• Original review date: September 2021
• Replaced by the slightly upgraded GHD Flight+
• Launch price: $99 / £59 / AU$99
• Official price now: $119 / £99 / AU$160

Updated: February 2024. The GHD Flight has now been replaced with the GHD Flight+, which as of writing we've yet to get our hands on. It's more expensive than its predecessor; significantly so in the UK and Australia, but does now exclusively come as part of a gift set which includes a pretty chic protective travel case, so that's a benefit if you like keeping your kit in a good state. Its specs are slightly better compared to those listed in our original review; the Flight+ is now 49% lighter (vs. 50% previously) and 25% smaller than the GHD Air, but offers 78% of the power (vs. 70% previously). The rest of the review remains unchanged.

One-minute review

GHD is most well known for its hair straighteners. The company has spent the past two decades offering ceramic-plated flat irons, taking over from steam-powered straighteners as the must-have tool for hair styling. 

However, more than nine years ago, GHD also dipped its toe in the world of hair dryers, and now offers three different models, the smallest and most compact of which is the GHD Flight. Designed to be packed in your suitcase, the GHD Flight is 50% lighter than the GHD Air, but offers 70% of the power, at 1400W, allowing you to dry your hair in a relatively short frame of time. 

The GHD Flight comes with a folding handle, which ensures the hair dryer takes up as little space in your suitcase as possible. It operates on both 120V and 240V electrical supplies, so it really can be used anywhere in the world.

It has two temperature settings, along with a slower, cool-shot option for setting styles, and the hair dryer will automatically switch off if held too close to the hair when blow-drying to prevent overheating, too. In the box you’ll find a concentrator nozzle and a carry pouch.

At $99 / £59 / AU$99, the GHD Flight is the most affordable hair dryer GHD offers, and is ideal for those on a budget. It also makes a great additional hair dryer for those who travel, easily slipping into a bag or suitcase, safe in the knowledge that it won’t send luggage over a weight limit. However, those looking for a hair dryer with a plethora of attachments to create a wide array of hair styles might be better looking elsewhere.

GHD Flight price and availability

•  List price: $99 / £59 / AU$99

The GHD Flight is the brand’s entry-level hair dryer and is priced at $99 / £59 / AU$99. It’s available from GHD or Amazon worldwide. 

GHD also offers a mid-range hair dryer, the GHD Air, which will set you back $199 / £99 / AU$220, while it’s top-of-the-range model, the GHD Helios, costs $249 / £159 / AU$295.

Design

• Foldable design
• Two temperature settings
• Comes with one attachment

The GHD Flight is the most compact hair dryer we’ve tested to date, measuring 9.6 x 5.2 x 2.7 inches / 24.4 x 13.3 x 6.8cm (h x w x d). It’s folding handle means its dimensions come down further still to 7.9 x 4.1 x 2.7 inches / 20 x 10.5 x 6.8cm. It’s lightweight, too, coming in at just 0.9lb / 422g.

The hair dryer features a stylish matt black design, with a gold slider that lets you select one of the two temperature settings, or the cool-shot function for setting your hair after styling – a look that apes the GHD Air, although the gold band around the barrel of the Air hair dryer has been dropped in favor of a glossy black accent. 

As already mentioned, the 1400W hair dryer is dual voltage, so it can be used anywhere in the world. Simply use a coin to turn to the dial to select the correct voltage (either 120V or 240V) for the country in which you’re using it. The hair dryer has a 6ft / 1.8m cable and comes with a concentrator nozzle and a soft carry pouch in the box.

The hanging loop is also a nice touch, and is usually a feature on hair dryers used in salons. 

Performance

• Fast drying times
• Balanced in use
• Automatically switches off when too close to hair

Even though the GHD Flight offers less power than some of the brand's other hair dryers, it certainly isn’t sluggish when it comes to drying times. On the lowest temperature setting, it took 5 minutes and 52 seconds to take below-shoulder-length fine hair from damp to completely dry. Using the hottest settings shaved 1 minute and 51 seconds off this time. On both settings, locks were left smooth – although they lacked the shine we’ve achieved with other hair dryers, plus there were more fly-away strands than usual.

We put this down to the lack of technology that uses negative ions to speed up evaporation and reduce flyaway strands. 

The GHD Flight felt balanced in the hand when blow-drying hair, and was comfortable to hold, both in the left and right hands (we switched hands, depending upon the side of the head being styled). The hair dryer was easy to fold into its more compact form, while the hinge felt durable and offered a reassuring click as the handle was moved. 

Also notable is the fact that the GHD Flight will automatically switch off if held too close to the hair, to stop the hair dryer from overheating. However, we were disappointed to find that the filter isn’t removable, which can make cleaning the hair dryer more difficult. 

For noise, the GHD Flight registered 77.8db on our decibel meter on its fastest setting. This puts it middle-of-the-range when it comes to noisy hair-care appliances, and is equivalent to the level of noise made by a vacuum cleaner. However, since it is likely to be on for only a few minutes at a time, it’s unlikely to bother too much.

Should I buy the GHD Flight?

Buy it if...

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First reviewed: August 2021

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• Original review date: October 2022
• Still Laifen's flagship, but the new Swift SE provides a more affordable alternative
• Launch price: $199.99 / £175.11 / AU$297.83
• Official price now: The same

Updated: February 2024. The Laifen Swift remains to be a great Dyson Supersonic alternative, though it's far from the only one at this point. Still, it's a fraction of the price, and nearly as affordable as some of the most high-performing standard hair dryers in this list. Since our original review, Laifen has released a more affordable sister product, the Laifen Swift SE ($149.99 / £128.01 / AU$228.02), which is marginally less powerful and more cheaply made, but comes in some adorable pastel hues.

• Original review date: October 2022
• Still Laifen's flagship, but the new Swift SE provides a more affordable alternative
• Launch price: $199.99 / £175.11 / AU$297.83
• Official price now: The same

Updated: February 2024. The Laifen Swift remains to be a great Dyson Supersonic alternative, though it's far from the only one at this point. Still, it's a fraction of the price, and nearly as affordable as some of the most high-performing standard hair dryers in this list. Since our original review, Laifen has released a more affordable sister product, the Laifen Swift SE ($149.99 / £128.01 / AU$228.02), which is marginally less powerful and more cheaply made, but comes in some adorable pastel hues.

• Original review date: July 2021
• Still the latest hair dryer from GHD
• Launch price: $279.00 / £159 / AU$280
• Official price now: The same

Updated: February 2024. Rejoice, the GHD Helios is now available in the US and Australia, and remains the best hair dryer we've tested. That should come as no surprise to those familiar with the brand; in the UK, certainly, GHD has long been the champion of haircare. However, next-generation hair technology is getting better, with many companies opting for the Dyson Supersonic-esque technology, utilizing far faster and more powerful motors. The jury's out on if that technology is really worth the lofty price tag; in our opinion, the still relatively expensive GHD Helios offers better value for money. The rest of this review remains as previously published.

It’s been eight years since GHD first entered the hair dryer game – one of the original brands to bring a salon-style, professional hair dryer to the masses with the GHD Air – and a lot has changed.  

There are now dozens of professional dryers from both traditional hair companies and non-traditional firms, which are more well known for vacuums than styling products (Dyson, we’re looking at you). In our GHD Air review, we explained that despite a rise in competition and an improvement in drying technology, GHD’s original hair dryer still more than holds its own and is one of best hair dryers you can buy. Yet, it was starting to show its age. A point that appears to have not gone unnoticed at GHD. 

Taking what we loved about the GHD Air and fixing a number of the points we didn't, the hair giant has launched the GHD Helios. We’ve been using the £159 hair dryer exclusively for the past fortnight and we’d be as bold to say that we have a new favorite hair dryer – it's high price tag notwithstanding.  

Design

Hair dryers have largely moved away from the black (read: boring) designs that are popular in hairdressers. They have become an accessory, rather than just a tool, and come in a range of colors from bright red to “Fuschia” and beyond. The Helios follows suit, but in a classy, elegant way that we’ve come to expect from GHD. 

We tested the white and rose gold model and it’s absolutely stunning. It also comes in maroon and gold, black and silver, and navy and black. The different colored versions of GHD Helios’ plastic shell are additionally covered in a thin coating that feels almost like silicone to the touch and this gives the dryer a smooth, luxurious feel.  

Weight-wise, the Helios is lighter than the Air tipping the scales at 780g compared to its predecessor’s 1.54kg. What’s more, where – on paper – it’s heavier than other dryers we’ve tested, the Helios is incredibly well-balanced so it doesn’t feel any more bulky and it isn’t any more difficult to use. There is a downside to this, however. The extra weight on the GHD Air made it feel expensive and sturdy, which helped us to rationalise its high price. The Helios’ light weight, by contrast, feels just like many of the other cheaper hair dryers on the market. A feeling that even its elegant colorways and smooth shell can’t quite counteract. 

Everything else, including the placement of the two-speed and dual-temperature switches, the cold shot button and the branded grille are almost an exact copy and paste from the Air. 

Performance

GHD claims its Helios is “faster, lighter and quieter” than the Air. We’ve already confirmed it’s lighter, but does it live up to the other claims? Yes – very much so! Its motor is marginally more powerful – up from 2,100w on the Air to 2,200w – and the holes in its grille have apparently been redesigned to reduce noise. It is noticeably less loud in real-world use, and when measured with a decibel meter, it’s a whole two decibels quieter than the Air.  

When it comes to speed, the Helios similarly smashed it out of the park. Not just in comparison to the Air, but when pitted against the drying speeds of every hair dryer we’ve ever tested. Until the Helios, the Dyson Supersonic was the fastest dryer – taking our hair from wet from a shower to completely dry in 2 minutes 6 seconds. The Helios took an entire minute off this time. This meant our hair was rough dried in 1 minute and 6 seconds and is an absolute game changer. 

 The Helios was similarly a minute and eight seconds faster than the Supersonic at drying our hair after a swim, offering a total dry time of 1 minute and 50 seconds. With the concentrator nozzle attached to the Helios – a nozzle which has been made thinner with a curved edge designed to reduce turbulence – it took us just two minutes and 20 seconds to style our hair. Again, a minute faster than the Dyson Supersonic. 

We didn’t even have to sacrifice hair quality and shine for this improved speed, either. After every use, our hair was almost frizz-free with only minimal flyaways and we never once had to resort to running straighteners over it to complete the look. Two weeks into testing and our hair definitely feels stronger and we’re seeing fewer breakages and less hair loss in the shower. 

There is a but, though. Helios’ lightning speed and precision, which made our hair so smooth and shiny, left it lacking volume. It’s almost as if the flow of air is so powerful, it beats the hair into submission. This was disappointing, particularly when everything else was going so well. 

Verdict

Just as cheaper rivals were starting to catch up on, and overtake, the power and performance of the original Air hair dryer, GHD has come out swinging with the Helios. A dryer that surpassed most of our, already high, expectations and one that we’ve found ourselves gravitating towards over every other hair dryer in our collection. Until the release of the GHD Helios, our go-to dryer was the Dyson Supersonic. This is now in second place. 

Sadly, £159 for a hair dryer will be out of the reach of many people meaning its superior performance is out of reach, too. As a result, the Helios is unlikely to be an impulse buy and will be considered an investment. An investment we highly recommend you make. 

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• Original review date: October 2019
• Still Revlon's latest (and greatest) hair brush dryer
• Launch price: £60 / $60
• Official price now: £60 / $60, but very regularly discounted

Updated: February 2024. It's hard to beat perfection, and while this particular hair brush dryer isn't quite perfect, it's as close as we've seen. Offering an excellent balance of great performance, decent design, and excellent value, this is the brush dryer to beat. There is now a slightly more premium version, the One-Step Volumizer Plus, which has an oval head and activated charcoal pins and with a slightly more premium design for $10 / £10 more; to be honest, the ovular barrel of the original One-Step Volumizer is in part why it works so well, and I'm not one for the infused pin marketing gimmick. The rest of this review remains unchanged.

Back in the 1990s hair heyday of steam hair straighteners and crimpers, the 2-in-1 hair styler reigned supreme. At a time when professional-style dryers were overly expensive, brushes that doubled up as hair dryers were cheap, convenient and helped achieve the voluminous, bouncy style made famous by the likes of Jennifer Aniston. Yet, as hair dryers became more advanced, and dropped in price, 2-in-1s fell out of favour. 

Fast forward to today: not only are 2-in-1s back, but they also give many of their rival barrelled hair dryers a run for their money. The Revlon Pro Collection One Step Dryer & Volumiser reviewed here just happens to be our favorite of the lot – and it costs only $60 / £60 too.

• Check out the best hair dryers out there

Design

The Revlon Pro resembles an oversized barrel brush with a chunky handle. At the bottom of this handle – where it meets the 2.5-metre cord – is a single switch that you rotate to select a temperature and speed setting. One rotation enables the cold shot function. A second rotation switches to the lower of the two speed settings, while a final rotation switches to the faster of the two. The heat increases between the speed settings, too. 

Instead of having a perfectly rounded barrel, the cylinder has two slightly flatter, longer sides, in order to help lift the hair from the roots and give it more volume.

The Pro is factually not much to look at, with Revlon’s bright pink colour scheme feeling like an unwelcome throwback to the original models. It’s also heavy. At 850g, the Revlon Pro is almost twice the weight of the Dyson Supersonic – with the long brush design preventing the weight from feeling evenly distributed.

This design choice, however, does make it more compact than a traditional barrelled dryer, while saving the hassle of having to take a separate brush when traveling. Plus, its performance soon helps you forget the Revlon Pro’s weight and style shortcomings.

Performance

Even on the lowest of the two speed/temperature settings, the Revlon Pro dried our medium-length fine hair in an impressive three minutes and four seconds, which goes some way to negating its heavy, bulky design – as you won’t need to be using it for long. Its large size also means you can dry and style large sections of hair in one go. What’s more, because it styles as it dries, our arms didn’t ache from holding a brush and separate dryer at awkward angles – as is the case with some of its rivals  – and we didn’t have to do anything to finish our style once it was dry, saving even more time. 

This latter point is in part due to the Revlon Pro’s ionic technology, but also because the temperature remains constant throughout. Unlike with traditional dryers, the Revlon Pro is always at the same distance from the head because the hair is wrapped around it; you can’t accidentally place it too close on one section and too far away on another. This means it dries the hair evenly and gently. The ionic technology then smoothes the hair and the rounded design shapes it. We were, and continue to be impressed with just how voluminous, shiny and smooth our hair looks after using the Revlon Pro. 

We didn’t see a noticeable difference in drying times on the hotter, faster setting and would often dry on the slower mode to help prevent causing damage to our hair. The faster setting is also incredibly loud, annoyingly so. In terms of decibels, it’s not drastically different to rivals but the tone of the sound is sharp and grating.

Finally, what we feel is the most significant feature of the Revlon Pro is the fact you can use it one-handed. When time is tight in the morning, or you just fancy an extra few minutes in bed, you can apply make-up at the same time as drying your hair. Believe us, we do this regularly. If that’s a little too ambitious, you can enjoy a cup of tea or eat toast at the same time. This, for us, is a gamechanger.

Verdict

If a little more care had been put into the design of the Revlon Pro and its motor wasn’t so annoyingly loud, we’d happily recommend it over more expensive rivals, such as the GHD Air, because it’s performance is just so good. Unless we’re looking to rough dry our hair or style it differently, the Revlon Pro is our go-to dryer. 

The fact that we can only use it for one drying and styling option does mean it lacks versatility, and if you’re particularly skilled at blow drying you likely won’t see the benefits of using it. 

If it did offer more versatility, or it had been better designed, it would likely cost more, though – so we’re willing to take that hit to get salon-style performance and extra time in bed for only $60 / £60. 

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