If there's one man who knows his way around a hair dryer, it's Luke Hersheson. The London hair veteran and CEO of cult salon, Hershesons, counts Dua Lipa, Victoria Beckham and Keira Knightley as clients. He's created looks backstage and editorially for some of the biggest designers in the game and his work has featured across the front pages of some seriously major fashion mags.
He's best known for his beautifully worn-in, rock-n-roll texture (he even sold me on some choppy layers and a pair of soft bottleneck bangs last time I was in his chair), but he was spearheading the return of the glam supermodel blow dry before even TikTok got hold of it.
Thats's why, obviously, when Luke announced he was adding a hair dryer to his existing edit of styling products and brushes, I expected decent things. What I didn't expect though is quite how game-changing the aptly named The Great Hairdryer would actually be.
The shape for starters is the sort of futuristic contraption that we've come to only expect from the leading innovators in the market. The T-bar design, which comes in the salon's trademark, cobalt Hershesons Blue, is the lightest hair dryer I've come across as a beauty editor, weighing in at just 294 grams, which for context, is lighter than a can of Coke. Yep, really.
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It's lightning quick, thanks to a running speed of 110,000 RPM (or revolutions per minute) which can make drying your hair, seven times faster. It's one of the quietest hair dryers on the market with a decibel of 78, which is just above the volume of normal conversation and far lower than the standard 90-100 dB range, and it even harnesses a ground-breaking anti-bacterial Oxy Active technology, which emits active oxygen to neutralise damaging antioxidants and increase shine and colour vibrancy.
When you pick it up, it doesn't make sense that a tool so powerful could feel so dinky. “It’s lighter than any other hair dryer out there. And not only is it lighter, but it’s more powerful, so it’s that mix that gives it its edge over other hair dryers," Luke told me. "In our tests we found that it dried hair about 30 times quicker than the leading brands out there,” he added.
As for ease of use, it's very intuitive once you get the hang of it. It took me a minute to get used to the lock button on the same dial as Off and On. Slide it too far and you won't be able to change the heat and speed settings. But, once you know what you're doing, you can use the feature to lock your preferences into place. The length of the nose also felt a little unfamiliar against the Dyson, especially with the nozzles attached. It adds an extra few centimetres, though it's nothing that a minor hand tilt can't handle, and it's still shorter than regular dryers.
Overall, I can use it in the evenings or early in the morning without worrying about waking up the neighbourhood. And, most importantly, it's undeniably cut down drying time on my fine, but numerous strands by about a third. And as they say, time is money. Speaking of which, the price tag is admittedly heftier than average at £295, but given how much technology the little tool packs in, it's an investment that makes sense.
And since the tool was road-tested on some pretty high profile clients, during some incredibly glam situations (Luke confirmed he'd already used it on Dua, VB and Kiera Knightley), it's definitely passed the vibe check.
For more from GLAMOUR's Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk.
