An energy efficient hair dryer?

I wanted to see just how low I can make my electric bill. So, I started thinking about the things in my house that use the most electricity. Air conditioner – that’s pretty obvious. Refrigerator. Hair dryer. Really, those are the only big culprits. I use minimal lighting, and it is all compact fluorescent. My computer is a laptop, and I only run my TV for, at most, a few hours a day. My refrigerator is new, and a new A/C is on the way, so I decided to investigate the possibility of getting a more energy efficient hair dryer.

I did a search online and came up with a website called Ulta.com where they listed several hair dryers that not only touted themselves as “energy efficient” but that also produced ions (which apparently makes your hair dry faster and feel softer) and had ceramic heating elements which supposedly expose you to less electro-magnetic creepy crawlies. This all sounded good to me.

Of course, I used my Facebook network to find out if there was a place in Sarasota to buy such a fancy schmancy hair dryer. As luck would have it, there are two Ulta stores in Sarasota – one right down the road from me. How’s that for convenient?

What’s cool about the Ulta store is that they have working models of most of the hair dryers on display so you can actually turn them on and see how they work. I was delighted by this and took the opportunity to play with some of them. That’s when I saw a model that said “EcoStyle. Eco Friendly. Hair Friendly.” and “35% energy savings*”. This intrigued me. I turned it on, and it shot out at least as much hot air as my current dryer. The price: $19.98. It didn’t seem like I could go wrong.

The other cool things about the hair dryer was that is was Ionic (which is apparently somehow a registered tradename) and ceramic. The Ionic part means that it “reduces the size of water droplets with ions, infusing hair with moisture to help condition, soften, and make hair shinier while adding volume and reducing frizz.” The ceramic part claims that it uses “far-infrared heat that penetrates hair quickly and evenly from the inside-out, drying and styling hair in a fraction of the time.” Those are some pretty big claims.

So, I tested the dryer out this morning after my shower. It did seem to dry my hair pretty quickly, and I am happy with it. I’m sure the shiny, healthy hair is a cumulative effect, so I will see what I think about that claim in a few weeks.

Overall, I am very happy with the purchase.