Travel hairdryers have historically been so useless that I’d all but given up on them. Instead of sacrificing suitcase space for a rattling, overheating, noisy dryer, I’ve more often made “undone” my default holiday hairstyle (Bumble and bumble’s Don’t Blow It air dry styler, £12 for 60ml, makes it look semi-deliberate), or booked one professional midweek blowdry at my destination, and used clouds of dry shampoo on either side of the appointment.
I’m glad I gave them another go, because BaByliss have just released their Travel Pro Hair Dryer (already reasonable at £40, but seemingly on offer everywhere) and it’s astonishingly good. Not as good as a proper (clunky and heavy) salon dryer, you understand, but way better than most high street home dryers, and infinitely superior to any travel model under £60. It gives noticeably more welly than any other I’ve tried – real blast, not that tired, breathless grizzle of most; has a cool shot for setting styles (essential if you don’t want to see your hard work come undone), and dual voltage that can be swapped at the flick of a switch according to your destination country (you’ll still need the usual plug adaptor, but performance won’t suffer). My only complaints are that it has that slightly overworked, hot smell common with travel dryers – though the small unit neither overheated nor shut off, so I shouldn’t nitpick – and that the handle doesn’t fold.
At £125, the T3 Micro Featherweight folding, dual voltage dryer is unjustifiably expensive for many, but if you’re regular gym-goer or multi-continent traveller who needs to pack light, it may prove a worthwhile investment. This is an extremely light, neat model with decent power and fast action, that leaves hair looking shiny (GHD makes a universal voltage travel model for less than half the price, but I found its performance uncharacteristically lacklustre).
None of these are strictly worth the cash if you already own something as posh as a Dyson Supersonic (£299), since this at-home professional-grade kit is already more or less the same size as a travel dryer, only with more power and better controls. I still hesitate to pack mine though – I’ve taken too many flights in my lifetime to bank on our being reunited at baggage claim.
