Hair dryer for wavy hair

ghd Helios Hair Dryer leads, with 25 of 27 shoppers saying it dried their hair fast and left waves smooth and defined, and Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer is nearly level at 24 of 26. BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer comes next at 19 of 24, and Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer has the weakest record here at 18 of 25. Each record counts just shoppers who said they have wavy hair.

ghd Helios Hair Dryer
Top pick ghd Helios Hair Dryer 25 of 27 say it dried their wavy hair fast and left waves smooth and defined
See price & reviews on Amazon Paid link. The ranking never depends on it.
  • 119 store reviews counted
  • Ulta and Sephora shoppers
  • Jul 2014 to Aug 2026

Updated . How we count

Did it leave waves smooth and defined? What shoppers said
  1. ghd Helios Hair Dryer 27 said either way
  2. Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer 26 said either way
  3. BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer 24 said either way
  4. Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer 25 said either way

Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for drying wavy 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 27 say it dried their wavy hair fast and left waves smooth and defined See price & reviews on Amazon
What stands out

Three of the four dryers draw complaints about cost: 40% of Dyson reviews, 16% of ghd reviews and 13% of Drybar reviews call the dryer too expensive.

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

25/27 say it dried their wavy hair fast and left waves smooth and defined

Shoppers say it handles thick hair in 41% of its reviews, call it lightweight in 16% and call it quiet in 12%.

What buyers praise

  • Handles thick hair 41%
  • Lightweight 16%
  • Good value 16%
  • Quiet 12%
  • Volume on fine hair 9%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 16%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 5 of 6
  • Sephora 20 of 21
  • Brand site 1 of 1 shown, not counted
2

Drybar

Buttercup Blow-Dryer

24/26 say it dried their wavy hair fast and left waves smooth and defined

Good value comes up in 27% of its 30 reviews, though 10% find it heavy.

What buyers praise

  • Handles thick hair 40%
  • Good value 27%
  • Quiet 13%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 13%
  • Heavy 10%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 24 of 26
By age (reviewers who gave one)
  • Under 409 of 10
  • 40 and over3 of 3
3 BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer

BaBylissPRO

Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer

Best for a lightweight feel

19/24 say it dried their wavy hair fast and left waves smooth and defined

Light weight comes up in 30% of its 27 reviews, and 19% call it good value.

What buyers praise

  • Handles thick hair 33%
  • Lightweight 30%
  • Good value 19%

What buyers complain about

No repeated complaints yet.

Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 19 of 24
4 Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer

Dyson

Supersonic Hair Dryer

18/25 say it dried their wavy hair fast and left waves smooth and defined

Its 7 misses mostly said it left their wavy hair frizzy or straw-like. Of its 30 reviews, 20% call it lightweight and 10% call it loud.

What buyers praise

  • Handles thick hair 30%
  • Good value 23%
  • Lightweight 20%
  • Quiet 7%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 40%
  • Loud 10%
  • Heavy 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 18 of 25

Where these numbers come from

The 4 products ranked here carry 3,057 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for drying wavy hair and read the newest matching reviews, up to 40 per product and store, posted between Jul 2014 and Aug 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 (32 reviews counted)
  2. Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer Ulta and Sephora (30 reviews counted)
  3. BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer Ulta (27 reviews counted)
  4. Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer Sephora (30 reviews counted)

Questions buyers ask

Is the ghd Helios Hair Dryer really ahead of the Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer?

It leads by one shopper, at 25 of 27 against 24 of 26, so treat the two as a tie. BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer follows at 19 of 24, then Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer at 18 of 25.

Is the Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer good for wavy hair?

It worked for 18 of 25 shoppers with wavy hair, the weakest record of the four here, so the other three dryers are the stronger picks.

Which of these hair dryers are sold on Amazon?

ghd Helios Hair Dryer, BaBylissPRO Nano Titanium Lightweight Dryer and Dyson Supersonic Hair Dryer are sold on Amazon by the brand or Amazon itself. We could not confirm the exact Amazon listing for Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer, so its button searches Amazon for it.

Are these results from a lab test?

No. The counts are what shoppers with wavy hair said after using each dryer, not a lab test of heat or safety, so follow the label directions.

Related problems

Hair dryer Hair dryers for frizzy hair Top pick: Revlon One-Step Volumizer Hot-Air Brush 199 buyer reports Hair dryer Hair dryer for curly hair Top pick: Drybar Buttercup Blow-Dryer 124 buyer reports Curl cream Curl cream for wavy hair Top pick: Fenty Beauty Homecurl Curl-Defining Cream 125 buyer reports Leave-in conditioner Leave-in conditioner for wavy hair Top pick: Mizani 25 Miracle Milk Leave-In 210 buyer reports

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