There are a lot of cool things out there that make us wonder — do they really work? In our I Tried It series, we set out to use them in the real world and have determined that, in fact, they really do.
The Product on Trial
Panasonic Nanoe EH-NA67-W Hair Dryer
The Tester
Jennifer Hussein, a beauty editor with thick 2B-type hair that never wants to dry
The Brief
Some of you may immediately eye roll from me complaining about how much hair I have, but dammit, I have so much hair to deal with. Yes, it's great to have a bountiful amount of strands on my head, but at-home styling sessions make me want to grab an electric razor and free my crown from the raven-hued prison that is my head of hair.
My 2B hair type makes it easy for my strands to ball into a hefty, damp knot of waves and curls straight out of the shower, and blow-drying alone accounts for thirty full minutes with high heat to my head at its strongest speed setting. Holding a blow-dryer for that long is annoying enough (RIP my wrists), but it's also terrible for overall hair health: Excessive amounts of heat exposure from heated hair tools (think your curling wands, flat irons, and of course blow-dryers) can actually lead to issues like breakage, brittleness, and dryness.
I’ve already broken up with my flat irons and curlers, but I’ve been trying to restore my natural curl pattern after years of straightening my precious wavy curls down and part of embracing my 2B, S-shaped waves requires using a diffuser attachment on my blow-dryer to define them. So I've been on a bit of a journey to find a gentle blow-dryer that will dry my hair without having to sear my strands on the highest heat setting. Extra bonus points if it includes a diffuser that can actually withstand my thick, unruly locks — and turns out, the one blow-dryer to rule them all sits in the e-shelves of, you guessed it, Amazon: the Panasonic Nanoe EH-NA67-W.
Surprised I didn't call out a pricier option from other luxury hair tool brands like ghd or T3? Well, honestly, I was too — I was in a monogamous relationship with my ghd Helios for months on end (a lifetime for beauty editors that have a constant rotation of new hair tools coming in). There's something about Panasonic's latest addition to their Nanoe hair dryer line, which was released in early 2021, that whips my usually-unmanageable mane into shape.
Well, it’s not just something because this blow-dryer comes with a few pretty unique specs that make blow-drying and diffusing my wavy strands a breeze. First off, you’ve probably noticed that the Nanoe EH-NA67-W has a weird little hole at the top of it. That isn’t there just to confuse you — it’s actually the reason why it’s called the Nanoe in the first place. This is where Panasonic’s “nanoe technology” comes in and draws moisture out of the air to create hydrating nanoe particles that penetrate your strands.
Why would you want more moisture when you're trying to dry your hair, you may ask? Because the process of blow-drying is, well... drying, which by itself can cause a lot of damage to your tresses. Through Panasonic's nanoe technology, your hair is only dried from the outermost point of the strand, which keeps your hair moisturized and therefore free of issues like breakage, split ends, dryness, and lack of shine.
What’s more, this blow-dryer also comes with three attachments to choose from: your usual concentrator nozzle for precise styling and smoothing, an enormous diffuser head (which I will wax poetic about in just a second), and its unique “self-oscillating” attachment, which uses a fan-like motion to dry hair quickly. It’s a cool attachment for people who want to have styled hair fast (me), and it helps lower heat damage by evenly distributing heat instead of concentrating it on one particular area of your hair. It’s also an elevated take on our usual stagnant blow-dryer attachments, so any high-tech beauty tool fan will like playing around with it.
As for the concentrator nozzle, it's pretty standard to most of the ones that come with blow-dryers — It does the job, and there's not much more to add to that. But the diffuser head is definitely something to chat about: Unlike other smaller-sized diffusers that will barely grab a fourth of my hair, this larger option fits half of my head's worth of hair with total ease, and the results are always defined waves without the immense amounts of frizz that usually come with them. Pair that with the blow-dryer's nanoe technology, and drying time for my intensely thick locks has now been whittled down to a measly 5 minutes of my day — and that's with me using the lowest options on this blow-dryer's three heat and two speed settings.
And before you get at me about the price: Yes, I’m very well aware that there are cheaper options on Amazon and other e-retailers, but does cheaper always mean better? While budget-friendly items can perform, it’s more likely than not that your frugal option will cause more harm than good to your strands. So, this may not be a total budget option, but it’s worth the investment. Plus, it’s still $100 cheaper than my former ghd Helios and other luxury blow-dryers on the market.
The Closing Argument
This is the most underrated blow-dryer I’ve ever come across, and I’m shocked that only a few other beauty fanatics on the internet (like writers over at Woman and Home and Gizmodo) are crushing on it as much as I am. Curly-haired people will fall in love with its frizz-defying abilities, and just about every other hair type can appreciate the Nanoe EH-NA67-W’s abilities to cut down on drying time without sacrificing delicate strands. If you’re looking for the Goldilocks of hair dryers that fit between bargain-friendly and splurgeworthy, then consider the Nanoe EH-NA67-W for your mane-tenance routine (your strands will thank you for it!).
