Hair dryer for thick hair

ghd Helios Hair Dryer has the best record for thick hair, with 25 of 26 shoppers saying it handled their hair well, and Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer follows at 23 of 25. Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer and Conair InfinitiPRO Quick Styling Hair Dryer come next with the same record, 20 of 22, while BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer has the lowest share here, with 15 of 19. Each record counts just shoppers who said they have thick hair.

  • 176 store reviews counted
  • Ulta and Sephora shoppers
  • May 2016 to Oct 2026

Updated . How we count

Did it handle thick hair? What shoppers said
  1. ghd Helios Hair Dryer 26 said either way
  2. Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer 25 said either way
  3. Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer 22 said either way
  4. Conair InfinitiPRO Quick Styling Hair Dryer 22 said either way
  5. Conair InfinitiPRO SmoothWrap Hair Dryer 11 said either way
  6. BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer 19 said either way
  7. Pattern Blow Dryer 8 said either way

Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for drying thick hair. Ranked by the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval, so a product needs both a good share and enough reports to rank high.

ghd Helios Hair Dryer Best record ghd Helios Hair Dryer 25 of 26 say it handled their thick hair well See price & reviews on Amazon

The ranking, product by product

Praise and complaints are the points reviewers repeat most, shown as a share of each product's counted store reviews.

1 ghd Helios Hair Dryer

ghd

Helios Hair Dryer

25/26 say it handled their thick hair well

Shoppers mention a smooth, less frizzy finish in 41% of its 37 reviews and call it good value in 14%. On the downside, 8% call it heavy and 8% call it too expensive.

What buyers praise

  • Smooth, less frizz 41%
  • Good value 14%
  • Lightweight 11%
  • Quiet 8%

What buyers complain about

  • Heavy 8%
  • Too expensive 8%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 3 of 3
  • Sephora 22 of 23
  • Brand site 6 of 6 shown, not counted
2

Drybar

Buttercup Blow-Dryer

Best for a smooth finish

23/25 say it handled their thick hair well

A smooth, less frizzy finish gets credit in 50% of its 30 reviews, and 20% call it good value. Against that, 17% call it too expensive and 10% say it stopped working.

What buyers praise

  • Smooth, less frizz 50%
  • Good value 20%
  • Holds up 13%
  • Quiet 10%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 17%
  • Stopped working 10%
  • Heavy 7%
  • Frizz or poof 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 23 of 25
3 Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer

Dyson

Supersonic Hair Dryer

20/22 say it handled their thick hair well

Cost splits opinion, with 40% of its 30 reviews calling it good value and 13% calling it too expensive. Others mention a smooth, less frizzy finish (30%), quiet running (17%) and a light feel (17%).

What buyers praise

  • Good value 40%
  • Smooth, less frizz 30%
  • Quiet 17%
  • Lightweight 17%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 13%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 20 of 22
4

Conair

InfinitiPRO Quick Styling Hair Dryer

20/22 say it handled their thick hair well

The Quick Styling dryer earns good-value mentions in 27% of its 30 reviews, but 13% call it heavy and 7% call it loud.

What buyers praise

  • Good value 27%
  • Good on curls 17%

What buyers complain about

  • Heavy 13%
  • Loud 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 20 of 22
5 Conair InfinitiPRO SmoothWrap Hair Dryer

Conair

InfinitiPRO SmoothWrap Hair Dryer

10/11 say it handled their thick hair well

Reviews first posted on the brand's own site agree with its record, at 10 of 10, and we show them but don't count them. Among the 15 reviews we count, 27% mention a smooth, less frizzy finish, 20% call it quiet and 20% call it good value.

What buyers praise

  • Smooth, less frizz 27%
  • Quiet 20%
  • Good value 20%
  • Lightweight 13%
  • Good on curls 13%

What buyers complain about

No repeated complaints yet.

Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 10 of 11
  • Brand site 10 of 10 shown, not counted
6 BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer

BaBylissPRO

Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer

15/19 say it handled their thick hair well

Heat draws complaints here, with 17% of its 24 reviews saying it got too hot. On the plus side, 29% call it lightweight and 17% mention a smooth, less frizzy finish.

What buyers praise

  • Lightweight 29%
  • Smooth, less frizz 17%
  • Good value 8%

What buyers complain about

  • Too hot or burns 17%
  • Frizz or poof 8%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 15 of 19
  • Brand site 2 of 2 shown, not counted
7 Pattern Blow Dryer

Pattern

Blow Dryer

7/8 say it handled their thick hair well

Just 8 shoppers with thick hair stated a result for this dryer, so its record rests on a small group. In its 10 reviews, 20% mention a smooth, less frizzy finish and 20% call it too expensive.

What buyers praise

  • Smooth, less frizz 20%
  • Good on curls 20%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 20%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 7 of 8
  • Brand site 4 of 4 shown, not counted

Where these numbers come from

The 7 products ranked here carry 5,055 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for drying thick hair and read the newest matching reviews, up to 40 per product and store, posted between May 2016 and Oct 2026.

A review counts only when the reviewer used the product themselves. We drop reviews written in exchange for a free product or a sweepstakes entry (0 on this page), and products that are no longer sold.

Ulta also shows reviews first posted on brands' own websites. They run much more positive than store reviews of the same products (across 19 products with both, 76% of brand-site reviewers said the product solved the problem, against 55% of Ulta shoppers), so we show them on product cards but never count them.

Because we searched for the problem, people who had it are overrepresented. Compare products with each other rather than reading a share as your own odds.

Skin type, skin tone and age splits use what reviewers chose on Sephora's review form (and age on Ulta's when given). We only show a split when enough reviewers fall on each side.

Amazon buttons appear only on products that most reviewers here say fix the problem (at least 60%, with enough reviews to trust it). Everything else gets no buy link.

An AI model labels each review against a fixed list of points, and we spot-check the labels before publishing. We publish counts, never the reviews themselves.

Read the full method

Product pages we read

  1. ghd Helios Hair Dryer Ulta and Sephora (37 reviews counted)
  2. Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer Ulta and Sephora (30 reviews counted)
  3. Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer Sephora (30 reviews counted)
  4. Conair InfinitiPRO Quick Styling Hair Dryer Ulta (30 reviews counted)
  5. Conair InfinitiPRO SmoothWrap Hair Dryer Ulta (15 reviews counted)
  6. BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer Ulta (24 reviews counted)
  7. Pattern Blow Dryer Ulta (10 reviews counted)

Questions buyers ask

Which hair dryer works for thick hair?

ghd Helios Hair Dryer has the best record (25 of 26), followed by Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer (23 of 25), Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer (20 of 22) and Conair InfinitiPRO Quick Styling Hair Dryer (20 of 22). Next come Conair InfinitiPRO SmoothWrap Hair Dryer (10 of 11), BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer (15 of 19) and Pattern Blow Dryer (7 of 8).

Why does Pattern Blow Dryer rank below BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer with a higher share?

The ranking weighs how many shoppers stated a result, not just the share. BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer has 19 shoppers behind its record against 8 for Pattern Blow Dryer, so the larger group earns more trust even though its share is lower, at 79% against 88%.

Which of these hair dryers are sold on Amazon?

Five are sold on Amazon by the brand or Amazon itself: ghd Helios Hair Dryer, Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer, Conair InfinitiPRO SmoothWrap Hair Dryer, BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer and Pattern Blow Dryer. We could not confirm the exact Amazon listing for Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer or Conair InfinitiPRO Quick Styling Hair Dryer, so their buttons search Amazon for them. The leader, ghd Helios Hair Dryer, is also the best pick sold on Amazon.

Any tips for using a hair dryer on thick hair?

Follow the dryer's heat settings and instructions. Use a heat protectant if you use one already. We count results, not safety, so these records say how well a dryer handled thick hair and nothing more.

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HiveTried earns a commission when you buy through the "See price & reviews on Amazon" buttons. It never changes the ranking: the order comes from buyer reports only, and a product gets an Amazon button only when buyers here say it works.