The Best Diffusers for Curly Hair

Wavytalk’s Turblow Pro is a powerful, affordable hair dryer that comes with a magnetic diffuser attachment (along with a concentrator attachment). It’s lightweight, especially compared to other models we’ve tried, making it easy on the wrists as you diffuse the hair around your head. I was especially impressed that you’re able to control three heat and air speeds separately for such an affordable model; there’s plenty of more expensive models that won’t give you this kind of control. There’s a color ring around the power button that will tell you what heat level you’re on (blue for cold, yellow for warm, and red for hot), and you can press it to alternate between the temperatures, while the air speed has a toggle with dashes to represent the speed you’re choosing.

My curls turned out nice and springy, especially with the help of my favorite curl oil, and lasted through my tossing and turning in the night. I preferred the cold and low heat settings for my fine hair, since I found the cold air setting to feel very cold coming from the Turblow Pro, and managed to dry my hair in a handful of minutes. The Turblow Pro also comes in a few fun colors, and the magnetic attachments are easy to pop on and off. —Nena Farrell

This is our favorite hair dryer for curly hair. It's basically one big diffuser, with silicone tips and a handleless design that keeps things comfortable while you embark on the laborious adventure that is simultaneously drying and styling your hair. We wish it had one more, faster airflow setting, but the slightly lower speeds as compared to other dryers are what helps tamp down on frizz and flyaways. It added about 10 minutes to my typical drying time, which was a worthy tradeoff for how bouncy and happy my hair was after using it. I also really like how easy it is to use this. You grip it around the middle, which feels intuitive and prevents my arms from getting fatigued. It’s also a bit smaller than a hairdryer-diffuser combo, which makes it easier to store. If you never use a hair dryer outside of diffusing, this little gadget is what you want. Note that this is flagged as a frequently returned item on Amazon, though reviews indicate this is possibly due to the slower airflow and speed. —Louryn Strampe

The Chi Volumizer is similar to the Beachwaver above, with its four attachments and lightweight wand they attach to. It feels as light as the Beachwaver and is cheaper, too, but the diffuser head is smaller than any other we've tested. It's the classic round style, but it's about two-thirds the size of our top pick. Chi calls it a compact diffuser and recommends it for root volume, but it's still plenty powerful and can diffuse curls.

Even with its small size, I found my hair was dried and diffused in a pretty similar amount of time to larger diffusers. It helps that I have chin-length, fine hair to dry rather than large amounts. It's a great choice for my fellow short- and fine-haired folks, but everyone else will probably want a larger diffuser that can reach larger amounts of hair. —Nena Farrell

The Pattern Steamer is unlike any other hair tool I've ever tried. It actually steams your hair, which opens the hair cuticle to allow deep absorption of treatments. If you've ever gotten a deep-conditioning treatment at the salon, this works in a similar way—only instead of sitting under a hot helmet while products permeate your hair, you're in your bathroom listening to music and being mindblown by how slippery and smooth your hair feels. Wash your hair, apply a deep-conditioning treatment (for recommendations, see our guide to the Best Hair Masks), and use the Steamer to detangle and treat your tresses.

There are a couple of prong attachments so you can comb and detangle while you steam, or a diffuser attachment that wafts the steam all over. This isn't really a styler—you'll still rinse out any treatments post-steaming—but you can use the Steamer to refresh curls on non-wash days. Anyone with curly hair knows that the time between wash days can be hit or miss. As someone whose hair never looks good past day two (or three if I'm lucky), this has been a godsend in extending my time between washes. My low-porosity hair absolutely loves the steam treatment and slurps up all the goodness in my products much better when using the Steamer. I also love that the brand was created by Tracee Ellis Ross—if my curls ever look half as great as hers, I'll be a very lucky woman. —Louryn Strampe

If you hate holding up a hair dryer to dry your curls and wish you had a salon-style hair dryer to do it for you, here's the closest option to use at home—and costs less than $20. This bonnet hood, like the DevaFuser below, is a universal attachment, with the hose fitting most standard hair dryers with a Velcro strap to secure it. Once the hose is on, the hood goes on your head and around your hair. There're two layers in the hood, so the air fills the first layers and then is dispersed through the ventilation holes to reach the second layer where your head and hair will be.

There're several similar options on Amazon, but former WIRED reviewer Medea Giordano likes this one since it had enough room for her long, curly hair to lay naturally rather than get scrunched up, and it dries her hair in a span of 30 minutes. It usually takes her over an hour to dry her hair, and allows it to dry all at once rather than having to move the diffuser around to get each part of her head. —Nena Farrell

Even at its highest heat setting, the Pattern Blow Dryer doesn't get as hot as some other hair dryers, which helps to minimize damage. It has foolproof switches—choose between three heat levels and two airflow levels—plus an ion customization button that you can activate for smoothness or deactivate for more volume. There's also a cold shot button that's useful when you're finishing up your drying routine. I like that the switches aren't difficult to use. This comes with four attachments—a diffuser, a wide-tooth comb, a brush, and a concentrator nozzle. The attachments lock in place and can be oriented vertically or horizontally, which I appreciate since it allows me to target specific areas of my hair. (For example, I use the concentrator nozzle to give my roots volume without worrying about drying the rest of my hair straight.)

The diffuser is huge and easy to maneuver, especially since the lightweight body of the dryer stays cool to the touch, and it's easy to hold by the top or base depending on how you like to style. The diffuser's long, ventilated prongs dried my hair efficiently while giving my curls a ton of volume and definition. Most important, I didn't get tired and my biceps didn't give out, even while diffusing with my head upside down or hover-diffusing. This setup might take a bit longer than other, hotter dryers, but I think the trade-off is worth it. —Louryn Strampe

Most diffusers need to be paired with a specific hair dryer to attach and work. But not DevaCurl's DevaFuser. The DevaFuser is made to fit most standard hair dryers, using an elastic band to wrap its base around the hair dryer's nozzle. While most other diffusers are round with prongs to help lift the curls and your roots, the DevaFuser is shaped like a giant hand that air diffuses out of. It's great for scrunching your hair more than lifting it, since the hand pushes the curls toward your scalp, but it's also easy to slide the fingers through your hair to get some root lift, too.

You'll need a pretty classic-style hair dryer for it to work, but it's a great, affordable option for someone who doesn't want to buy an entirely new hair dryer just to get a diffuser. It's great for travel, too, if you want to throw this in your bag and bring it to use with your hotel hair dryer. If you're curious whether it'll fit your hair dryer, the DevaFuser is made for hair dryers with a barrel diameter between 2 and 2.5 inches, a barrel circumference between 5.5 and 6.5 inches, and a barrel length anywhere between 2.5 and 6.5 inches. I use mine with an old InfinitiPro Conair hair dryer. —Nena Farrell

The T3 Aire IQ (6/10, WIRED Review) has some quirks, but there’s no denying how fast it works. You’ll choose your hair texture and connect a smart attachment, and the dryer automatically selects the speed and temperature for you. (You can also adjust them manually). There are three attachments included—quick dry, a style nozzle, and a diffuser—and the gadget doesn’t work without an attachment connected. I kept running into one issue, which is that the diffuser attachment can disconnect itself while you’re using it.

It’s not too difficult to fix—you just have to reattach it, and depending on how hot it is, you might need to pause the dryer and wait a second. But it’s still annoying. All of that aside, this dryer does diffuse my hair much faster than any other product I’ve tested—like 20 minutes faster—and the diffuser attachment is pretty large which helps a lot when hover diffusing. The SoftAire technology helps dry hair without stripping away moisture. My curls were always shiny and happy after using this.

I wanted to love this affordable and cute collapsible diffuser. Unfortunately, the price tag (and the fact it's flagged as a frequently returned item on Amazon) should have been an indicator of the product's overall efficacy. The silicone diffuser is nearly universal—simply stretch it over your hair dryer and you should theoretically be good to go. But that soft, collapsible silicone couldn't support my hair, no matter how gently I tried to use it or how many ways I tried. I even tried diffusing curl by curl.

The result was still the same—the diffuser would collapse, I would sigh in frustration, and all the while my hair was drying frizzier and frizzier—likely from the heat radiating off my angry head. It works OK when it's collapsed, but it still doesn't give me the volume or the definition I want. If your hair is especially lightweight, maybe you could risk the $20, but I think you're better off with any of the other options listed above. —Louryn Strampe