We’re always looking for ways to style our hair faster, with minimal effort, minimal damage and great results. When you think about it, it’s a tall order for hair appliances! However, convenience is the number one selling point for this market; that’s why the Dyson Airwrap has remained so popular, despite its high price. But, what if a more affordable appliance entered the market — one with convenience at its core?
Enter the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer ($34.88 at Amazon), which acts as both a brush and hair dryer in one. Of course, there are other ‘brush-dryers’ out there which are designed in much the same way, but people are going crazy for this model for some reason. That’s why I decided to have a go with this tool myself, to see what all the fuss is about.
In fact, I'm still using it over a year later. For full details check out I traded my hair dryer for a hot air brush — and I’ve not looked back.
What is the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer?
The Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer is designed to dry and volumize your hair in "one-step." It’s essentially a large barrel brush with a built-in hair dryer, so it styles your hair and reduces frizz as you brush through. It claims to offer "salon blow dries" in up to half the time, with 36% less hair breakage.
The barrel brush has an oval shape to help create defined curls and there are two heat settings as well as a cooling setting to set the style. It only dries towel-dried hair, i.e. damp, not wet. This design is by no means the first of its kind, but it’s definitely popular — with over 250,000 reviews on Amazon alone.
Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer: First Impressions
I’ll admit, I didn’t have high hopes on first seeing the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer. It was sealed within a plastic bag, which had been crushed into the box so hard that some of the bristles were bent out of shape. These do appear almost realigned now though.
There’s no accessories, such as a pouch or travel case, so you’d need to buy one separately, such as the ProCase Hard Travel Case ($18.99, Amazon). Even the manual was fairly limited, with no diagrams to demonstrate the directions. It’s also a bulky design, measuring about 13 x 4 x 3.5 inches. It feels lightweight though considering it carries a hairdryer, weighing just over 1.5 pounds. The cord length is substantial as well at 8 feet long — so you’ve got a good reach.
The Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer controls are basic and very intuitive to use. It’s essentially a dial wrapped around the base which you rotate to change the setting. Although the setting icons are located on the back of the device, which looks a little strange.
Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer: Performance
At first, I used the lower heat setting to dry and style, because the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer manual advised that for fine hair. I pinned my hair up into two layers and attempted the lower layer on my left side first. To create a volumized finish, as instructed, I brought the barrel up underneath my hair and rotated it as I reached the end to curl it under.
The Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer did dry my hair slowly, but I had to be patient — I had to go over my sections several times, but in time it was dry and neatly styled with a flick at the end. As it’s such a sizable barrel, it could also hold a lot of my hair at once, so while it took a little time to dry, I could cover a wide area per brush. Because of the bristles, it didn’t matter if I caught my hand on the brush; there’s little risk of scalding unless you manage to touch the ceramic coating underneath.
I then attempted my right side — this was more tricky to style. It may be because I’m right-handed, but my hair just wouldn’t cooperate as well on this side. It was still dry and mostly straightened with a flick, but it just didn’t quite as good as the left. I was nervous about styling the back, but this was actually one of the easiest areas to do as it’s just like brushing your hair from the underside. This was much easier than using hair straighteners on the back in any case.
By the time I reached the upper layer, my patience had worn a little, so I used the higher heat setting on the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer to make the process quicker. My hair indeed felt hotter, so this was likely doing more damage, but my arm was starting to feel the weight of the device, so I needed to speed up the process. I found the upper layer was much the same as the lower in terms of styling, but the brush did seem to add some volume on the whole which looked good. For a final touch, I brushed through my hair as usual with the appliance, and this smoothed out any remaining frizz.
Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer: Bottom line
I finished after 15 minutes, so the whole styling time was probably about three times as long as using my regular hair dryer. However, the overall look with the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer was a huge improvement. The ends looked and felt much softer compared to when using my hair straighteners. The body of my hair was volumized and had a very natural appearance — there was no frizz to be found and I was ready for a night on the town.
Sure, as it was my first attempt with the Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer, it wasn’t as neat as it could have been, but it was certainly more of a salon-finish compared to what my hair straighteners would produce.
Suffice it to say, I was impressed. The Revlon One-Step Hair Dryer essentially replaced my hair dryer and straighteners and delivered a more natural look. True, it’s not without its faults — it will take up some space with its bulky shape and requires time to achieve these results. But it does deliver, and at $34.88 (Amazon), it’s a very reasonable price. With such a performance, it’s no wonder it’s so popular.
