I know what you’re thinking: “Why does a bald guy write about a new hair dryer?” In my defense, L’Oreal’s new AirLight Pro is not just any hair styling device. This blower packs enough tech and app-connected intelligence to interest even the most imbecilic tech reporters, including me.
Unveiled at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, the AirLight Pro may, with that long stem and tubular head, look a little familiar, but it’s no knockoff of Dyson’s popular Supersonic. It might also bear more than a passing resemblance to Zuvi’s well-regarded two-year-old Halo hair dryer. Turns out that makes more sense: L’Oreal worked with Zuvi to advance the infrared hair drying technology found in its Halo hair dryer and create something new. For L’Oreal, however, building the AirLight Pro wasn’t about technology; at least not at first.
Guive Balooch, global vice president of L’Oreal Technology Incubator, told me before the launch that L’Oreal starts with consumer needs and completes them with technology. The company has been making its way into the beauty tech space for more than a decade, though Balooch recalled that when he first came to CES 13 years ago there were no beauty companies, and 10 years ago there were only a handful. In recent years, L’Oreal has introduced a UV sensor, a shade measurement tool, and augmented reality apps that guide consumers to the right makeup options for their faces.
This year, L’Oreal is at the forefront of a growing parade of beauty entrants at CES with its first-ever keynote, during which it will unveil the AirLight Pro.
The AirLight Pro still uses air and heating elements, but at a much lower temperature than traditional dryers, and combines that warm wind with infrared light which, in combination, Balooch told me, works a little like the sun and wind drying. the rain on the sidewalk. . He added that it’s a more efficient and gentler way to color than traditional hair dryers, and eliminates the need to hold the dryer too close to your head (when I had hair, I remember only thinking it was dry when I could smell the heat of it). my hair dryer cooking it). While a typical hair dryer may consume more energy than a microwave, Blooch claims that the AirLight Pro is 30% more efficient than a traditional hair dryer.
The Zuvi Halo made similar claims about efficiency and how this combination of warm wind and infrared light treats your hair, so how is the AirLight Pro different?
Some of the changes are subtle or difficult to detect, such as rearranging the airflow to speed up drying and make the process even easier on the hair. However, two technological advances caught my attention. One is that this is the first hair dryer I can remember that can recognize accessories and then make adjustments to the settings based on the accessory installed (the AirLight Pro also has buttons to manually control heat and air speed). Additionally, this is an app-connected hair dryer (iOS and Android) that allows you to create and save custom settings. Over time, you may be able to share those customizations with other AirLight Pro users.
People should not suffer the consequences of being green. We wanted to build the best hair dryer and then make it eco-friendly.
Guive Balooch
In the end, L’Oreal obtained 15 patents for the device and an early award at CES 2024.
One thing that was important to L’Oréal when developing the AirLight Pro was that it would not only be an efficient beauty device, but also an excellent hair dryer.
“People should not suffer the consequences of being green. We wanted to build the best hair dryer and then make it eco-friendly,” Balooch told me.
The L’Oreal AirLight Po will be available in salons starting in March and will go on general sale in Europe this June and in the US before the end of 2024. In all cases, L’Oreal hopes to price to the dryer for approximately $400 (around £315). It is not yet known what attachments will be available or how much they will cost.
As for how it works… well, I certainly didn’t get to test it, but TechRadar hopes to have a few more hirsute correspondents stroking their locks before CES 2024 is over.
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