Fed up with spending ages drying your hair every day? Then try this £10 turban... or a £200 hurricane hairdryer

By Melissa Kite

Published: 16:53 EDT, 21 August 2013 | Updated: 15:08 EDT, 22 August 2013

Blow-drying my hair is a terrible chore. I have so much of it that it usually takes a good 15 minutes just to get it vaguely dry. Then comes the really yawny bit — styling, which takes an extra 20 minutes at least. I find this so tiresome that, I’m ashamed to say, I rarely bother. 

In fact, after a day working and then tending to my horses, I confess I have been known to break the hairdresser’s golden rule and wash my hair before just falling into bed with it still wet. While I’m fed up with looking like I’ve been dragged through a hedge, I’m reluctant to waste my precious time wielding a barrel brush for hours on end. 

So can a new range of products that promise to 'quick-dry' hair really get me groomed on a tight schedule?  

THE JET ENGINE HAIRDRYER

T3 Featherweight Luxe 2i hairdryer, available from Space NK
Cost: £195.

Claim: 'Clinically proven to dry hair in record time. Up to 75 per cent faster drying.'

Reality: Typical dryers work by blasting water molecules off the hair with a hurricane of air that can damage the outer layer of each strand, causing friction and flyaway locks.

With the T3, a specially engineered fan generates an increased volume of air, which exits the dryer at an optimised speed and temperature in a wide cone shape instead of the usual straight blast. This is meant to dry larger sections of hair at a time. 

For the money, this hairdryer was a bit unwieldy — not exactly heavy, just hard to manipulate because of its long thin handle.

Another design boob was that the buttons to change speed were on the lower part of the handle, where I normally grip, so I kept switching it off altogether by mistake. Hugely irritating. 

And I can’t help but be suspicious of the precision of the claims in the blurb, including '79 per cent reduction in frizz; 93 per cent increase in body; 21 per cent increase in shine; 36 per cent increase in comb-ability; 52 per cent increase in style retention'. How on earth have they tested this so exactly?

Once I got the hang of the long thin handle, it did dry my hair quicker, but contrary to the claims, it frizzed it up quite a lot as well. 

In conclusion, fast drying, but not terribly smooth results.

Drying time: Eight minutes. 

Verdict: 6/10

TAKE A MOP TO YOUR MOP

Goody Quikstyle Absorbent Microfibre Brush, Boots

Cost: £12.49.

Claim: 'Reduce water while you detangle, blow-dry and style. Designed for detangling and quick removal of excess water with or without a hairdryer.'

Reality: This was the product that caught my eye most because it looks like a cross between a hairbrush and a cleaning utensil. Also, the blurb on the packet doesn’t make wild promises. 

You use it as you would your normal brush to comb through your hair after washing, and the pieces of super-absorbent sponge material between the prongs remove an incredible amount of moisture. 

It was lovely and light to hold, felt nice against my scalp and sped up blow-drying with my normal hairdryer a little. 

But the best bit was what happened when I combed my wet hair with the Quikstyle and then indulged in my shameful habit of leaving my hair to dry naturally. The results were simply amazing.

Instead of the mass of wonky curls and static that usually greets me in the mirror, I had somehow acquired a sleek, almost salon blow-dried look. 

By absorbing virtually every drop of excess moisture, the brush had managed to make my hair dry nicely of its own accord. 

A must-have gadget for lazy hair-stylers like me. 

Drying time: Eight minutes.

Verdict: 9/10

WET HAIR? IT’S A WRAP

Girlfriend! Microfibre  Hair Turban, handpickedcollection.com
Cost: £9.95.

Claim: 'Wrap your wet hair up in this super-absorbant microfibre hair turban and get dry in an instant! So absorbant the formula is patented. Keeps hair in great condition. Less rubbing and blow-drying so less split ends. Compact, convenient and fast. Ideal for travelling and the gym.'

Reality: How well I remember my mum, a hairdresser, warning me never to rub my hair with a towel. A surefire way to break your hair and cause split ends. 

So a nice soft turban to put on after the shower is a great idea. And this is rather jolly, with its multi-coloured polka dots. 

The problem is, I can’t get it on. It’s the shape of a big, baggy nappy and no matter how hard I try, whichever end I put my head into first turns out to be the wrong one. I think it’s called the Girlfriend! hair turban because you have to get your girlfriends to help you get it successfully wrapped around your head. 

'Do I look like Liz Taylor or Joan Collins?' I asked one hopefully, once we’d finally managed. 'Hilda Ogden,' my friend replied. Oh, well.

The idea is that its super-soft, super-absorbent microfibres absorb more moisture from your wet hair than a normal towel, which is less comfortable and secure. 

Maybe so, but to my mind, it’s not as good as putting a bog-standard towel on your head because you simply can’t wrap it as tightly. 

It does an all right job of taking some of the wetness out of my hair, and it is lovely and soft, but it doesn’t come remotely close to getting my hair dry 'in an instant' and requires nearly the same amount of time with my normal hairdryer.

Drying time: Ten minutes — after leaving the turban on for five minutes and taking five minutes to get it on in the first place!

Verdict: 3/10

HOT AIR FOR YOUR HAIR

Denman D100 tunnel vent brush, Boots

Cost: £5.53. 

Claim: 'Fast and gentle blow-drying. This hairbrush works by allowing warm air to circulate directly at root level.'

Reality: This runs smoothly through wet hair even without the use of any detangling products.

Special air vents in the body of the brush allow the air to flow from the hairdryer onto the hair through the brush, so you can style and dry at the same time, with non-stop hot air flow to the head.

Used in conjunction with my normal hairdryer it allowed me to flick my hair about, teasing it into a nice bouncy style. It shaved a good six minutes off the drying process and was light and easy to manipulate.

Drying time: Nine minutes.

Verdict: 7/10 

STRAIGHT-UP SPRAY

Lee Stafford Blow Dry Your Hair Faster Spray, Boots
Cost: £6.19.

Claim: 'This clever little spray reduces the time it takes to blow-dry hair. Helps detangle hair too!'

Reality: From its pink packaging and over-friendly instructions, something told me this spray was aimed at the teenage market. So I was sceptical about it.

But while it did shave quite a few minutes off the time I needed to use my hairdryer, the best thing was that it made my hair very straight, very sleek and impressively held it in place with no extra product for quite a few hours.

This is a very good styling spray if you like your hair poker-straight. The results were a little too flat for me, as I like some movement, but lazy blow-dryers who struggle with frizzy hair and want to look styled without using straighteners or big brushes will love it.

The fragrance, sadly, is aimed at youngsters. It made my head smell like bubble gum. 

Drying time: Eight minutes.

Verdict: 8/10

SLEEKER BUT  NOT SPEEDIER

Cloud Nine Magical Potion, cloudninehair.com
Cost: £5.75 for 50ml and £17.95 for 200ml.

Claim: 'Lightweight bi-phase formula delivers outstanding results and transforms hair as if by magic. Reduces drying time on average by half.'

Reality: This is an intriguing little bottle. The blue-green colour has the desired effect of making you think it might do something clever, although I could have done without the pseudo-science. What’s a ‘bi-phase’ when it’s at home? 

It smells a bit like setting lotion. Indeed, the blurb claims it acts partly as a setting agent if you then put heated rollers in your hair. 

I sprayed it over wet, very matted hair and its detangling properties were magical. It instantly had my brush going through the mass of tangles. 

But it didn’t speed up blow-drying by that much more than a minute or so, tops. But, once dried, my hair had fantastic shine and condition and did not require any further product to give sheen — a miracle.

Drying time: Just under 15 minutes.

Verdict: 8/10 for the styling, 4/10 for drying.