What price would you put on a good hair day? $100? $200?
What about $750? (Yes, really.)
That's the price of Dyson's latest hair dryer, the Supersonic Nural.
The Dyson Supersonic Nural. Image: Dyson.
It's the next iteration of the Supersonic, which retails for $549 to $649.
At those prices, you could buy yourself a good coffee machine, flights to another city or maybe even just pay your power bill.
If you are in the market for a new hair dryer, though, and can justify the price, you're probably wondering whether it's worth the money.
To help you decide, four CHOICE staff (plus one teenage child) test-drove the Nural to see how it compares to their usual method of hair drying.
We chose people with quite different hair types so you can see how it works across the spectrum.
Here's what you need to know, and what our triallists said about using the Nural.
On this page:
- What's the big deal about the Dyson Supersonic Nural?
- Curly hair: Alice
- Long, thick, wavy hair: Peter
- Fine, wavy hair: Jen
- Fine, straight hair: Harper
- Thick, straight hair: Pru
Image: Dyson.
What's the big deal about the Dyson Supersonic Nural?
New Dyson products always attract attention, but there's been quite a bit of excitement around the Nural.
What does it have that other hair dryers don't?
It's got that sleek Dyson bladeless design, of course, and the features that made the original Dyson Supersonic so popular: fast and powerful drying, intelligent heat control, magnetic attachments and more.
The Nural takes things up a notch with 'scalp protect mode', which measures the distance between the dryer and your hair, reducing the heat as you move it closer to your scalp.
'Scalp protect mode' reduces the heat as you move it closer to your scalp
The dryer can tell which attachment is connected and switches to preset airflow and heat settings. But then it goes further, using a fancy sensor to learn which settings you prefer with which attachment and switching to those each time you click in an attachment.
Plus, there's Pause detect: the dryer senses when you put it down and cuts the heat and airflow.
A fancy sensor learns which settings you prefer and switches to those each time you click in an attachment
Like the Supersonic, the Nural comes with five attachments – gentle air attachment, styling concentrator, wide-tooth comb, flyaway attachment and diffuser.
However, the diffuser has had a makeover and now separates into two components. 'Diffuse mode' looks like a regular diffuser and adds volume. Or you can unclip the front of the diffuser to use 'Dome mode' for more defined curls.
Alice Richard, CHOICE content marketer.
Curly hair: Alice
- Usual routine: co-wash with light conditioner, 'squish to condish' with heavy treatment conditioner, wrap in microfibre towel, scrunch through curly hair foam, air dry (occasionally blow dried with diffuser)
- Usual time to dry: Up to three hours (air dried); 15 minutes diffused to part-dry
- Usual tools: a 10+-year-old basic dryer with a cheap diffuser attachment bought on eBay
Confession time: I am exceptionally lazy when it comes to anything beauty related.
If it's expensive, time-consuming, complicated or overly laborious, I'm just not going to adopt it.
This approach actually suits curly hair: my curls prefer not to be brushed (in fact, I haven't owned a hair brush in years) and only washed about once a week, which suits me just fine. I don't do much in between washes: my bed hair doesn't look too dissimilar to my styled hair!
If I'm going to invest time in hair care, it needs to be really worth it: give me curls to die for, or get out of my hair
I only really pull out the hair dryer if I have an event on and want my curls to be a bit extra. But even then, I only partially dry it – partly to avoid dryness and frizz, and partly because I'm too lazy to commit the time to drying it fully.
So if I'm going to invest time in an additional hair care step, it needs to be really worth it: give me curls to die for, or get out of my hair.
Did the Dyson Nural deliver? Yes and no.
(Also, note to self: next time you agree to trial a fancy hair dryer, make sure you don't have shockingly bad regrowth.)
Using the Dyson Supersonic Nural dryer
There were some pros but plenty of cons.
The dryer was reasonably quiet and easy to handle, and I loved the way the attachments connect to the body magnetically, with a satisfying click. (I may have done this more times than was really necessary because I enjoyed it!)
I couldn't figure out how to use the different modes, so I spent ages pressing buttons at random until I found the setting I wanted. (My laissez-faire approach to beauty also includes an aversion to instruction manuals and YouTube videos.)
I couldn't figure out how to use the different modes, so I spent ages pressing buttons at random
I kept accidentally blocking the air intake when I held the dryer – why on earth would they put it on the handle?
When I used the cool shot button to set the style, the placement was awkward: it's on the back of the handle, rather than the front, so I had to hold the dryer sort-of sideways to press it. And I kept accidentally pressing the power switch button because it's in the spot I expected the cool shot button to be.
Left: The Dyson Nural Wave+Curl diffuser. Right: the results.
The attachments:
The Nural has not one but two curl attachments.
(Such a treat for curly girls – we're used to our hairstyling needs being something of an afterthought.)
The first looks like a regular diffuser. I found that it left my hair a bit frizzy and didn't deliver particularly defined curls.
Left: The Dyson Nural Wave+Curl diffuser. Right: the results.
The second attachment is what Dyson calls 'dome mode'.
You click the top part of the regular diffuser off and you're left with what looks like a bowl.
Dyson says it's best for creating more defined curls, and I found this to be true.
Six-day old Nural-diffused curls.
Dome mode also created curls with serious staying power.
On the right is my hair six days after using the dome attachment.
(Yes, I do go that long in between washes sometimes! My curls tend to get curlier the longer I leave them – up to a point, of course.)
The results
The Nural left my hair feeling softer than usual, and the dome diffuser helped create quite defined curls.
You can tell just from the length of my hair that the two Dyson attachments certainly helped my curls bounce up.
But can you see a huge difference between the results? I can't. And I certainly can't see $700+ worth of difference.
Verdict: I don't think the results were actually any better than air drying or using my own basic hair dryer. So, is it worth $750? Not for me.
CHOICE content producer Peter Zaluzny.
Long, thick, wavy hair: Peter
- Usual routine: Shampoo, conditioner, hair dryer to remove excess moisture, then straighten
- Usual time to dry: 60–90 minutes
- Time to dry using Nural: 15 minutes
Pete's mane is legendary at CHOICE. And you can see why: it's glorious.
When we heard about the Nural, Pete's flowing locks made him the obvious first choice to trial it.
As a dedicated metalhead, Pete's hair gives him extra cred on the scene so it's important that it looks the business. A $750 hair dryer is a good investment in ensuring the perfect 'do for headbanging, right?
Yes and no.
Here are his thoughts about the Dyson Supersonic Nural:
Pete's weapons of choice: a hair dryer to start and a straightener to finish the job.
I used the wide tooth comb attachment as its drying and styling claims best matched my usual routine.
I tried the smart modes that adjust heat and airflow to help maintain your heat, and they just felt inconsistent and irritating, so I turned off the auto adjust modes and anything that involved smart features.
The wide tooth comb attachment.
It left my hair more voluminous than usual, and also quite clean and soft. The wide tooth comb attachment left it quite straight, but still fluffier and frizzier than using a straightener.
The design wasn't bad but had some shortcomings. The stunted nozzle meant it was awkward to use around the back of my head, and the air intake being located on the handle is annoying – I kept blocking it while holding the handle.
Also the buttons, while they look funky, aren't intuitive. I had to keep pressing things randomly until the settings felt right (like Homer blindly stopping a nuclear meltdown).
This isn't a plug-and-play dryer: it's a high-end product with a range of settings and attachments so you'll probably need to use it a few times to fully understand it. I think it's fine to expect a bit of a learning curve to get the best results.
This isn't a plug-and-play dryer: it's a high-end product with a range of settings and attachments so expect a bit of a learning curve
Peter Zaluzny, CHOICE expert
The price tag feels similar to high-end hi-fi gear. The core functions are well made and do a very good job, but Dyson has included a bunch of fancy features to justify the high cost. In practice, they don't seem to offer any tangible benefits over standard settings and the right attachment for your hair.
If you're the kind of person that has a long hair care routine but find yourself short on time one day, the Dyson will definitely do the job well. It may not match your ideal hair but it'll get you most of the way there in a short space of time.
Expectation vs reality: the Dyson Nural diffuser didn't do much for Pete's hair.
I also tried the Nural on diffuse mode to see what it would do to my wavy/curly hair.
I followed the instructions as per the Dyson hair styling guide video, aside from using a curling cream as I don't use one in my usual routine and didn't have any available.
It did not deliver results as advertised. I don't know if this is because I didn't use it correctly or if it doesn't work properly unless you have the skillset of a professional.
It made my hair frizzy and it was the same the next day, but it did have more volume.
Verdict: Would I use it? Yes. But at that price? No. It's not worth $750.
Jen Paterson, head of content experience at CHOICE.
Fine, wavy hair: Jen
- Usual routine: shampoo, condition, air dry (blow dry if I'm going out or into the office)
- Usual time to dry: 20 minutes air dry, 5–10 minutes blow dry
- Time to dry using Nural: 5 minutes
I'm pretty low maintenance with my hair. I work a lot of the week at home, and when I'm there I generally use an air-dry approach.
I do use a Parlux eco dryer if I'm heading out or going into work.
My hair is really fine, so basically any hair dryer works pretty quickly, so speed isn't really a factor for me.
Because it's so fine it's really hard to get any volume and shape with the waves. I've used other hair dryers with diffusers, but this one seems to give it heaps of bounce.
I've used other hair dryers with diffusers, but this one seems to give it heaps of bounce
I used the dome and found it really good at defining the waves, much more than my hair dryer, which was a pleasant surprise.
Left to right: Air dried; dried using Parlux; dried using Dyson with dome attachment.
That said, it seems like they've invested in a lot of gimmicks (for example, the hair dryer going into rest mode when you put it down) that aren't really that necessary.
It initially took me a few minutes to work out how to turn on the hairdryer – the button looks like a push mechanism, rather than a slide.
The coloured lights that indicate how hot the dryer is running only seem to be visible if you're drying someone else's hair or you're in front of a mirror, so I can't see how they're particularly helpful.
Verdict: I actually went in thinking it would be a complete waste of money and am now thinking it really works for me. It's not worth $750 though!
Jen's daughter Harper.
Fine, straight hair: Harper
- Usual routine: air dry after nightly shower
- Usual time to dry: 30–40 minutes
- Time to dry using Nural: 10 minutes
Harper is Jen's teenage daughter. She usually lets her hair air dry.
"Harper won't use a hair dryer because she worries about heat damage – she only agreed to use the Dyson because it supposedly protects your hair," Jen says.
Harper's hair after using the Dyson.
But how effective is the scalp protect mode? It's hard to know unless you use the Nural over a longer period of time.
"I can see it dials the heat down a bit, but does that quantifiably help? My hair is pretty damaged already, so I don't think it makes that much difference," says Jen.
Harper's hair after air drying.
"Harper said the Nural was noticeably quieter than a regular hair dryer, which is pleasant to use," says Jen.
"Her hair dried really quickly – but then our hair always dries quickly because it's so fine!"
Jen used the flyaway attachment on Harper's hair – but it wasn't all smooth sailing.
"I realised I used it completely the wrong way on Harper after I went and watched the videos," she said.
Once she figured it out, she trialled it on Harper's hair. How did it go?
"It didn't seem to make any difference to fly-aways on Harper's fine hair."
Verdict: I can't see this dryer being worth the cost if you have fine, straight hair.
Pru Engel, CHOICE's audience and engagement editor.
Thick, straight hair: Pru
- Usual routine: shampoo, condition, blow dry and smooth with brush until dry
- Usual time to dry: 20 minutes
- Time to dry using Nural: 25 minutes
I'm pretty basic when it comes to my hair dryer needs, and I have extremely amateur blow drying skills.
I also have dead straight hair and there's a lot of it, so I just want something that's going to get it dried efficiently with limited flyaways.
I think all the fancy features are a bit wasted on me, and might be suited better to someone who blow dries their hair more often
I think all the fancy features and accessories on the Dyson are a bit wasted on me, and might be suited better to someone who blow dries their hair way more often or who has really curly or wavy hair (and a bigger budget!).
The Dyson did give a nice result, though. I used the concentrator attachment, and the blow dry felt like it lasted a bit longer.
My hair felt a bit softer and lighter, but it did take slightly longer to dry than when using my usual hair dryer.
The Dyson did give a nice result: the blow dry felt like it lasted a bit longer
I like how it's relatively light and compact, considering its power. The bladeless design is also cool (and saves me worrying about getting any of my wispy hair inadvertently stuck in the motor, which, embarrassingly, has happened before).
Verdict: The price tag is a bit much for me to justify – and I got pretty much the same results as I get from my five-year-old hair dryer that cost just a few hundred dollars.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
