I don’t know about you, but I personally never feel more confident than when I leave the salon with my freshly balayaged hair settling in professionally blown-out waves over my shoulders. For days after (like, way longer than is acceptable between hair washes), I painstakingly apply dry shampoo and volume spray to keep my hair looking newly styled—because I know it won’t look this good until I leave my next appointment.

Despite trying what feels like every dryer on the market (yes, even *that* dryer), I have never been able to blow out my own hair. Instead, I end up with a tangled mess that cannot be saved by anything but a claw clip. That is, until now.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting celebrity hairstylist Chaz Dean at QVC’s Master Beauty Class, where he was demonstrating how to use his newly-released brush dryer styling tool from WEN, his line of hair-care products. I was skeptical at first—as I always am—that this could really be the miracle dryer that saves me from a life of praying my hair dries nicely.

WEN by Chaz Dean Brush Dryer Styling Tool — $275.00

Includes:

• Heated brush base
• 38-millimeter brush attachment
• 51-millimeter brush attachment
• Diffuser attachment
• Silicone mat
• Four alligator hair clips
• Cleaning tool

Pros:

• Dries and smoothes hair evenly
• Comes with three attachments for different styling
• Never exceeds 240°F to prevent heat damage
• Makes salon-quality blowouts more accessible
• Lightweight
• Well thought-out design

Cons:

• Pricey when not on sale, though more affordable than many other popular blowdryer brushes
• Takes up a sizable amount of storage space

The details

But as Dean meticulously walked me through how he developed the WEN dryer to answer every pain point I’ve felt with other dryers, the more hopeful I became. To start, the base dryer is extremely lightweight. When using some dryers, I end up feeling like I’m getting in an arm workout because of how heavy they can be, so I appreciated this touch.

Secondly, the WEN dryer is designed to protect hair from heat damage, which is something that has made me shy away from other blowdryer brushes in the past. The WEN dryer has two dryer speeds (low or high) and three heat modes (cold, low heat, and high heat), but it will never exceed 240°F in an effort to avoid damaging hair, Dean says. As someone whose strands suffered from heat damage for years, knowing my hair is protected made me way more inclined to try it.

Another major pro for me: The dryer brush comes with three tools that are designed to work for curly hair like mine and can provide that salon blowout look to any hair type—a 38-millimeter brush, 51-millimeter brush, and a diffuser.

The craftsmanship of each brush made the beauty nerd inside me do a happy dance—Dean told me that he chose to uphold his vegan beliefs by replacing the usual boar bristles with cruelty-free nylon bristles, of which there are more than any other brush dryer I’ve encountered (9,500 to 10,000 on the 38-millimeter and 16,000 to 17,000 on the 51-millimeter, to be exact). The high bristle count is intentional, Dean informed me. Blowdryer brushes can cause heat damage when strands touch the hot barrel, but with this many bristles, your hair will never actually be able to touch the barrel, Dean says. Genius.

What happened when I tried the WEN dryer brush

Armed with all this information, I decided to put my pessimism regarding my own hair styling skills aside and give the WEN dryer a fair shot. First, I coated my hair with WEN styling creme,Olaplex bonding oil, and WEN nourishing mousse, and then sectioned it with the alligator clips that come with the dryer.

I took my first few passes with the 51-millimeter brush attachment and was shocked by how smooth my hair looked—so I continued with higher spirits. Every time I stopped to resection, I placed the dryer on the silicone mat Dean designed for the dryer so that it wouldn’t get damaged or roll off my sink (he really thought of everything).

It took me around 30 minutes to finish drying my thick hair, and I was extremely impressed with the results. Was it the same quality blowout my stylist gives me? No, of course not. But did I end up with hair that my high standards would allow me leave the house with? Absolutely. Plus, my hair felt so soft, which wasn’t something I was expecting. All in all, I’m excited to keep practicing using the WEN dryer—it just might be the one that will finally help me learn how to achieve a salon-quality blow out.