L’Oréal’s AirLight Pro Is the Fastest Hair Dryer I’ve Ever Used — Review, Photos

Put through rigorous testing—including for durability—the new-and-improved dryer features three heat settings, three fan speed settings, four pro-styling modes that offer preset heat and air controls based on hair type, two styling attachments (a concentrator nozzle and a diffuser), and a handy app that lets you customize your settings from your phone.

About the technology

It has also been tweaked to work on all hair types. “We did an enormous amount of testing because at the beginning [the dryer] only worked on certain hair types,” explains Guive Balooch, global managing director of augmented beauty and open innovation at L’Oréal Professionnel. “We started in our internal L’Oréal Pro salon, then we tested it externally with our salon partners, and then we conducted at-home use tests where people tried it without us going to their homes and showing them how to use it. Through all three testing rounds we had to make changes and [getting it right] was a lot harder than we thought. That’s why it took a good 18 months even after the technology was ready.”

So how on earth is light going to dry your hair? The scientists and engineers who developed the AirLight Pro found their inspiration in nature. “When it rains, the next day, if it’s sunny and there’s wind, the rain dries much faster than if it’s cloudy. So the Zuvi team asked themselves, How can we apply this natural phenomenon to moisture in the hair?” explains Balooch. “The scientists, who have a background in the physics of light, knew that in nature a specific wavelength of infrared light is what dries the rain, so the challenge was to make that light powerful enough to dry the hair.”

The solution was to combine a circle of infrared light, which is placed at the front of the hair dryer, with a traditional motor and coils in the center. The motor pushes the hot air through the center of the ring of infrared light, allowing the light to also heat the air as it’s moving toward your hair. This, in turn, makes the AirLight Pro more efficient. “With traditional convection heating, the coils heat up to around 200 degrees, which is then blasted out of the nozzle by the motor. By the time the air reaches your hair, however, it’s about 100 degrees, which means 50% of the heat is wasted and released into the environment,” says Balooch. “With the AirLight Pro, the infrared light is heating the air as it’s flowing toward your hair. This means the dryer temperature can start at 150 degrees because less heat is dissipating into the air, which, in turn, saves you around 20% on electricity [compared to traditional hair dryers].”