Dyson Supersonic Nural review

For years, my go-to hairdryer has been the Dyson «Supersonic». In many respects it’s quite ordinary. Handling is intuitive and you won’t find any bells and whistles. And I love that. The handy, lightweight design, the reduced noise level, the magnetic attachments and the turbo speed at which it blows my hair dry, are exceptional. These aspects make it my personal favourite. With the Supersonic Nural, Dyson is now launching its new, improved version of the luxury hairdryer in Switzerland. Its sensors are designed to enable what Dyson calls «intelligent handling». More on what that means later.

Dyson sent me a test model and allowed me to try it out for two days. Of course, that’s not enough for an extensive review, but it is for a solid first impression.

What’s included:

• User manual
• Hairdryer
• Flyaway attachment
• Wide-tooth comb
• Styling nozzle
• Gentle air attachment
• Wave+Curl diffusor

What’s new in the Supersonic Nural – and will I like it?

Design, Scalp protect mode and settings

Visually, Nural is very similar to its predecessor. The only difference is a sensor located in the round opening and that the transparent button design now also features the Scalp protect mode. When I press it, the hairdryer automatically adjusts the temperature depending on the distance to my hair. The closer I put the hairdryer to my scalp, the lower the air temperature will be. But I have to say, it still gets pretty hot when I get too close to my scalp. While scalp protect mode is activated, the colour of the capsule lighting varies between red (high temperature), orange (medium temperature), yellow (low temperature) and blue (cool).

You can read why protecting our scalp is essential for a healthy mane in this interview.

As for the buttons on the transparent plastic, they’re somehow not as as easy to press as the ones on my model.

A breather for me and my device

What’s more, as soon as I put the appliance down, Nural deactivates its heating element. And it minimises the air flow. Pause detect saves energy and gives my ears a little break. It’s a nice extra and certainly more useful for professionals than it is for me.

Attachments and attachment learning

There are two new features here: the styling nozzle, now longer and with a narrower opening, is designed to enable even more precise styling. For me, this means that I can work on larger surface areas. I like it. Then there’s also the Wave+Curl diffusor (a two-piece attachment). The part with the diffuser prongs can be removed magnetically from the base part, which looks like a small bowl. This mechanism means you have two options with the attachment.

In Dome mode (here you remove the diffusor prong insert) the airflow is directed away from the head into the dome. This is supposed to produce smooth, defined waves and curls with bouncy ends. In Diffuse mode, the prongs distribute the airflow right into the roots for more structure and volume. Although I don’t have curls myself, I was allowed to watch the attachments in action on a model at a press event. It was impressive! And as this attachment requires a lot of holding still, attachment learning makes sure the hairdryer deactivates the pause detect function so the appliance doesn’t stop in the middle of styling. This is definitely a huge plus for people with curly hair.

For me, on the other hand, attachment learning is a nuisance. The idea behind it is that the attachments save the preferred settings. So when I come to use the same attachment next time, the Nural remembers the airflow and temperature I used last. It’s supposed to save time. In my case, it took me too long to get my head around it. After all, intuition is different for everyone.

All attachments can save and play back the setting applied during the last use. Provided the scalp protect mode is switched off (light turns off), that is. Scalp protect is only compatible with two of the attachments: the diffusor and the attachment for gentle airflow. The two are also labelled with the corresponding symbol. If you put them on, the Nural switches to scalp protect mode by default. This means I first have to turn off scalp protect so that it can access my saved airflow and heat settings. With the other attachments, however, scalp protect doesn’t work, but the light at the sensor lights up nonetheless. It really confused me to begin with. For me, this kind of «innovation» isn’t helpful. Just because it’s technically possible doesn’t mean you have to implement it.