Are ceramic and ionic hair dryers different?

Lux would like to learn…What is the benefit to using an ionic hair dryer or a ceramic hair dryer? I’ve heard that you can blow dry more quickly by using an ionic or ceramic dryer. Is this true? How does it work?

The Right Brain accommodates:

The quick answer is that “ionic” doesn’t mean anything in terms of speed of hair drying. Ionic refers to the charged components that a chemical can be broken down to. For example, when table salt (sodium chloride) dissolves in water you get sodium ions and chloride ions. Ions can also be released under conditions of high temperature or high energy. But even if your blow dryer did bombard your hair with ions, those charged particles wouldn’t have any effect on how long it takes your hair to dry.

Ceramic dryers (meaning dryers with a ceramic heating element) can heat up faster and more evenly than some other types, so maybe your hair will dry a little quicker because of that. But that’s only because you spend less time waiting for the dryer to warm up. And that’s not very much time!

The Beauty Brains bottom line

We haven’t seen any data to show that ionic hair drying appliances are better than any other kind. But ceramic dryers might offer you a faster, more consistent heat source. If any of our Beauty Brainiacs (as we affectionately refer to our readers) have experience with ionic or ceramic dryers, please let us know.

(BTW, is it my imagination or is the woman in this picture having just a little too much fun with that hair dryer device?)