Last month in Hong Kong, I had a haircut at an Aveda salon in Causeway Bay. After a hair wash, the stylist began drying my hair with the Dyson Supersonic R hairdryer; so I asked him about it. He said it was 20% more powerful than the regular Supersonic, and it was lighter and more “concentrated”. This week, I got my hands on a unit and tried it out for myself — and now I know what he means.
At the time of writing, in Singapore, the Supersonic R comes in two colourways — Jasper Plum and Ceramic pink / Rose gold (the latter featured throughout here). While I’m generally not a fan of the colour pink, I must say this is a very lovely shade of pink. The device is shiny at the bend, and matte at the body where it’s held (and where it matters); and like the hairstylist said, lighter than the standard Dyson Supersonic.
I’ve been testing out this device for the past week, and there are many things about the Supersonic R that I love; I do like that the control buttons are the most clever and straightforward I’ve ever seen — there’s one button to power the device on and off, and another which controls speed and another to control heat. Just press up or down; it’s that simple. No long hold presses or trying to guess the right combination of buttons to get what you what. These buttons are intuitive, and it’s about time as well.
There are several attachments that come with the hairdryer, and the device won’t work without one of the heads attached to it. I tried all of them and here are my thoughts: the main attachment — the “Powerful air attachment” works best for drying hair, because it does offer the strongest air flow; the “Pro concentrator” is great for drying hair straight and flat with the use of a hairbrush; the “Gentle air attachment” and “Smoothing nozzle” both gave a mild airflow so I didn’t use them for long; but I did particularly like the “Flyaway attachment”, which smooths down hair and gives it a sleeker finish.
Perhaps the only downside to this device is that the power plug is rather large — like most Dyson hair appliances — but I assume it’s necessary and for safety reasons. Apart from that, I’ll now become one of those travellers that bring their hairdyer along everywhere — although I’ll likely only pack in the “Powerful air attachment” that takes up the least space and offers the most amount of power.
If you’re considering a new hairdryer and have no qualms investing in one, spend a bit more for the Supersonic R that’s Dyson’s most powerful and lightest hairdryer in their lineup; safe to say, in this case, you do get what you pay for.
The Dyson Supersonic R is priced at $759 and available at Dyson stores and online at dyson.com.sg.
