For once, TikTok is really late to the trend, I thought to myself as I swiped through several videos of beauty lovers winding their hair into Velcro rollers. Sure, they might be every influencer’s way to score a bouncy blowout now, but Velcro rollers and Conair’s Bonnet Hair Dryer have been my best-kept beauty secrets since 2005.
Let’s back it up to a time when girls lived in Juicy Couture tracksuits, collected Lancôme Juicy Tubes like they were Pokémon cards, and fried their hair with cheap flat irons to score stick-straight hair — a far cry from the unruly ringlets my sister and I inherited. Eager to maintain our overall hair health, my mom offered an appealing alternative to a straightener: On school nights, she would open her salon (a.k.a. her vanity chair) and coif our hair with a round brush and blow-dryer.
For a while, it was fabulous — as if I had the early-aughts equivalent to a Kardashian’s glam squad. But, as blowout buffs can tell you, wrangling a round brush around thick, curly hair can be a tough arm workout. Curious to find a less laborious method, I tried using Velcro rollers on a whim — and while the results were great, the damp hair I wrapped around them took forever to dry. Then, one day at the mall, I found the solution: the Conair Bonnet Hair Dryer.
I know what you’re thinking, and, yes: This dryer is exactly like the space-age domes that are synonymous with 1960s beauty salons. And the way it works is essentially the same. To dry your hair with it, you simply place your head under the hood and turn the device on, and the small ventilation holes that cover the dome’s interior will blast hot air for an even, 360-degree dry. When I first used it in high school, I would prep my damp hair by wrapping it around Velcro rollers, then place the contraption on my vanity table and spend an hour or two drying my hair before bed. The extra-large dome was spacious enough to accommodate all of my rollers, and dozens of strategically placed ventilation holes delivered a thorough, even dry. After two hours, the results are smooth and sleek with just the right amount of bounce. (But, to err on the side of caution and good hair, I would sleep with my rollers and use the dryer again in the morning for a quick touch-up.)
Naturally, a lot has changed since I first discovered the Conair Bonnet Hair Dryer. I went to college and got a job. I moved to New York City, then San Francisco. I got married. I bought a Dyson Supersonic. But here’s the thing: Nothing gets my hair looking as good — even shampoo-commercial-worthy — as the Conair Bonnet Hair Dryer. Yes, the Dyson Supersonic has top-notch technology that dries my hair in record time without leaving a whiff of scorched strands behind. But even when I use a round brush with my Dyson Supersonic, my hair looks limp and inevitably reverts back to the beachy waves my ringlets have evolved into when exposed to the slightest drop of humidity.
With the Conair Bonnet Hair Dryer, there’s something — the 360-degree air vents? Patience? Magic? — that makes my hair smoother and bouncier for longer. One dryer might require a bigger time commitment than the other — hours compared to Dyson’s mere minutes — but over the years, Conair’s Bonnet Dryer has proved it’s worth the wait. In fact, I recently rolled my hair one night and met friends for dinner the next, and they asked if I recently got a haircut.
Nope, I said, I just booked an appointment at the Conair Bonnet Dryer “salon.”
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