I’m really no-fuss with my hair, my stylist will tell you. I don’t like a lot of product, I don’t want to style my hair.

I want to sleep in, and wake up to decent hair. Most of the time that happens.

But sometimes, I’m in a rush and I can’t wait for my hair to air dry. I have to blow dry. For a few years now I’ve been subsisting on this very sad travel dryer that I bought to save space. The power cord retracting button broke about 6 months in and it took forever to dry my hair. Thick Asian hair is not conducive to drying quickly.

So, some nice people took pity (or just noticed I write about green products a lot) and asked me to review the new Barbar ECO 8000 dryer.

Dryer details

It only has 1000 Watts of power, which made me think it was going to be weak, as you are supposed to look for 1800 watts. 1800 watts are not really energy saving though.

The heating element is also all ceramic, which is supposed to emit no toxins as compared to metal heating elements. The ceramic, as you can tell by the plethora of ceramic hair straighteners out there, is also safer for your hair. The engineering of this little sucker is supposed to also emits less EMFs (electro-magnetic fields) than other dryers. I had n idea I was supposed to be concerned about that.

So I was skeptical going into this. Just because I get sent an item for review doesn’t mean I’ll like it and I was ready to ream this thing.

How it works: really well, actually

I dried my hair a few times already. This is unusual for me, but I did it for the sake of ethical journalism or something.

I was impressed at how quickly my hair dried. For being nearly half the wattage of commercial dryers, the Barbar dryers packs a punch. My hair dries quickly and doesn’t look worse for wear.

I still don’t know how this ceramic element is different than any other ceramic dryer, but it seems to do the job. The dryer heated up quickly and stayed that way.

It’s not super noisy, but this isn’t meant to be a super quiet dryer either. I noticed that it doesn’t have the high pitched whine that you often hear in dryers. I’m not sure if that has something to do with the unique engineering or not. I hate that noise, though, so I was happy.

Just a few hang-ups

I didn’t like a couple of things.

It’s a tad heavy. That’s not really a huge deal, since you’re not holding it near as long as you would some other dryer.

I also got irritated at the placement of the buttons for heat and dryer intensity. They’re switches, and they’re placed right in the middle of the handle. They’re kind of clunky to get around, so it makes it kind of hard to hold the Barbar comfortably.

However, you won’t find yourself accidentally turning the thing off, which I suppose is a plus.

Overall: a good dryer option

This isn’t your bargain basement dryer at $150, but you would really aim to keep one for a few years anyway.

If you’re serious about greening your life, but can’t stand to get rid of your blow dryer, this is a great option.

You can get the Barbar eco 8000 here.