PanasonicNanoe Hair Dryer, 1875 Watt Professional Blow Dryer for Smooth, Shiny Hair with 3 Attachments Quick Dry Nozzle, Diffuser and Concentrator Nozzle – EH-NA65-K (Black/Pink), Black

Great hairdryer, hair dries fast

Our old hair dryer was on its last leg. It made some terrible noise one day. After taking it apart, I found that 2 fan blades had indentations on the outer edge. Anyway, that old hair dryer was loud and noisy. I really wanted something quieter, especially since I use my ears for sound engineering, and I use a hairdryer almost every day.After looking at many reviews for quiet hair dryers, the Panasonic seem to stand on top. But many of them are rated for 100v being for the Japanese market. Plugging one of those in a US outlet would mean the hair dryer is running too hot and has a potential for overheating. I was not willing to take the risk, even though other people report them running fine. My engineering background says a 100v device is going to run 20% hotter on our 120v power. It would be pulling 18 amps instead of 15 amps.This Panasonic, the EH-NA65K, seems to be the only one with a 120v rating, actually 125v but that wouldn’t matter as it would lower the power output, 14.5 amps instead of 15 amps, which is safe.Now for the main question: How quiet is it? I took two measurements, one being decibel level, and the other being frequency spectrum. I read the decibels from about 3 inches away with the dryer pointing away from the microphone. It read 84 decibels c-weighted, fast. But slow, fast, a-weighted or c-weighted, it all read about 82 – 84 decibels. How does that compare to my prior hair dryer? 10 decibels less. The old dryer measured 92 - 94 decibels. This 10db decrease is huge. It’s what most people call “half” the sound level. In my book, this is easily quieter than my previous hair dryer. I don’t actually hate drying my hair now because of this much quieter hair dryer.As for the frequency spectrum? It’s also not as annoying. This shows up in my measurement at 600hz to 1khz. My prior dryer had a spike in this region, where this hair dryer is basically flat between 600hz and 6khz.But how does it dry? I did not take any objective testing of drying time. I’m guessing it takes about the same, or slightly longer to dry my short hair. But my hair feels softer than from the old hair dryer. This could be very subjective and maybe it was me being open to suggestion. I don’t know.Bottom line is that this hair dryer is much quieter than my old hair dryer, and that’s a good thing.

I've always been skeptical about "new, amazing, breakthrough" technology in beauty products. I certainly believe there are different levels of quality and also that one product may perform better or worse on different people. So I was hoping this dryer would make a difference, while being prepared for less than spectactular results. So drum roll please...I personally thought my hair looked silkier, shinier and it did dry noticeably faster, but the shocker was that other people really noticed the difference!My adult daughters to whom I am often apparently invisible, both asked me individually and on seperate occassions if I had just had my hair done, and what had I done differently etc. Ironically, the evening that I had in fact come straight from the salon (and prior to using this product) warranted no notice. I've had others compliment my hair as well. I'm giving more weight to those who see me all the time and tend not to use flattery to judge that there was a very noticable difference.The other thing worth mentioning is that in my youth my hair was one of my best assests in terms of appearance. For the past 10 years or so, its become a definite liability. I joke that it's a fire hazard and I'm not allowed near open flame as it is so dry and so covered in product that its quite flammable. I put a fair bit of effort into getting it to be healthier and less frizzy and I've actually had people ask me if I've ever tried a "really good" conditioner or anti-frizz product. After what I hope is a chilling gaze I let them know I do believe I have tried nearly all conditioners/styling products. So it is a rare thing indeed for me to rave about a hair product or in this case hair dryer and I must give it a rave review!If you possess beautiful, soft, smooth heathly hair this may not be worth the money, but if like me you color frequently and have those weird coarse alien hairs springing up randomly then I would say go for it!

First of all, I love how the nanoe technology actually works (despite my being initial skepticism of it being just another gimmick)! This dryer definitely produces a lot less flyaway hairs compared to all the dryers I've used, including a cheaper Panasonic model. It also dries my hair super fast, and doesn't burn or dry out the ends of my bangs too badly thanks to its multiple heat settings.The main things keeping it back from 5 stars are its design and weight. It's quite big/unwieldy and slightly heavy, so after holding it up for a couple minutes or so, my wrist does start to ache. The handle does not fold, so this is definitely not a travel dryer. Furthermore, the heat setting button and speed setting button are right next to each other, so it's easy to accidentally move the other button when you're trying to change only one setting. I much prefer the design and weight of the EH-NA97 and would have bought that in a snap even though it's an older model, but sadly, it's apparently not available in North America. I still do like this one as it works very well, but wish it were better designed so I could love it.