I tried the new super-light, frizz-reducing Dyson Supersonic R hairdryer – is it worth the £450 price tag?
The Dyson Supersonic R was created for professional hair stylists but now it’s available to everyone – you just need a spare £450. We put it through its paces
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There are a few things that get the GTG office buzzing like a new Dyson launch. So we were on the edge of our seats to check out the brand’s latest hairdryer, the Dyson Supersonic R, which has just been launched to the general public and comes with the the eye-watering price tag of £449.99. Is it worth it? I’ll come to that in a bit but first a bit of background.
The Dyson Supersonic R is the latest hairdryer to be added to the brand’s ever-growing range of hair styling electricals. The previous innovation the Dyson Supersonic Nural hairdryer, focuses on encouraging a healthier scalp. Prior to that, it was the Dyson AirStrait that styles hair from wet to dry.
An objet d’art, a U-bend or the new Dyson hairdryer?
While the Supersonic R has elements of scalp care to it, the main USP of this new hairdryer is that it’ll give you a salon look at home because it was originally designed with professional hair stylists in mind. It has been available to the pros for over a year and it was designed to be lighter and more powerful than your typical at-home dryer.
It is, in fact, 20 per cent lighter than the original Supersonic dryer – weighing in at 325g (that’s lighter than a can of hairspray) and 30 per cent smaller, which for professional stylists doing blow-dry after blow-dry is going to make a difference. For us normal folk who are only focusing on our own hair, if yours takes a long time to dry and your arm aches at the end of it, this piece of kit could be a game-changer.
Dyson Supersonic R: the spec
The full kit (left) and (right) SJ sizes up the mega plug
Design: It’s a hairdryer but not as we know it. Once again, Dyson has subverted the accepted design aesthetic. When I first revealed the Supersonic R to the GTG team, everyone thought it slightly resembled a U-bend, thanks to its unique upright and curvy design – albeit a very chic U-bend. The shape is designed to make drying normally hard-to-reach areas that bit easier because you can hold it closer to the scalp and the motor technology (more on that in a bit) means you won’t burn your scalp or your hair while doing so.
Plug: There’s no getting away from the fact it is big. As a team, we renamed it the Dyson mega plug. There is good reason for it though. The mega plug contains some of the electronics which allows the dryer itself to be lighter, the plug is doing more of the heavy lifting and only the key styling electronics are set into the bend of the hairdryer itself.
Styling attachments: There are two options when it comes to the Supersonic R. You can go for the Straight + Wavy set, which includes five attachments to create smoother and sleeker looks or there is the Curly + Coily kit, which also comes with five attachments designed to be used on more textured hair including a diffuser and wide tooth comb.
Each of the attachments has been pre-set to its ideal temperature and speed to give the best result and cause least amount of heat damage. You can, however, change the settings and the hairdryer will intuitively remember what you changed it to and automatically revert to those levels the next time you use it.
Temperature and speed: There are three heat and three speed levels plus a cool shot button. It also utilises an intelligent heat control – this monitors the heat of the air temperature over 40 times per second to regulate and stabilise it, which gives you more control while you’re styling your hair as you’re getting an even heat at all times. And, of course, it helps minimize heat damage.
Motor: All Dyson hairdryers contain the brand’s unique Hyperdymium motor. It spins at 110,000rpm to create a jet-like stream for precision styling. In the Supersonic R, the air flows through 10 ‘foils’, found in the curve, that heat the air even more precisely than in the previous Dyson hair dryers, which means hair should take less time to style.
That’s all the technological info but what is it like to use? After all, if you’re going to spend £450, you need to know. I put it to the test – here’s how I got on.
Our verdict of the Dyson Supersonic R
Testing it out and (right) the finished salon-worthy look. It’s a ‘yes’ from our beauty director
I tried the Supersonic R Straight + Wavy version as that’s the one most suitable for my fine, frizzy hair. I have previously used the original Dyson Supersonic and didn’t love it as I didn’t find it had enough oomph to style my hair, and keep it sleek and smooth (my preferred blow-dry style). So I reverted back to my old, trusty but very heavy Parlux hairdryer which I’ve had for over 20 years, has absolutely no scalp or hair health technology built into it and often smells like it’s burning. I was intrigued to see if the Supersonic R could match the style control and hold of my Parlux, while protecting the integrity of my hair and scalp like Dyson products do.
My first impression was how feather-light it is. I can see why pro stylists, who spend all day with a hairdryer in their hand, love it so much.
However, the mega plug could be an issue. If you have traditional skirting boards near your plug sockets, like I do, then you will probably struggle to plug it in flush so you will have to use an extension lead instead.
In terms of the attachments, I started with the ‘powerful’ air attachment to rough dry my hair. And it is powerful. Much more so than the original Dyson. It also is very quiet compared to traditional hairdryers. I could have easily had a conversation while using it.
I then moved on to the ‘pro concentrator’, the widest of the attachments, with my trusty round brush on half of my head and this really got my hair sleek and would be my go-to attachment. I tried the others but they weren’t as powerful for my hair type but if you’ve got fragile hair then the ‘gentle air’ attachment is the one for you.
The ‘flyaway’ attachment – which comes with some of the other Dyson hair stylers – is genius and creates instant smooth and expensive looking hair.
In terms of the finished result, I was very impressed. It took me less time to dry my hair from towel-dry than with the original Dyson Supersonic and even my beloved Parlux. And all with zero burning smell and my scalp not once feeling like it was hotter than the sun.
I have pretty good blow-drying skills (I think), but this hairdryer helped me be more precise. People might assume I’d just been to the salon rather than having spent 15 minutes in my bedroom.
Should you buy the Dyson Supersonic R?
If you are in the market for a new high-end performance hairdryer and can afford it, then this is a very good bet. Dyson offers a two-year warranty and if you don’t like it you can send it back, free of charge, within 35 days of purchase.
My only gripe is that while the pros may need all the different styling attachments, most people at home will use two max, and the rest will gather dust. The dream scenario would be that you could buy the hairdryer at a lower cost and then pick and choose the attachments that work best for you at an additional cost – something to think about Dyson?
