According to research from personal styling and grooming experts Remington, the humble hair dryer is the most owned heated hair styling tool in the UK with a whopping 88% of women using them. No surprise there, you might think. But it turns out a not insignificant percentage of men (68%, to be precise) also use hair dryers to dry and style their hair at home. It’s statistics like this that got Remington thinking that hair and grooming devices might not be as stereotypically gendered as we once thought.
To this end, following research into what consumers want from their styling tools, Remington have launched the Remington ONE collection: their first-ever total personal care range suitable for all genders, hair types, and styling needs.
With a focus on four multi-purpose, unisex products for drying, styling, trimming and shaving, the collection’s tag line is ‘EVERY HAIR, EVERYWHERE, EVERY ONE’’. And to be fair, after attending Remington’s launch event, I’m less inclined to accuse Remington of 'wokery', and more predisposed to salute them for recognising that many of us – regardless of our gender – feel the need to tame our wanted, or unwanted, body hair.
In total, the Remington ONE range feature four tools, including the Dry & Style Hair Dryer on test here, which promises ease of use, speed of drying, maximum convenience, and great value for money. Does it deliver? Let’s find out.
REMINGTON ONE DRY & STYLE HAIR DRYER REVIEW: PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
The Remington ONE Dry & Style Hair Dryer is now available to buy in the UK for a recommended retail price of £99.99 from Remington UK and selected retailers including Amazon, Argos, and Boots.
In the States, it’s called the Remington ONE Multi-Style Hair Dryer, and it comes with three attachments instead of four (it doesn’t have the Gentle Drying Diffuser). It is available for a recommended retail price of $54.99 from Remington US.
REMINGTON ONE DRY & STYLE HAIR DRYER REVIEW: UNBOXING AND SET UP
The Remington One Dry & Style Hair Dryer comes in standard-looking cardboard packaging that reflects its midrange price but does the job of keeping everything separate and protected. Inside, you’ll find the hair dryer, four attachments all individually wrapped in protective tissue paper, an instruction manual, and a carry bag that easily holds the hair dryer and all the attachments inside.
There is a QR code on the outside of the box promising ‘tips and styling videos’ when you scan it but, disappointingly, I found I was directed to the website page for the hair dryer (which you’d probably already have read if you were thinking about buying it), and I couldn’t find anything constituting a styling or hair tutorial video.
REMINGTON ONE DRY & STYLE HAIR DRYER REVIEW: DESIGN
The Remington ONE Dry & Style Hair Dryer has a T-shape design with a short barrel and a gunmetal grey finish with muted rose gold accents. Described as ‘compact’ and ‘lightweight’, it weighs approximately 700 grams (according to my digital scales) without accessories and has a 2.5 metre power cord.
The hair dryer boasts eight heat/speed combinations for personalised temperature control and turns on and off via the heat setting switch which clicks satisfyingly into place as you move it up and down though the four settings (0 = off, • = low, •• = medium, and ••• = high).
There’s also a lock-in air speed setting button that pushes in for fast air flow and releases for slow air flow, plus a lock-in cool shot button with a small light above which illuminates when you active the cool shot to set your style in place. All three buttons/switches are nicely placed and non-sensitive so you’re unlikely to accidentally change your desired setting.
Lastly, you get four styling attachments to help you achieve a variety of looks, including:
• the rotatable Slim Styling Concentrator nozzle, which directs a precise air flow for bouncy blow-outs and smoother hair when used with a round brush or paddle brush
• the Flyaway Tamer, which smooths and hides irritating flyaways on already-dry hair for a 90 per cent visibly smoother and sleeker finish
• the Gentle Drying Diffuser, which gently dries naturally curly or wavy hair four times faster than air drying without disturbing their shape or texture
• the Curl Defining Diffuser, which helps to define and enhance the volume of natural curls and waves, and attaches magnetically over the top of the Gentle Drying Diffuser
REMINGTON ONE DRY & STYLE HAIR DRYER REVIEW: FEATURES
The Remington ONE Dry & Style Hair Dryer boasts a high performance, salon-worthy 2000W DC motor that generates air speeds of up to 120km/h for 25 per cent faster drying compared to a standard Remington hair dryer. To put this into perspective, both the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer and Shark Style iQ Ionic Hair Dryer deliver 1600W.
With all that power, it’s good to know that the ONE Dry & Style has a Thermacare sensor that continuously regulates air temperature to protect your hair against extreme heat without compromising on your styling results. Even better, the Dual Ionic System distributes up to 80 million ions onto your hair to lock in moisture, resulting in a smooth, shiny, static- and frizz-free finish.
There’s also a cool design feature at the bottom of the handle in the form of the Hang Up Loop, which also doubles as convenient integrated cord storage so you can tidy away the power cord between uses.
REMINGTON ONE DRY & STYLE HAIR DRYER REVIEW: PERFORMANCE
Let’s address the elephant in the room first. While Remington claims the ONE Dry & Style Hair Fryer is ‘lightweight for improved styling control’ to make ‘drying hair over a longer period of time more comfortable with no arm ache’, I disagree.
According to my digital scales, it weighs approximately 700 grams without attachments, which might not sound like much considering the Dyson Supersonic weighs 560 grams without accessories. But after recently testing several super lightweight, compact and powerful hair dryers like the mdlondon BLOW (360 grams with 1600W) and the Nicky Clarke AirStyle Pro (350 grams with 2000W ), the ONE Dry & Style Hair Dryer feels heavy in my hand and gets a bit tiresome to grip.
Remington also say the short barrel is balanced, but it feels top heavy to me, and as though all the weight is in the rear of the device. I definitely needed to employ more wrist strength to control the hair dryer, but if you’re used to using a heavier device, none of the above will matter and you will love everything this hair dryer offers for a very reasonable price.
It’s super powerful, so it will undoubtedly speed up your drying times if you don’t mind the noise of the highest heat and speed setting, and there’s a good range of heat and speed settings if your hair is damaged or fine and needs a gentler touch. But the real star of the show is the four accessories it comes with as standard. They all attach to the barrel securely with a twist and come away easily, and the way the Curl Defining Diffuser magnetically connects to the Gentle Drying Diffuser is clever, not to mention space-saving.
The rotatable Concentrator is slim and wide enough to precisely direct air flow and help you achieve great blow dry results when used with a round brush, while the Flyaway Tamer is super easy to use and fantastic for smoothing away flyaways at the roots and along the hair shaft (my hair looked very sleek after using it - almost as if I’d used straighteners on my hair when I hadn’t)
I don’t have wavy or curly hair so there was no point in me trying the Curl Defining Diffuser, but I was impressed by the Gentle Drying Diffuser which you can hold very close to your hair. It disperses heated air flow through a wide circular area, and this meant I could dry much more hair in one go without having to keep moving the hair dryer around or rough up my hair. The result was sleeker hair in half the time.
REMINGTON ONE DRY & STYLE HAIR DRYER REVIEW: VERDICT
The Remington ONE Dry & Style Hair Dryer promises ease of use, speed of drying, maximum convenience, and great value for money, and it delivers on all counts. If you can get past its weightiness, you’ll love its salon-worthy power for faster drying and styling, along with the range of heat and speed settings to suit all hair types.
Each of the four attachments does the job it claims to do very well, making this a versatile hair dryer that will help you achieve a range of hairstyles. Male-friendly in terms of design and usability, it’s a solid investment for the price.
