In every sector of the beauty world, there are the brands and products that are so luxurious there are angels constantly singing around them and ghd is one of those brands. My first experience with ghd was 5 years ago with their limited edition, 1″ Periwinkle Professional Styler. After having gone through a number of cheap hair straighteners around the $50 mark, I started looking into ones that were better quality and ghd was the first brand that popped up. It also helped that at the time, I was working as a freelancer in Sephora so I was always checking out the ghd styling tools as they were right next to the brand I was working for. I used to think the key to having nice-looking hair was all in the flat iron, but it turns out having a hair dryer that does most of the heavy lifting from the start can save you a lot of time in the styling step!
PR gifted
I thought the box that the ghd Helios came in was almost as pretty as the hairdryer itself hence the first photo being that, BUT this baby itself is quite the looker!
Quick Stats:
- Uses Aeroprecis technology that gives smoother more salon-like results and up to 30% more shine
- Contoured nozzle for highly concentrated airflow at 75mph to reduce dry time
- Ionic technology to reduce frizz and flyaways
- Bespoke acoustic technology for lower sound levels
- Cool shot button to set your style
- Ergonomic balance with lightweight 1875 Watt brushless motor for faster drying
- Two heat and two power settings
- Hanging tab
The Quick Stats basically sums up this whole blog post so it’s tempting for me to stop here, but what I will say, since you can see my hand gripping the hairdryer handle, is that it’s pretty comfortable to hold. I have small hands and I found the tapered handle nice to hang on to.
Do you guys remember to clean the back of your hairdryers? I didn’t know I had to for the longest time! Just unscrew and remove the back and the filter comes right out. I usually rinse off the filter with water or pick out the dust/cat fur that tends to get stuck in mine.
Another interesting thing to note was the sound this hairdryer makes. It is supposed to have a unique acoustic system that takes the noise level down, but what it does is give a lower hum that is less high pitched. It still feels powerful and while I wouldn’t call this a quiet hair dryer, it isn’t quite as “whiny” as others.
After a brief towel dry, I usually throw my hair up into an AQUIS hair towel as I continue my skincare routine and putter around doing dishes and such. Once I’m done, I take my hair out and it looks like the photo below. If I left my hair to air dry, it would have some wave to it and probably a few kinks to which is why I like doing some form of styling so that my hair can “set” a certain way.
Ohhh, but once I use the Helios everything looks so nice and smooth! I always have a flyaways even when I have my hair done at the salon so I know that I will always have some rogue ones, but what I loved was how soft and sleek my hair felt! I didn’t even need to use a flat or round brush to get this hair. I just turn my head upside down to blow dry some volume into it and then flip it back up to “rough dry” with my hands. I brushed it all out with my Tangle Teezer and that was it!
My hair took about 10 minutes to dry fully and by the end of it, I did find the hairdryer a bit heavy which kind of bummed me out. Ergonomically, it’s a great shape, but the weight is there. Then again, I’ve never really come across a hair dryer in this shape that hasn’t tired my arm out. I looked at a couple of reviews and most said they found the hairdryer very lightweight so maybe I am just weak, but one thing that we all seemed to agree on is the speedy dry time and the lack of styling needed afterwards. FYI, I always read reviews AFTER I have typed out my final verdict just to see whether I need to revisit something that I may have gotten wrong or used incorrectly.
Final verdict: When it comes to sleek hair, I definitely got that and when it came to styling the next day, I could have just worn my hair naturally and run out the door with just hair oil on my ends so it’s good to know that I can save myself some time the next morning when it comes to getting ready. The texture of my hair also felt softer.
This is the cream of the crop when it comes to hair dryers and a bit of an investment, but it’s one of those things where if you blow dry your hair often and want to save yourself some dry AND styling time, purchases like these can make a world of difference. While I don’t know this yet having just received this hairdryer in May, my guess is that I won’t need to buy a hairdryer for a long time as my ghd Periwinkle is still going strong and it has been 5 years! We all have our priorities in our beauty routines and skin and hair are mine so you all have seen from previous posts that I spend a lot on hair accessories and colour treatments so I greatly value tools that take care of my precious hair!
You can find the ghd Helios Hairdryer at www.sephora.com
