L'Oreal's new hair dryer blows with the force of a Category 4 hurricane

L'Oreal has launched a new hair dryer designed to blow away the competition. First announced at CES 2024 and now available to buy, the AirLight Pro will apparently deliver "a styling experience like no other", thanks to a combination of ultra-powerful windspeeds, infrared light (delivered via patented new technology), and a companion app.

We're not entirely sure what the infrared light part does – we haven't seen this approach before (and we've tested most of the best hair dryers on the market). The windspeed part is easier to grasp, and certainly sounds impressive. Thanks to a 17-blade, high-speed motor, the AirLight Pro will be able to blast your locks with windspeeds of up to 130mph. That's equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane – which sounds like a very rousing morning styling routine.

The theory is that this dryer will blast water off the hair surface while leaving the moisture inside the strands, for "up to 33% more hydrated hair and up to 59% visually smoother hair".

• Buy the L'Oreal AirLight Pro, $475 at Ulta

The companion app allows you to create custom profiles, although exactly how these work with the dryer remains to be seen. (We've never seen a hair dryer with a companion app before – not even the $499.99 / £399.99 / AU$749 Dyson Supersonic Nural has one.)

L'Oreal says it has modes geared towards straight, curly and coily hair, and offers optimized temperatures, to dry your hair quickly while using less energy. Bundled in are a concentrator and a diffuser, both of which attach using magnets, and the dryer is able to sense which attachment is being used.

The AirLight Pro is now available exclusively at Ulta, priced at $475. Full review to follow.

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