Remember when the thought of going under a hooded dryer (especially at a salon) made you want to do a million wall slides (c/o Awesomely Luvvie)? I feel like hairstylists would add minutes to that thing for “special” clients…lol. But for those of us who wear protective styles (namely weaves with braids underneath) or have hair routines that involve deep conditioning, sometimes the hooded dryer is a necessary evil.
I wrote about a soft bonnet hooded dryer-alternative attachment that I LOVE because not only does it connect to just about any blow dryer, it’s also super portable making it perfect for travel. But now another cool hooded dryer alternative has made its way to me via Gold ‘N Hot Professional Ionic Soft Bonnet Dryer.
Official info:
With 4 heat settings, the Gold ‘N Hot soft bonnet dryer can be used on any hair texture and set any style. The jumbo-size drawstring bonnet makes it easy to simply dry hair, seal in conditioning treatments or set all roller sizes. This dryer distributes heat gently and evenly for professional results. It’s retractable handle and storage compartments make it not only easy to store at home but also travel with. Ionic generator emits tens of thousands of negative irons to dry hair faster with less damage, resulting in healthy, silky-soft, beautiful hair with less damage.
Although free flowing, textured curls are finally getting their moment to shine, some women might want to still have the ability to straighten, curl, or wave their hair as desired. Because Gold ’N Hot is dedicated to multicultural hair, the heat styling appliances are capable of retexturing natural hair in any state – without hair relaxers! The tools heat up to 500°F, which make it possible to curl ANY hair texture in its NATURAL state, when paired with a curling cream. Gold ’N Hot strives to produce products that not only reach high temperatures, but has temperature control settings so that irons can be adjusted to different hair types.
So basically this follows a similar concept as the soft hooded dryer attachment I love but it has its own “dryer” component. It has Cool, Low, Medium, and High heat settings and works well for just about any hairstyle. I like it in particular for making sure the braids underneath my weave are completely dry and it’s pretty sleek so it doesn’t take up a bunch of room. And while you’ll probably need to turn the volume up to hear the TV, it doesn’t make an extreme amount of noise (but your cat will probably definitely try to fight it).
Bottom line: While I’ll of course still use my bonnet attachment for travel, this Gold ‘N Hot soft bonnet dryer is great for at-home use.
Price and where to buy: $48.99 at Sally Beauty (or $43.99 with Sally card)
Hose is too short and the hose gets very hot on High. It burns to touch.
The air doesn’t inflate the bonnet to the maximum as in the picture. Because the front of my hair didn’t dry, I assumed it was that the bonnet was not adjusted. So I pulled the drawstrings out but when I try to put the bonnet on over the rollers in my hair, the bonnet drawstrings go back to the original pull-out position. . I swiveled the bonnet hose so the air would dry the front but of course that musses up the rollers.
The directions say keep the dryer on a flat surface with the vents getting air. I sat on a sofa with the dryer positioned on an end coffee table stacked with thick books so that the hose in the back of my hair wouldn’t be impeded.
(I had this exact same hair dryer in white for years and it worked well until the bonnet split around the hose attachment, then I taped that until the split was totally around the hose attachment. In the end the hose just broke out of the dryer inside.)
This new bonnet material looks better but can’t get it to fit. I noticed there’s another bonnet for sale online though I don’t know if it would fit the hose attachment.