MDLondon Blow hair dryer review

Dyson’s impact on hair styling expertise has been a lot the identical as its impact on floorcare tech. Within the wake of the Supersonic hair dryer launch and its meteoric rise to reputation, dozens of mallet-shaped dupes popped up.

A few of these, just like the Zuvi Halo and the Laifen Swift, are superb – and the latter is far more budget-friendly than the Dyson.

However the Dyson impact implies that it’s now uncommon to see a hair dryer that doesn’t look both like a standard mannequin (which now appears a bit quaint) or a Supersonic knock-off.

And that’s the very first thing that makes the MDLondon Blow hair dryer stand out: its distinctive, near-symmetrical, ray gun form. However that’s not all it has to supply.

Design & Construct

• 360g weight (excluding twine)
• Three temperature settings: 60°C, 80°C, 100°C
• 3m twine

MDLondon was began up by hair stylist Michael Douglas to supply higher dwelling hair styling instruments, after seeing demand by way of his Instagram-hosted hair clinics throughout lockdown. In 2022, the model launched the Blow hair dryer, which we’re reviewing right here.

The Blow hair dryer comes properly boxed in all-recyclable packaging. Together with the hair dryer, you’ll get two slender, directional nozzles in numerous sizes that you would be able to connect to the hair dryer for smoother styling.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The Blow is a light-weight and compact hair dryer. It’s 17cm excessive, and the barrel itself is 18cm lengthy and 15cm in diameter at its widest level. It’s a lot slimmer and extra elegant than competing luxurious hair instruments.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

MDLondon offers its weight (excluding the twine) as 360g – that’s greater than 100g lighter than the Zuvi Halo, whereas the Supersonic weighs upwards of 560g (once more, all with out cords).

The Blow has a 3m lengthy twine, which is beneficial in guaranteeing that you would be able to plug in virtually wherever and nonetheless attain a mirror. However, however, should you’re packing the Blow for journey, you’ll must think about that very lengthy twine, which bumps its whole weight as much as 660g. It’s nonetheless lighter than opponents, nonetheless.

The Blow is available in three color choices: the Casal blue mannequin (which we’re testing), an olive inexperienced and a blush pink. The blue and inexperienced color choices particularly look refined towards the armies of scorching pink or black hair styling instruments we see so typically.

And, should you like your hair tech to match, you should buy the MDLondon Strait hair straightener (£109) in the identical colourway.

The Blow’s construct is equally stylish. It’s attractively formed and the air inlets are designed with aesthetic aptitude. It has a easy, pleasingly tactile silicone end and its keys are a coppery gold color that matches the brand. Every key has an explanatory icon beside it and an indicator gentle the place wanted.

Altogether, the Blow is a thoughtfully designed, trendy hair dryer: it seems and feels totally different to rival instruments.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

There are 4 keys to function the Blow and so they’re intuitively positioned – that’s, so long as you’re utilizing the hair dryer in your proper hand. In that case, they’re all accessible to your thumb and forefinger whereas your hand is curled across the grip.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

However, for left-handed individuals like me, your hand will cowl the buttons once you’re utilizing it. Because the buttons are simple to press, this meant I typically unintentionally switched pace and temperature settings whereas utilizing it.    

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The Blow has three temperature settings of 60°C, 80°C and 100°C. That is consistent with different top quality manufacturers: the Dyson Supersonic has the identical settings. In the meantime, cheaper fashions don’t are inclined to specify how scorching they get.

It’s good to concentrate on the warmth setting you’re utilizing, contemplating that extra warmth means extra harm to hair. All through testing, I discovered that I didn’t must go above 80°C to dry my hair rapidly.

Efficiency & Options

• Quiet in use
• Highly effective at 1600W
• Ion generator

Pricier hair dryers can typically be weighty, due to their motors. The pondering is that it’s higher to have an honest motor that’ll assist to dry your hair rapidly, even when it means including some weight. You gained’t be holding it for as lengthy, anyway.

And should you’ve ever tried to dry your hair in a rush utilizing a dinky little resort hair dryer that appears to supply extra noise than scorching air, you’ll admire the idea. However with this hair dryer, you don’t must compromise.

The Blow is highly effective, notably for its dimension, delivering plenty of airflow and drying hair rapidly. Throughout testing, it dried my hair about as quick because the Zuvi Halo and far sooner than the Shark FlexStyle hair dryer.

You may anticipate that, on condition that at 1600W, it’s far more highly effective than both of those hair instruments – though the Zuvi Halo is a notably power environment friendly product. However that simply makes its compact kind all of the extra spectacular.

The Blow includes a unfavourable ion generator, which ought to assist easy because it dries. Nevertheless, it didn’t have a noticeable impact on my hair. However utilizing one of many two directional nozzles that include the Blow and brushing my hair because it dried gave a a lot smoother end.

Talking of those, one of many few design flaws of the Blow is that the included directional nozzles don’t click on on and off simply. You should buy a suitable diffuser attachment (£25) individually, and this pops into place magnetically, however the included nozzles should be pressed on exhausting and yanked off. On the plus facet, this does imply they keep firmly in place in use.

Simply as essential to your consolation as a hair dryer’s weight is how noisy it’s in use. The Blow is quiet, with a most working quantity of 78dB, though I discovered that the medium pace setting was supreme to be used, so it by no means hit peak noise manufacturing.

Worth & Availability

There’s little question that this can be a luxurious product and the pricing displays that. You should buy a top quality hair dryer for effectively beneath £50. In actual fact, should you’re on the lookout for one thing that’s budget-friendly in worth however not construct, we’d advocate the Revamp Progloss, which is now accessible for beneath £40, from a £99 launch worth.

However if you wish to splash out, the Blow is a good choice. It’s not simply fairly – it feels sturdy and effectively made and its construct is backed by a powerful three-year guarantee.

It has an RRP of £195 and at this stage, you gained’t discover it for much less. You should buy it direct from MDLondon, Sephora or Harvey Nichols.

Sadly, it’s not at present accessible within the US or Canada.   

Do you have to purchase the MDLondon Blow hair dryer?

All in all, this is without doubt one of the finest hair dryers we’ve examined. It’s not excellent, although. The included nozzles are sightly disappointing and we’d warning that left-handed individuals may not discover it as simple to make use of.

And it’s a dear purchase. However should you’re fed up with chunky hair dryers, this can be a genuinely interesting various. Plus, it’s highly effective, quiet, gentle and compact.

For extra advisable hair styling choices, take a look at our round-ups of one of the best hair dryers and one of the best hair straighteners we’ve examined. We will additionally provide help to to reply the query: do you have to purchase the Dyson Airwrap or the Shark FlexStyle?