I am a very skeptical person.  Like skeptical to a fault.  I’m pretty sure it’s to the degree that it annoys some people in real life.  Sorry friends and family . . . but I kinda cant help it!  As far as blogging goes though, I think that’s a good thing.  I mean at the end of the day, I’m here to inform so it’s better that I compulsively research things right?  When I see an interesting new beauty product or something along those lines, I don’t just run out and buy it because of hype, I want to know the REAL deal first.

For years now I’ve been hearing about Ionic blow dryers and to be honest it sounded like a bunch of voodoo magic and I wasn’t impressed.  I was very happy with my Elchim 2001 hair dryer that could blow the roof off your house and I didn’t see any need to try something new.  The only thing I didn’t like about it was the lack of a cold shot button, because that really made my life blow dries more difficult, but it dried my hair super fast so whatevs, right?

I had heard great things about how powerful and lightweight the Harry Josh Pro Tools 2000, because it’s tiny and apparently extremely powerful but $300 on a blow dry is a lot of coin.  I mean what am I an heiress? I want to try it don’t get a girl wrong but damn, homie.

Fast forward to a few months ago when my Elchim stopped working.  I had it for years, and before that I had the earlier model of the same dryer and I felt it was my duty as a beauty blogger to try something new, so I did some reading and decided to  give the Sedu Revolution 3600i a try.  It wasn’t cheap and I was a little nervous (and not convinced on the whole Ionic thing) but it had really good reviews so I figured it couldn’t go too wrong. Plus, it has a cold shot button so I can work on strengthening my blowout game.

Before I get into how I felt about the performance of this particular hair dryer, let’s talk about what people say about Ionic Blow Dryers and what manufacturers say about them and all that jazz.

What Manufacturers Say:

Basically in a nutshell they say that negatively charged Ions emitted from the dryer cause water in the hair to evaporate more quickly, using less heat. Therefore they are easier on the hair and more healthy for it in the long run.  Some also claim that negative Ions smooth the hair shaft.

What Science Says: 

There is kinda not really a lot of evidence for that. It hasn’t been disproven or anything, but it also hasn’t been tested thoroughly so . . . it’s a toss up.  They do explain though, that there are steel rods in the dryers that the air passes over which do in fact create negatively charged ions. So at least that part is true. (And now I get to know how it works which makes me feel better)

But what about anecdotal evidence?

What The Reviews Say:

Well, most of the amazon reviews on a lot of the Ionic Blow dryers seem to be mostly positive.  There are the odd ones that say they don’t work for them at all, but that’s every product isn’t it?  Generally speaking they are all saying that they like the dryers, their hair feels smooth, and it dries quickly.  So that’s a good sign, but that could just be that it’s a decent quality hair dryer and have nothing to do with ions at all.

What I Say: 

When I bought my Sedu I received it on a day that I had a friend staying at my house. She has very curly shoulder length hair and she blow dries it every day.  She came to my place with no blow dryer because everyone who comes to my house assumes I have fun beauty stuff for them to use (and they are correct lol) and so she got to use it before I did.  That actually worked out awesome because without me asking she was raving about how her hair dried so fast and felt smooth and amazing.

Of course it could be that the water here is better than where she lives, or a number of other factors, but she sure did like how her hair came out that day and I think that’s a good sign for the dryer.

Using it on my hair is another story though because I have straight, thick, long hair.  When I first turned it on it didn’t seem super powerful like my Elchim and initially my stomach dropped.  But to my surprise, it didn’t take 164 years to dry my hair.  It felt smooth afterward, but my hair usually feels pretty smooth so it’s hard to say if it was any smoother than usual thanks to the dryer.

The interesting thing here is that this particular dryer has a switch that allows you to turn the Ion feature on and off. The idea being that the ions make the hair smoother and sleeker, so if you want volume you can turn it off and use it like a non ionic dryer.  With my hair texture being as stubbornly smooth as it is, it’s very hard to say whether it makes THAT much of a difference, but I do feel like my ends come out very smooth with the Ion feature and my roots still get volume if I turn it off.  I would like to experiment more on someone with courser hair though.

Overall it worked well, and I wasn’t mad that I spent a pretty penny on it.

The Verdict:

In my mind the jury is still out on whether the Ions really do anything to help the hair drying process, but that doesn’t mean that a dryer is going to suck just because it uses “Ionic” as a selling point. Lots of amazing products use weird buzzwords to gain attention.  It’s just marketing. Sometimes those buzz words really are something awesome, sometimes not so much. Unfortunately it’s up to you as the consumer to sort it out.

At the end of the day, look at the reviews on the individual dryer you are thinking of purchasing.  More specifically look at the reviews from people with your particular hair type, and base your decision on that.  On top of the fact that the evidence for ionic blow dryer being BETTER is somewhat inconclusive, it goes without saying that not all of them are created equal, so do your research (Ionic or not) and make an informed decision before you go and spend your hard earned cash!

Basically, never just buy stuff because of buzz words or the hype around it.

As far as the Sedu Revolution 3600i   It’s lightweight and fairly quiet and it get’s the job done. I do really like it and would recommend it, if you are in the market for a high end dryer.

Do you guys have any experience with Ionic dryers vs non Ionic ones?  Tell me your experiences!

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