the dryer extra welly, without having to use more power. It also has Oxy Active Technology, which is not, as you might expect from the name, anything to do with washing detergent, but a clever way of emitting oxygen to help increase shine, retain elasticity and protect the pigment in your hair – all of which are key to good hair days. 

How well does Hershesons The Great Hairdryer perform?

The Usain Bolt of hairdryers, this dries hair seriously fast. It’s so speedy that it took my wet-from-the-shower hair to bone dry in half the time it takes my trusty Dyson Supersonic to do the same. From the moment I turned it on (very easy to do – just flick the switch) I was impressed by how powerful it felt. It might be small, but the airflow was just as, if not more, mighty as a full-size hairdryer emits, even on the lowest setting. 

Hershesons’ don’t specify the Celsius of their three temperature settings, but I would say that it did feel very hot. I started on the highest, quickly turned it down to medium and was down to the lowest by the time I’d got halfway through styling because I was one, getting a bit flustered, and two, I was worried about frazzling my strands. If you’re someone who likes to use a lot of heat on their hair, or whose hair dries so quickly that it’s not a big deal to quickly blast it with higher temperatures, then this might appeal to you, but for me and my already damaged hair, it was a bit of a turn-off. It just feels a bit unnecessary when the airflow is punchy enough to make drying a (very strong) breeze.

Back to the plus sides, I really liked the option to lock the settings in place, so there’s no accidentally adjusting them with your hand as you dry. And, once you’ve chosen your settings, it defaults back to those the next time you use your hairdryer, so you don’t have to keep adjusting. 

Not just delivering on speed, I also loved how Hershesons The Great Hairdryer left my hair looking and feeling. I don’t think the pictures do justice to how smooth it felt and how shiny it looked. I did use a brush but didn’t need to put in much effort, as the airflow alone was enough to iron out my natural curls and banish fluffiness. Equally though, it didn’t flatten the life out of my hair, leaving it with plenty of body rather than flat and lifeless. 

Does Hershesons The Great Hairdryer come with extra attachments?

Hershesons the Great Hairdryer comes with three attachments included. There’s a small concentrator nozzle, a wider concentrator nozzle and a diffuser, all of which need to be slotted into the head of the dryer. This is easy enough to do, but adjusting them from side to side to switch the angle as you dry is a bit fiddly without either pushing them so far in that they don’t want to wiggle or pulling them out entrely. 

The choice of attachments gives you plenty of options for styling, with the smaller one suited to fringes, short bob hairstyles and pixie cuts, the wider one for medium hairstyles and long hair, and the diffuser for curls.

How does the Hershesons The Great Hairdryer compare?

There’s not much not to like about Hershesons The Great Hairdryer. My only two gripes are the ones I’ve already touched on – the fact that it gets quite hot (make sure you’re using plenty of heat protection spray) and the nozzles being a bit stiff to adjust.

Other than that, the price is the only possible downside, which at £295, will put some people off. It does come with a two-year guarantee though, giving you partial peace of mind about longevity. 

Should I buy the Hershesons The Great Hairdryer?

If you want a hairdryer that’s going to give you a salon feeling at home, then Hershesons The Great Hairdryer is worth every penny. It’s expensive but feels high-end and well thought out at every turn, with a mighty motor that dries even thick hair in what feels like mere moments.

The featherlight weight and smaller size make it a worthwhile investment for anyone who travels a lot or who struggles to juggle the heft of a standard dryer. Win, win, win. 

ABOUT THIS REVIEW, AND THE REVIEWER

Jess Beech is an experienced fashion and beauty editor, with more than eight years experience in the publishing industry. She has written for woman&home, GoodtoKnow, Now, Woman, Woman’s Weekly, Woman’s Own and Chat, and is a former Deputy Fashion & Beauty Editor at Future PLC. A beauty obsessive, Jess has tried everything from cryotherapy to chemical peels (minus the Samantha in Sex and The City-worthy redness) and interviewed experts including Jo Malone and Trinny Woodall.