London hair care brand Heist has launched a hair dryer specifically for men. In fact, according to the email that landed in my inbox this morning, it's the for the first time Hairdryer for men. It's a shame I didn't realize you guys have been blow-drying your hair for all these years, so I'm going to check my female privilege.
Outlandish claims aside, this hair dryer looks seriously impressive. The Heist 3.0 has been designed in collaboration with British barbers to be the perfect tool for taming those manly locks, and it has plenty of the features we’d look for in one of the best overall hair dryers.
It has a powerful 100,000 RPM motor, three airflow speeds, and four temperature options (including what feels like a cold shot to set your style) so you have plenty of control over your styling routine, and a generous 3m power cord so you’re not too tied to the wall. The streamlined design is decidedly attractive, too, even with its resemblance to a piece of high-end plumbing.
A mysterious H-Protect system “automatically adjusts to optimal heat levels, ensuring hair protection and promoting scalp health,” though I’m not entirely clear on how this works in practice. Based on the buttons visible in the images, it looks like these are the standard manual temperature and air speed adjustment options, rather than anything smarter than that.
The Heist 3.0 also features “Plasma Coating Technology” to improve hair condition. It sounds novel and exciting, but reading between the lines, it seems like a more masculine name for the ion technology that has long been popular in “women’s” hair dryers.
The attachments are magnetic and snap on and off, just like on the Dyson Supersonic. The standard 3.0 model includes a concentrator nozzle, but curly-haired gents will need the Heist 3.0 Pro styling kit, which includes a diffuser and metal stand.
If you're wondering about the name, they didn't just choose it because it sounds very masculine – according to the website, the Heist part is actually a combination of “height” and “style.” To me, this raises more questions than it answers. What does “height” refer to? Is this a tool for creating gravity-defying Ace Ventura-style hairstyles, or is it just for tall men? How can it be a 3.0 model and also the “first”? Is it possible to create a combination that is already an existing word? We may never know the answers.
The Heist is available to pre-order in the UK and will ship in September. The standard Heist 3.0 costs £199 (around AU$255), which puts it right on the border between mid-range and high-end according to TechRadar’s price bands. The Pro kit has a fairly high markup for just a stand and diffuser, coming in at £267 (around AU$390). It’s not cheap, but it’s roughly in line with other high-end hair dryers like the GHD Helios (£179 / AU$249) and the T3 AireLuxe (£180 / AU$199.99).
