Amazon Reviewers Claim This $18 Travel Dryer Can Dry Hair in Three Minutes Flat

We updated this article in September 2022 to ensure all products vetted and selected by the Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab were in stock, available and correctly priced.

Packing for a trip often means downsizing on your usual beauty staples. Unless you want the extra baggage of your full-sized hair dryer, you're left with sacrificing your blowout for whatever (usually weak) blow dryer awaits you at the hotel. Enter, the trusty space saver known as a travel hair dryer. Don't let its miniature packaging deceive you: The best travel hair dryers on the market today are tinier but mightier than ever, with many of the same bells and whistles you'd find on a standard hair dryer.

The Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab regularly tests hair dryers, hair dryer brushes, curling wands and more by measuring everything from the surface temperature to the ease of use, including the comfort of hold, its weight and its cord length. In our most recent travel hair dryer test, our beauty experts evaluated 11 top-rated mini hair dyers and recorded over 2,000 data points to determine which delivered the most gorgeous, salon-like blowouts — our final list includes the winning models, as well as editor favorites and top-reviewed bestsellers from brands our experts know and trust.

Our top picks:

Read on for a full blow-by-blow of the best travel hair dryers worth stowing away in your carry-on, plus more on all things travel hair dryers from celebrity hairstylist Clariss Rubenstein and Matrix Director Nick Stenson.