1. The power! This will help the hair dry faster. Remember how I said it took me almost an hour to dry my hair? This is why. No power! Look for something with a higher wattage. 1800 or higher for thinner hair. Many professional blow dryers have wattage as high as 3600. While these blow dryers are more expensive they are wonderful for thick, curly hair! They will cut drying time in half which means less damage!
2. Ceramic and Tourmaline are your friends! If your goal is to smooth your hair, look for a blow dryer that has ceramic and tourmaline technology. Ceramic technology helps control the heat of your blow dryer so it distributes the heat more evenly. Tourmaline is an awesome mineral that helps smooth hair by sealing the cuticle and retaining moisture. In other words it combats frizz while helping your hair retain needed moisture.
3. A cool shot button! This magic button helps “set” the style. For instance if you are using a round brush to smooth the hair for more volume and bounce use the cool shot button once the hair is dry to set the style.
4. Attachments! In order to smooth hair your blow dryer should have a nozzle attachment. This helps concentrate the air flow so it blows directly on the area you want to smooth. When drying the hair point the nozzle downwards to reduce flyaways. If you wear your hair curly sometimes like I do, you will also want a diffuser with your blow dryer. This will help spread out the air flow of the blow dryer.
5. Heat and power controls! Use the higher setting to remove most of the moisture from the hair. The lower setting then can be used to style once with hair is about 90% dry. This is a great feature if your hair is damaged. We don’t all need to blow dry our hair on high heat, high power. Look for a blow dryer that has multiple setting for heat as well as a high, low setting.