The Classic Collection is, as the name should suggest, inspired by Sassoon’s early visions of “freeing women from long and boring hair styling routines” with products designed to help create an “individual perfect personal style at home” and make it completely effortless. While the Contemporary Collection, distinguished by its funky purple hue, combines the heritage Sassoon with the modern “design edge of Vidal Sassoon salons” so that hair can be easily fashioned, “without the worry of creating long term damage.”
Wishing to reignite our love affair with the styling maestro, the nice people at Sassoon HQ have kindly sent The Detour office a couple of products to play with, so we thought we’d review them for your delight and delectation.
Vidal Sassoon Tangle Free Hot Air Styler RRP £15
From the Classic Collection we have the Tangle Free Hot Air Styler, a 200 watt styler with two interchangeable barrels designed to create body and curls whilst drying. This really is a VS classic; a clever meld of hair dryer and curling tongs, minus the singeing metal parts (I’m probably not the only woman to have lost some childhood hair to her older sisters curling iron experiments!). With three heat settings and a nifty little release button, which helps with the avoidance of tangles, the Hot Air Styler makes the whole styling process far quicker and easier than one would normally expect it to be.
As a drying device I suspect that the HAS would perhaps not quite cut the mustard for shower-fresh long, or very thick hair – at 200 watts you wouldn’t really expect anything else - but for part-dried, or shorter styles and natural-looking curls it does a wonderful job. It’s also fantastic for finishing a bob cut. Very light weight and easy to use, this is one of those must-have items for every girly bathroom, perfect for everyday use as well as those times when you want to feel just a little bit special.
Vidal Sassoon Daily Hydration Dryer RRP £20
From the Vidal Sassoon Contemporary Collection we have the Daily Hydration Dryer, which uses ionic technology to help hair retain moisture and has a folding handle for easy storage. What, I hear you ask, is ionic technology? Well! If, like me, you’re a frizzy-hair sufferer and find that each time you pull a brush through your locks they become bigger and fluffier and more full of static with each passing tug, it is because the friction of the brush pulls away negative ions and leaves your hair with a positive charge, and it’s this that causes static and the accompanying fuzz. The ionic technology within the Daily Hydration Dryer produces negative ions, which counterbalance the hairs atoms and do away with the static, making the hair smoother. That’s the plan, anyway.
Because of my super-frizziness, which never fails to be exacerbated by the use of a dryer, I have long be plagued with the perils of drip dry styling, so I was curious to see what the Daily Hydration Dryer had to offer. With three heat and two speed settings, the DHD (as I like to call it!) should be flexible enough for use with most hair styles and types. At 2000 watts, it’s a pretty powerful beast and dries the hair as quickly as anyone could wish - another facet of Ionic technology being that it causes the water molecules to fall from the hair shaft more quickly.
The ergonomic design of the DHD also makes it really comfortable and easy to use, once you’ve got to grips with the buttons, while the folding handle makes for easy storage. As for the fuzziness, well, I can’t say that a miracle happened and I was left with wonderfully shiny flowing tresses, but I must admit that my usual post-drying pompom-head failed to materialise, so credit where credit’s due! The DHD may not be a wonder of the modern age, but it’s certainly better than any other dryer I’ve come across thus far.
Both the Classic and Contemporary Collections are available from a variety of high street and online retailers. For more information visit www.sassoon.com |
