There’s currently only one colour option – a pleasant enough ice-blue (which matches the same brand’s Hydro-Fusion Air Styler, should you want to round out your styling set).

In tests, our shoulder-length, curly hair took less than five minutes to rough-dry from completely wet, and felt soft and less frizzy than usual after blow drying.

It’s not alone in using this tech: a large number of the most popular hair dryers have this feature. The Panasonic EH-NA67 hair dryer may look slightly unusual but how does its drying speeds compare to rivals from GHD and Dyson? These chunky, stiff switches do feel, and look, a little cheap but their positioning makes them easy to use mid-dry and you won’t accidentally knock them. Despite their differences on paper, drying time is similar and they both left our hair equally soft and shiny. She has more than a decade of experience in both onlineand print journalism, having written about tech and gadgets since day one for national papers, magazines, and global brands.

Given its similarity to other BaByliss models, we wouldn’t be surprised if a diffuser from a different model was suitable with this one, although we haven’t tested that yet. The higher heat and speed settings are most suitable for rough-drying hair at the start of the process, so you’ll probably want to switch down to a lower speed and temperature for brush and diffuser styling.

Despite the Salon Light’s 540g weight (100g heavier than the Dyson), the nippy drying times mean your arms shouldn’t get too tired. Despite its slightly misleading name, it’s heavier than a number of its rivals, including the Dyson Supersonic, but only by around 100g so it’s a marginal difference.

The ions break up the water molecules in your hair; this helps reduce heat damage by drying the hair more quickly and evenly, while at the same time distributing moisture through the hair for shiny and hydrated locks. Compared to its other rivals, however, the Salon Light’s sound level puts it in the middle of the pack. The speed and temperature are easily controlled with two sliding switches on the side of the tool – simply flick the switch up and down to find the airflow that best suits your hair type and texture. The rear of the dryer’s thin barrel is curved, which helps keep the blades of its internal fan away from the surface, and prevents accidentally sucking hair into the appliance.com/electricals/hair-stylers/hair-dryers/babyliss-salonlight-2100-hair-dryer/p/564600" on this server. It outperforms some of its more expensive competitors in drying time, smoothness and ease-of-use, plus it’s largely a well-designed piece of kit. It doesn’t get too hot during use, either, is easy to attach and remove, and doesn’t rotate mid-dry unless we want it to. It didn’t get too hot during use, was easy to attach and remove, and didn’t rotate mid-dry unless we wanted it to.