mdlondon Blow review: A quietly brilliant hair dryer

If you’ve been looking to treat yourself to a top-of-the-range hair dryer, you may have stumbled across the mdlondon Blow. This eye-catching, colourful hair dryer marks the debut for this little-known brand which was founded in 2022 by celebrity hairstylist, Michael Douglas.

As someone who adores discovering new things, I was excited to get my hands on one to see how it measured up to its high-end competition from Dyson and GHD. Having tested it, it’s safe to say that mdlondon is a brand its competitors need to watch out for.

During my tests, I was almost literally blown away by how powerful the mdlondon Blow was, considering its dinky size. It outperformed similarly priced rivals and, despite my best efforts, I was hard-pressed to find any faults in the dryer. If you’ve got a £200 budget to spend on a luxury hair dryer, this is a strong contender.

mdlondon Blow hair dryer review: What do you get for the money?

The mdlondon Blow retails at £195, placing it firmly in the luxury hair dryer market. For a hair dryer this expensive, you can expect superfast wind speeds, great adjustability and control, and stunning design. A similarly priced hair dryer that jumps to mind is the £179 ghd Helios, which dried our reviewer’s hair in record time thanks to its powerful 2200W motor. The Dyson Supersonic is another obvious contender, although it retails for a whopping £330.

There are some notable features that set the mdlondon Blow apart from its competitors. That includes its distinctive shape and colour scheme – the dryer has a long cylindrical barrel that houses the dinky digital motor and heating elements, and a slim handle with the controls. While this configuration is typical of most hair dryers, the housing of the motor and heating elements is much clunkier on other hair dryers that use AC motors. This sleek design is paired with the matte-coloured finish on the dryer to create an eye-catching and stylish dryer that feels high quality. We tested the casal blue option, but it’s also available in olive green and blush pink.

The mdlondon Blow is also strikingly lightweight at just 360g without the cable, and this is due in no small part to its light, efficient 1,600W digital motor. This may sound measly in comparison to the GHD Helios’ 2,200W motor, but the Blow provided remarkable wind speeds of up to 26.5m/s despite the weight and power disparity – the Blow is 150g lighter than the Helios and 105g lighter than the Dyson Supersonic. The Blow is one of the lightest luxury dryers you can buy right now.

Another standout feature is its controls. Instead of switches, which can feel clunky, the dryer has four control buttons – for power, speed and heat, and the final cold shot button. You can clearly see which of the three heat and speed settings you’re using thanks to the three small LED lights located next to the buttons. The three power settings and three heat settings offer a great amount of control for styling, too.

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The mdlondon Blow is bundled with two concentrator nozzles. The wider nozzle gives faster blow-dry results, and the slimmer nozzle is best for more precise styles. These clip onto the front of the dryer but are also held securely in place by magnets, which means there’s no danger of the attachments falling off during use.

You can purchase a diffuser attachment separately, for an additional £25. While this ensures people won’t be left with styling attachments they don’t need, I would prefer it if there was an option to purchase the dryer with a diffuser in place of a concentrator nozzle without this additional cost.

Other notable features include the 1.8m long cable, which is plenty long enough for personal use. Bear in mind that there’s no hang-up loop on the mdlondon Blow, which means there’s no easy way to hang the dryer up for regular use in a salon. This shouldn’t be a problem if you prefer to store your dryer away, though.

mdlondon Blow review: What’s it like to use?

During our tests, the mdlondon Blow felt incredibly comfortable to use. Thanks to its light weight, the dryer didn’t make my arms feel achy at any point, even when doing a full-on blow dry. It’s worth noting that, before styling, the only product I apply is a heat protection spray to keep my hair healthy. I skip smoothing, hold-boosting products to ensure my tests are consistent, but if you want longer-lasting styles, it’s best to use these.

A quick blast with the hair dryer rough-dried my hair in about three minutes, which is incredibly fast considering how long and thick my hair is. When doing a bouncy blow dry using a round brush, it only took 15 minutes to achieve smooth results that lasted.

These lasting results were, in part, down to how quickly the cool air from the cold shot button came from the dryer. With some dryers, it’s hard to tell the difference between the cold air and slightly heated air – that’s not the case with the mdlondon Blow. This meant that I could quickly cool the hair in its curled state so that it set in place, leading to longer-lasting results.

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One minor issue is that the highest heat setting felt a little uncomfortable on my scalp. While this dries hair quicker, I chose to use the second heat setting, which was still plenty hot enough to dry my hair quickly when paired with the highest speed settings. Thankfully, it’s easy to switch between heat and speed settings using the control buttons on the handle of the dryer, and there’s a noticeable difference between each setting.

A final major selling point for the mdlondon Blow is its quietness. The sound levels only reached 88dB in our tests, which is quiet enough to be used in a neighbouring room without much disturbance. To put that into perspective, the next quietest hair dryer we’ve tested is the BaByliss 3Q hair dryer, which reached 93dB.

mdlondon Blow review: Should you buy it?

If you’re in the market for a luxury hair dryer, the mdlondon Blow is easy to recommend. It’s a brilliant option for everyday use and travel alike thanks to its lightweight design, low noise and powerful drying, and being able to dry your hair without waking the whole house is a huge boon.

While the high cost – and lack of an included diffuser – may put off some buyers, the mdlondon Blow is a huge upgrade from even the best mid-range hair dryers. Rather than reinventing the wheel, mdlondon has taken a classic design, refined it to the nth degree and created a near-perfect hair dryer in the process.

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