It could have simply began, however we’ve already seen some of the progressive magnificence instruments of the yr. At CES 2024 final month in Las Vegas, L’Oréal—the primary magnificence model ever chosen as a keynote speaker on the annual shopper electronics commerce present—unveiled the AirLight Professional infrared hair dryer.
Reasonably than conventional heated air, the AirLight Professional makes use of infrared mild—which may generate warmth much like the solar’s rays—and airflow to blow-dry hair. And if this sounds a bit just like the Zuvi Halo hair dryer, that’s as a result of L’Oréal teamed up with the expertise model to design the AirLight Professional.
“Zuvi introduced their understanding of sunshine, wind, and superbly engineered instruments to the desk,” Guive Balooch, international vp of L’Oréal’s expertise incubator, tells Bazaar. “We introduced our community of stylists and hair information to create a product that may not solely be utilized in salons, however one that customers may also use at dwelling on any hair sort.”
Traditional hair dryers that use heated air really pull moisture from the hair, which may end up in injury. However when you swap scorching air for infrared mild (the identical warmth within the infrared sauna at your native fitness center or spa), the hair fibers don’t get too scorching and can retain their inside moisture. The consequence: 33 % shinier hair that’s virtually 60 % smoother. Mixed with airflow, infrared dries the hair extra effectively. Balooch in contrast the drying course of to a sunny and windy day after a rainstorm: “A simply windy day received’t dry the sidewalks after rain, however the mixture of the solar’s rays and the wind will dry [the sidewalks] quicker and extra effectively.”
In addition to taking the guesswork out of styling hair, the AirLight Professional additionally makes use of 30 % much less vitality. “Our thought was: How can we take this from being an energy-efficient hair dryer to one of the best hair dryer that you may presumably purchase?” Balooch says.
Together with the dryer come two attachments: a diffuser and a concentrator nozzle. Whenever you snap on one among them magnetically, the dryer acknowledges the attachment and mechanically adjusts its pace and warmth. (A smooth fashion requires extra warmth, whereas diffusing curls will be executed at a decrease temperature.) The dryer even has a scalp mode, which reduces the warmth so you may get near the foundation and scalp with out inflicting injury.
Picture courtesy of Katie Intner
Picture courtesy of Katie Intner
L’Oréal and Zuvi additionally created an app to regulate settings like temperature and pace, which additionally helps you to create personalised profiles for a number of customers, relying on hair sort and desired look. The personalization modes may also help maintain a blowout, Balooch explains, because the true warmth the AirLight Professional avoids utilizing is usually required for hairstyles to set with long-lasting outcomes.
This isn’t the primary time L’Oréal has partnered with one other model to advance its expertise. At CES in 2021, the cosmetics large introduced the Water Saver—knowledgeable faucet for salons that reduces the dimensions of the water droplets it dispenses, and in flip the quantity of water utilized by 80 %—with the assistance of Swiss expertise firm Gjosa. Different improvements L’Oréal has created in-house, just like the Colorsonic, an electrical hairbrush that dispenses dye to make at-home coloring as straightforward as brushing your hair; it launches early this yr. Then there’s the TikTok-viral YSL Magnificence Rouge Sur Mesure, a 3-D printer designed by L’Oréal that custom-makes lipstick. (It received a Harper’s Bazaar Beauty Icon Award in 2023.)
The AirLight Professional will probably be obtainable in salons and for buy in September 2024, and can retail for underneath $400. Whereas that may be a methods off, our sneak peek on the progressive hair dryer confirmed it’ll be nicely definitely worth the wait.
