3
Guides published
Each one answers a single buying question.
Independent buying guides
Choose a dryer or straightener by heat, watts and wear
For anyone replacing a dryer, straightener or styling brush and unsure what the numbers mean. Each guide answers a single question, cites manufacturer and safety-body figures with check dates, and shows the arithmetic in every cost calculator.
3
Calculators
Formula, units and assumptions shown on the page.
11
Sources cited
Each with the date the link was checked.
8
Photographs
Free-licence images, photographer credited.
Start here
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How to choose
Choosing a hair dryer or straightener: the plug, the watts, the dial
Three things decide a styling tool: the immersion protection block on the plug, the wattage on the plate, and whether the heat dial reads in numbers.
Photo: Lombroso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
What a hair dryer actually costs you per use
Divide the price by the sessions you will get from it, add the electricity from the rated wattage, and a $400 dryer and a $120 one stop looking similar.
Photo: Lombroso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Reactions and irritation
Heat, fumes and irritation: the three risks that have published numbers
Formaldehyde released from heated smoothing products, exposure limits in parts per million, and the plug device that exists because dryers end up in water.
Photo: Leomedia · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Browse by question
How to choose
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
1
Photo: Lombroso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Ingredients
What is on the label and what it does.
0
Photo: Lombroso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Routines
Order, frequency and how long a bottle lasts.
0
Photo: Adam Jones on Flickr · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
1
Photo: Wiki ankit rautela · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Evidence
What the published evidence does and does not show.
0
Photo: National Institute of Standards and Technology · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Reactions and irritation
Reactions, patch testing and when to stop.
1
Photo: Leomedia · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
Calculators
Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
Cost per use calculator
Turns a price into a cost per use, so a dear item used often can be compared with a cheap one used rarely.
cost per use = (price + consumables over the whole life) / (uses per week x 52 x years)
Routine cost calculator
How long a bottle lasts and what the routine costs per day, from dose and container size.
days per container = container size (ml) / (dose in ml x applications per day); cost per day = price / days per container
Landed cost calculator
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
How this site works
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
This site earns money from advertising and, where disclosed, from affiliate links. That does not change the order of a comparison or the conclusion of a guide.
Some links on this site can earn us a commission. That does not change which product a guide recommends, and it adds nothing to your price. Advertising is not enabled on this site yet. When it is, ads will be labelled and kept visually separate from the guides.