This Is The Only Hair Dryer I Will Ever Buy Again, & It’s Under $50

All throughout my tweenage and teenage years, when I had nothing but time, I blowdried and sometimes even straightened my already-straight hair religiously. Marcia Brady had nothing on 14-year-old me, who dutifully ran at least 100 brushstrokes through her hair a day. Along with my favorite hair dryer, hair straightener, 1-inch curling iron, 2-inch curling iron, crimper, and an ungodly amount of hair brushes, my hair-brush-and-dryer-in-one was one of the prized items in my trove of hair tools. To be honest, the concept of a 2-in-1 hair dryer that could dry and style your hair simultaneously was grand, but the technology was not. It wasn’t powerful enough to efficiently dry my hair, nor was it well-designed enough to actually do any effective styling. Twenty-something years later, somebody finally got the product right — it’s called the Revlon One-Step Volumizer Plus, and usually sells for under $50 bucks.

My mom stumbled across my OG hair-brush-and-dryer on one of her weekly shopping excursions in Los Angeles’ Koreatown. Whether she found this newfangled tool at the Korean grocery store or skin care counter in the shopping center, I don’t recall. She was constantly coming home with new skin care products, face mask recipes, and tools to try. I distinctly remember being excited to try this one, and knowing me, I probably hopped in the shower to get my hair wet, perched in front of the full-length mirror in my bedroom, and got to work trying out my new hair tool, drowning out the sounds of MTV’s Laguna Beach in the background.

Like I said, the technology of that dryer was not great. So when I ordered the extremely popular Revlon One-Step Volumizer PLUS, I didn’t have the highest expectations, largely due to my history with this type of product, and also because hair care is not a top priority in my life right now. What I was really in the market for was the most convenient hair styling tool I could find. So one night, with no plans and no one to impress (I might’ve actually been heading to bed), I finally put it to the test and found myself wishing I actually did have somewhere to go — at the very least for it to be a reasonable time to run a non-urgent errand.

I was pleasantly surprised that it does exactly what one would hope, which is to enable someone as lazy and uncoordinated at “doing hair” as I, to achieve a nice blowout-look without feeling like I just walked out of an intermediate pilates class.

Stats

• Price: Retails for $69.99, but it always seems to be on sale on Amazon. At the time of this posting it retails for $40.49, and I paid $44.99 when I bought it six months ago.
• Colors: Black red, black pink, mint, and teal
• Who it’s for: Anyone who uses a hair dryer to dry and/or style their hair. It works for most hair types, depending on what you are trying to achieve.
• When to use: Anytime, day or night.

The specs

Compared to its predecessor, Revlon’s One-Step Volumizer, the PLUS has been slightly scaled down (it has a slimmer handle and barrel), and has one more heat setting (medium) for flexibility. In fact, many reviewers note that the “hot” setting on both models can cause the end opposite the handle (that you will naturally want to grip for more control) to get extremely hot — too hot to touch.

The brush

The Revlon One-Step Volumizer PLUS’s brush has a ceramic titanium barrel base, and it’s oval-shaped, which allows you to smooth as you dry, in addition to rounding the ends. The tufted nylon bristles help with gripping the hair, and the activated charcoal pin bristles contribute to detangling and more even heat distribution.

The handle

It tapers in a bit, making it more narrow and thus, more comfortable to hold.

The weight

It’s lighter than your standard hair dryer, and you can use and control it with one hand, which makes styling easier and less exhausting than trying to style your hair with a dryer in one hand, a brush in the other, and trying to separate chunks of hair using your nondominant fingers.

The heat

Four different heat settings are available: low, medium, high, and cool. This thing can get hot and is powerful enough to dry your hair just out of the shower, but I like that it also has settings gentle enough to use it close to your scalp for extended periods of time.

The packaging

It arrives in one box, in two parts. When you receive the product, simply click the brush onto the base and you can start using it right away.

How I use the Revlon One-Step Volumizer PLUS

I typically use it on its medium setting for styling, and the hot setting for drying (with the barrel detached). The air force is pretty much as strong as any other hair dryer I’ve used. The main difference is just that the mouth of the dryer is a little narrower than a standard salon-grade hair dryer), but it’s very effective in drying my hair pretty quickly.

When styling, I put extra attention on the ends of my hair, winding it taut against the brush to give my hair ends a “scoop” look. And along my center part, I wrap sections of hair around the brush (as much as I can at a time and as tightly as possible) and slowly tug it to simultaneously style and dry.

The results

I like the way this tool curls the ends of my hair in or outward just so (even more than what’s pictured here if I’m really going for it and when my hair is a little longer). My hair does feel a little silkier and softer afterwards, but I think that’s more due to the nature of brushing while simultaneously encouraging it to shape a certain way. It also adds a little volume to my part, which may not hold all day, but a little bit of hairspray or similar shaping product helps.

One great thing about this product is that the results are consistent. The most important factors that make the biggest difference for me in how the end result turns out is hair length, whether or not I use products in my hair, and how I maneuver the tool itself. For example, if I want my hair to have more of a curl at the ends, I utilize the curved sides of the oval-shaped brush more than the flat sections to help shape my strands.

Pros & cons

Pros:

• Easy to grip in one hand.
• It’s convenient to pack and great for travel — stronger than any hotel-provided hair dryer I’ve ever come across.
• Makes hair styling easier than using two separate tools (a hair dryer and a brush).
• Gives you lots of volume.
• Great for curtain bangs, creating big, loose curls, and curling in the ends of a bob (or any length hair, really).

Cons:

• The wand tip can get too hot to the touch when the brush is running on a high setting for an extended period of time.
• Even though it makes blowing out your hair a lot easier than using a separate brush and dryer, your arms may still get tired depending on how you are styling your hair and how long your hair is.
• The dryer mouth (without the brush attached), might feel less powerful and forceful than a salon-level hair dryer, but that could be because it has a narrower opening.
• The brush is too wide to achieve loose coiled curls, if that is your goal, unless your hair is extremely long.

The final verdict

As an adult, I’m really low-fuss (and incredibly lazy) about my hair — 98% of the time, I simply let it air dry. But on the occasion when I do want to style it or add volume, the Revlon One-Step Volumizer PLUS is incredibly user-friendly and way easier than trying to maneuver a hair brush and heavy hair dryer in separate hands. I usually keep my hair relatively long (from mid to low back), and though it’s not thick or heavy, trying to style long hair can be incredibly exhausting and feel like such a workout. Compared to other hair dryers, the Revlon One-Step Volumizer is lighter, easier to maneuver, a great price for just as powerful a product, and takes up less space in the vanity cabinet.

The TL;DR

Smart product, great results. I will definitely replace it if and when it breaks down.

Had To Share highlights the products and finds that Romper editors and contributors love so much, we just had to share in the group chat.