There was once a brief moment in time I found myself half-seriously entertaining the idea of buying a Dyson hair dryer for $500. When you have thick, frizzy, naturally wavy hair that takes forever to dry, the idea of being able to style it faster will make you think crazy thoughts I guess. As cool as those Dysons look, spending that much money on a hair tool is just out of the question for most people.

Thankfully, we’ve reached the point where there are less expensive options out there…”dupes” as TikTok might call them. I recently tried one of them, the Tensky Ionic Hair Dryer w/ Brushless Motor & LCD Intelligent Display. Priced at $175, it’s still not cheap, but it’s about half the price of even the least expensive Dyson brand dryers.

Is it worth it? Would it tame my hair better and faster than my trusty $20 hair dryer from Target? Let’s find out.

Unboxing

We all know if you want to make something feel “premium”, you package it like an Apple product. The Tensky Dryer comes in a box that looks like it could contain a really big iPhone. It looks and feels very nice.

Design

When I first picked up the Tensky, I was surprised at how lightweight it is. Like it really weighs next to nothing. It’s a nice shape–a lot smaller than my old hair dryer but not too small where it would be hard to hold onto.

There are three buttons: one that turns it on and off, one to adjust the heat, and one to adjust the speed. There are three heat settings (cool air, 120 degrees and 175 degrees) and two speed settings (high and low). There’s a digital display that makes it easy to see where all these settings are at.

The dryer also comes with a magnetic nozzle attachment. I’m gonna be honest and admit I’m not sure when you should/should not use it, so I just kept it on the whole time.

According to the manual, the Tensky has “wind speed” of up to 23m/s (2x faster than traditional hairdryers); they claim it should take 3-5 minutes to dry a head of hair. I was skeptical, but here we go.

First Use

First thing I noticed is how quiet this dryer is. Definitely less shrill sounding than a normal hair dryer, if that makes sense.

I started with the 175 (highest) heat setting because I wanted to see how fast I could get my hair dried with this thing. Somewhat weirdly (but very pleasantly) it never felt very hot on my head. This is a huge complaint of my normal hair dryer–how it feels like it’s scalding my scalp! According to the manual, the Tensky Dryer has a microprocessor that “monitors the air temperature 100 times per second and makes small adjustments” to avoid heat damage. I have no idea how to tell if this was in fact happening, but I did notice my head never got hot.

I didn’t set a timer (I probably should have), but I think my hair took more like 5-7 minutes to dry. I have a lot of it. I could tell it was faster than normal–usually it takes me 10 minutes or so.

Results

It wasn’t a huge super dramatic difference from my normal hair dryer job, but my hair did look straighter and less frizzy after using the Tensky. My goal right now is to use my straightener as little as possible (so as not to damage my hair), and I think this will help make that possible.

I’ll still need to go over some spots, particularly on the back of my head, with a straightener, but you can see there’s a surprising lack of flyaways to contend with.

Overall Thoughts

Will this hair dryer change my life? I mean, probably not. Will it improve my hair styling routine? For sure! Is it as good as a Dyson? That I can’t really say, but I’d have to imagine it’s pretty close.

Tensky Ionic Hair Dryer Review

Shopping for a new vacuum cleaner this Black Friday? We’ve looked through all the Black Friday ads and broken down where you can get the cheapest Dyson vacuum cleaner (cordless and corded), the cheapest Shark vacuum cleaner and the cheapest Roomba vacuum cleaner during the Black Friday sales this year.

Best Price on a Dyson Cordless Vacuum Cleaner: $179

The absolutely best deal this year is at Walmart. The retailer has reduced the price on the Dyson V7 Motorhead Origin Cord-Free Vacuum from the retail price of $299 down to $179. On a full battery charge, it provides up to 30 minutes in Powerful mode and up to 20 minutes with the motorized cleaner-head.

Of course, if this Dyson vacuum sells out quickly at Walmart, you can find it for $199.99 at Target. In addition, Kohl’s has the more powerful V8 for $250, but you also get $75 in Kohl’s Cash with the purchase. Links to all three stores are below:

• Walmart: $179 Dyson V7
• Target: $199 Dyson V7
• Kohl’s $249 Dyson V8 w/ $75 Kohl’s Cash

Best Price on a Dyson Corded Vacuum Cleaner: $199.99

Target takes the top position in this category, due to a $150 discount on the Dyson Slim Ball Animal Upright vacuum. This vacuum includes Dyson’s ball design for easy turning and HEPA filtration as well as several attachments for getting into crevices or picking up pet hair.

If this deal runs out too quickly, you can pay a bit more to upgrade to the Dyson Ball Animal 2 Upright Bagless vacuum at Kohl’s for $299. That deal offers $90 in Kohl’s cash as well, which would take the edge off the additional spend. Links to both models are below:

• Target: $199 Dyson Slim Ball Animal Upright vacuum
• Kohl’s: $299 Dyson Ball Animal 2 vacuum w/ $90 Kohl’s Cash

Best Price on a Shark Vacuum Cleaner: $84.99 + $15 Kohl’s Cash

It’s really impossible to beat Kohl’s on this deal, specifically because the retailer is offering a 15% off coupon on some Home Goods in addition to bonus Kohl’s Cash. Your best bet is the $299 Shark Rocket DeluxePro Corded Stick vacuum for a mere $85 with the Kohl’s coupon.

If this deal runs out, you can find the same $85 sale price price on a Shark stick model at Target. If you need something more heavy duty, check out the $419 Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away TruePet Bagless vacuum which will be sold for $170 + bonus $45 Kohl’s Cash.

• Kohl’s: $85 Shark Rocket DeluxePro Corded Stick vacuum
• Target: $85 Shark Rocket Ultra-Light Upright vacuum
• Kohl’s: $169 Shark Rotator Powered Lift-Away vacuum

Here’s the cheapest Dyson and Shark vacuums on Black Friday 2019