Remember when Dyson unveiled its original Supersonic dryer and the hair world gasped in shock at a design so groundbreaking, so sleek, so different from anything we’d seen before? (The ‘300 quid for a hairdryer!!!’ element might have added to the jaw-dropping reaction.) It’s been copied ever since, with every beauty electricals brand offering its own teeny-tiny, futuristic hairdryer, but now Dyson’s come up with a riposte… and it’s the biggest beauty mic drop we’ve seen in a long time.
Enter, the Supersonic R hairdryer, which has us rubbing our eyes all over again. It is, in a word, weird.
If the first Supersonic baby had us cooing at its gorgeous good looks, the new family member has us wondering if there’s a polite way to question its parentage. (There isn’t.) Let’s just say that when GH had a sneak preview of Supersonic R at the Dyson HQ, the first thing that came to mind was ‘toilet downpipe’.
But let’s not judge it on looks. Dyson’s hair tools are regular standouts in GHI’s testing of the best hairdryers and best hair straighteners, after all. The new arrival has already won over a host of top hairdressers, including superstylist Larry King – who has the likes of Sienna Miller on his client roster and swiftly made it his number-one salon choice when it launched initially as a pro-only product last year.
‘Once you’ve tried it, there’s no going back,’ Larry tells GH. ‘It looks completely different to anything you’ve seen before. It’s 30% smaller and 20% lighter than any other Supersonic, so it’s easier to manoeuvre, making shaping and smoothing hair really simple. It’s a game-changer.’
The Supersonic R has now launched in the UK, so of course, we had to try it for ourselves to see if it was worth the very Dyson-like price of £449. To put it to a fair test, we trialled it on three totally different hair types and reported back on how quick and easy it was to use.
Testing on: fine, dry hair
Beauty director Lynne: There’s no getting round the fact that this looks about as sexy as the dryers you find bolted to the wall of cheap hotels. You know, the useless bendy tube types that seem to have had a tragic breakup with Henry the Hoover and are now sighing out their sadness in feeble, lukewarm guffs.
But that’s where the comparison ends. It may look like it’s escaped from a low-budget 1970s episode of Dr Who, but Dyson’s Supersonic R is futuristic in design and performance. The hand feel is so lightweight, I almost laughed when I felt the power blast my head – it’s like a chihuahua that barks like a rottweiler.
My hair is so fine, it doesn’t normally take me very long to dry anyway, but the Supersonic makes it ludicrously quick. The main blast attachment pouffed up my roots, then the nozzle made short work of the lengths. If you’re a bit dyspraxic like me, it takes a moment for your brain to figure out the new angle of approach when drying with the nozzle, but it was an easy adjustment and still quicker than my regular dryer.
I’m never going to be that person who performs silky blow-dry miracles with a nozzle and a round brush (dyspraxic, see?) but I thought my hair was passably smooth, especially when I used the flyaway attachment for a final polish. Overall, the experience was so quick, efficient and arm ache-free. The cost is slightly bonkers, but it’s the best hair dryer I’ve ever used… from the flex up.
Ah, yes. The other big downside – besides the price. You can see exactly where all the weight has gone: straight into the socking great plug which houses half the mechanics and is too big to fit into any socket that’s close to a skirting board. For that reason, I wouldn’t be packing it for a holiday, but then again, that’s just as well. I love it so much, I definitely wouldn’t want to risk it getting pinched from my suitcase.
Testing on: curly, frizzy hair
Beauty testing manager Maria: At the Good Housekeeping Institute, we test a lot of hair dryers – to the point you think there couldn’t possibly be any more newness when it comes to a device blowing out hot air to dry your locks! But when I was asked to test the new Dyson launch, I was intrigued, because they’ve put out some fantastic innovation in the beauty space and they always do very well in our tests. I also bought the original Supersonic when it first launched and no hair dryer has ever come close to replacing it, despite it being almost a decade old…
When an unboxed sample arrived on my desk, the first thing I thought was, ‘This looks like a delivery for the plumber.’ It was only the hair styling attachments that clarified that this was, in fact, a hair styling tool!
I have very frizzy, fine (but a lot of it), curly hair and typically wear it naturally, so I tested the hair dryer using the diffuser attachment. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to fully diffuse my hair from wet to acceptable dryness, always using the lowest heat and fan, because I must protect my curls!
With the Supersonic R? Eight minutes flat! With this time saving, I can actually contemplate washing my hair before work rather than dedicating a whole Sunday night to the task.
Can we also talk about its featherlight weight? It’s like the original Supersonic on Ozempic. It would be the perfect travel buddy with no additional calories to your suitcase; however, the design of the plug lets this product down and would prevent me from taking it anywhere.
Overall, I do rate this dryer for taking what can be an arduous process of drying hair to a pleasant and speedy experience. I can see why salons and professionals love this product. Would I replace my original Supersonic? Not yet. All Dyson needs to do is revisit the plug situation and I’ll definitely think about it.
Testing on: coarse, thick, wavy hair
Beauty intern Urmi: I was immediately intrigued by the Supersonic R. Yes, its wacky periscope-esque look was the first thing to catch my eye, but its promise to deliver Dyson’s most powerful and fastest dry yet was a close second.
I was especially banking on its speed, since taking my thick, wavy hair from freshly washed to fully dry has historically involved an entire arm workout, plus a generous amount of sweat from a solid half-hour of heat. But the Supersonic R did exactly what it said on the tin. Its clever design is what made all the difference; with a right-angled nozzle and a shockingly light feel (I think my hairbrush is heavier than this dryer), it was exceptionally easy to manoeuvre, meaning that zero heavy lifting was required.
I barely had to readjust the angle of the nozzle as I moved across my scalp, boosting volume at my roots with little to no effort. From start to finish, my entire head took about 10 minutes to dry – a third of its usual time.
It took some experimenting to figure out which of the five hardworking attachments – each delivering a different finish – would give me the most seamless dry for my hair type. Ultimately, I opted for the most powerful one across my scalp (noticing the high-pressure airflow was completely disproportionate to its size), then switched to the wide-tooth comb attachment to give me a smooth, precise distribution of heat throughout my lengths. I didn’t need to straighten my hair afterwards or deal with pesky flyaways like I usually do; the Dyson took care of everything – and quickly.
The end result was a salon-worthy blow-dry (from someone with minimal skill), so to say I was impressed is an understatement. The only person who wasn’t impressed? My mum, when she noticed I’d had to plug it into an extension lead that was already powering three other devices. So, I have to agree with the others on that one design downside…
What’s new with the Supersonic R?
There’s a lot of oomph behind that curious design. Dyson says the new dryer is its ‘most powerful, yet lightest and most precise hairdryer to date’. As well as drying in flash, hair is left ‘smoother and shinier’ – something that Dyson has proved at its Willy Wonka-style testing labs, where all the best Dyson products are put through their paces
The pipe-like design has been quickly adopted by such legendary celeb stylists as Sam McKnight and Eugene Souleiman and described as a ‘magic wand’. Having created much buzz as a pro-only tool, it’s on sale now for a very Dyson-like £449.99.
What’s in the Supersonic R kit?
Supersonic R comes with five attachments, including a powerful air blaster, concentrator nozzle and flyaway nozzle for flattening flyaways, plus a diffuser and wide-tooth comb (in the version for curly hair) or a smoothing nozzle and gentle air attachment (in the straight/wavy version). The basic ‘pipe’ design always needs to have an attachment fitted to it.
It’s available in two new colours – Ceramic Pink (‘inspired by the orient of a pearl’) and Jasper Plum (‘inspired by the rare purple jasper gemstone’). And, yes, it is ironic, considering jewellery would probably cost less than a Supersonic R.
