To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more
- Whisper-quiet
- Ultrafast drying times
- Magnetic attachments are easy to fit and change
- Premium price
Launched in 2022 by British hairstylist Michael Douglas, the first version of the mdlondon Blow was a compact and lightweight hair dryer that punched far above its tiny weight in terms of performance. With a powerful 1660w brushless motor and a superfast airflow that rivalled the Dyson Supersonic, the first mdlondon Blow was already a top pick on many beauty editors’ end-of-year awards lists.
Now back in an updated version for 2025, the new Blow boasts the same efficient motor and light weight as its predecessor, with nine heat and airspeed settings, and a new lock button to keep your chosen setting in place when you’re drying.
With chic new colours including Berry and Olive and an improved cleaning system, the 2025 version of the mdlondon Blow still has the power to blow your mind – and blow contenders out of the water.
mdlondon Blow (2025) review: What do you get for the money?
The first thing you’ll notice on unboxing the Blow 2025 is its ultra-compact size. At just 280mm long the barrel is about the same size as my hand; and when I pick it up, the T-shaped main unit weighs just 360g – around half the weight of a typical hair dryer. That ultra-lightweight and compact design is in part down to a small but powerful 1,660W brushless digital motor, which blows the drying fans at up to 108,000RPM – enough to dry even long and thick hair in minutes.
The mdlondon Blow is on sale at £199 – around £100 less than Dyson’s Supersonic Original and half the price of the new Supersonic Nural, but certainly more than other dryers at the premium end of the market such as the GHD Helios or the Shark Style IQ. As you’d expect for this sort of price, the Blow boasts a firm build quality and chic design – it looks pretty in the box, and despite the light weight of the unit it feels solid and balanced in my hand.
Like its predecessor, the new Blow has a long cylindrical barrel and a slim handle with the controls; there are three independent heat and airspeed settings, for a total of nine drying options, selected using the slim metallic rocker buttons on the side of the handle. Discreet LED lights set into the handle light up to show which heat and air settings you have selected. There’s also a separate cold shot button on the front of the handle, and the 2025 has an added lock switch on the back of the handle to prevent the settings being accidentally changed when the dryer is in use.
The switches feel nicely constructed and organised, and the Blow comes with a handy styling guide to help you choose the best heat and speed setting for your hair type; my shoulder-length, fine curly hair got on well with the medium setting on each, but it’s great to have both faster and cooler options. The heating element is ceramic-coated for even heat distribution that leaves hair with a soft and shiny finish. See below for more about how the Blow 2025 feels in use.
The Blow 2025 comes in three stylish matte- finish colour options – we tested the 2025 in Casal Blue (a very chic dark teal colour) but you can also choose from Olive Green and a pretty new Berry colour. The 2025 also comes with a good length 3m cable, which makes it easy to manoeuvre around the head as you style, and should easily reach any power socket.
What else is in the box?
One setback of the original Blow was that the dryer came boxed with two concentrator nozzles, but the compatible diffuser attachment for gentle and curl-compatible styling cost an extra £25. The 2025 Blow rectifies this by including one wide concentrator nozzle and a diffuser attachment in the box; the diffuser has a fairly shallow bowl size (we measured 13 cm across and 5.5cm deep), but it works well for either scrunching curls and waves to add volume, or diffusing the airflow for gentle drying.
As with the earlier model, the attachments clip onto the front of the dryer but are also held securely in place by magnets, which means there’s no danger of the attachments falling off during use.
The concentrator nozzle is also designed with ease of styling in mind – the wide nozzle distributes the airflow over the full length of your round brush as you style, meaning you can take wider sections for faster styling. (The nozzle happens to fit the width of the mdlondon MRUSH round brush, should you be in the market for a colour-co-ordinated accessory designed to fit your hair dryer, but I tested with my trusty Superdrug round brush and the concentrator attachment worked fine). As well as styling quickly and efficiently, as you don’t have to go back over the same part of the hair multiple times the wide nozzle also reduces contact time with hot air, creating a smooth and shiny finish with less frizz.
There’s also a new hang-up loop on the 2025, designed with salon professionals and fashion shoots in mind – but the loop also means it’s super-easy to hang your dryer up at home if that’s the way you prefer to store it.
What’s it like to use?
The mdlondon Blow is impressively light in weight, as we’ve noted above, but the build quality of the main drying unit feels as solid and sturdy as a much larger dryer, and it’s comfortable and well-balanced in the hand. The powerful motor means you won’t be holding the dryer for very long in any case – I found I could rough-dry my shoulder length hair to damp in around three minutes. From there I could simply scrunch and leave to air-dry, or diffuser dry on a low heat for another five minutes for a soft, natural finish.
Drying with the concentrator nozzle and a round brush for a sleeker look took around 15-20 minutes from rough-dried, finishing with a blast of the cold shot to help set my finished style in place. I found with a spritz of hairspray after styling, my sleek blow-dry stayed in place for a typical working day and stayed mostly intact overnight.
As my hair is quite fine and not too long, I found the medium heat setting worked well for rough-drying and styling with a round brush, and the cooler setting with the lower speed setting was a good combination for drying with the diffuser attachment. If you have very long or thick hair, or want to style very curly hair straight, you may find the higher heat and speed settings are useful.
While the dryer is plenty powerful despite its small size, it’s also one of the quietest dryers we’ve used – a quick check with the decibel checker on my phone suggested noise levels stayed under 90dB even at the highest heat and speed setting.
It’s easy to switch between heat and speed settings using the rocker buttons on the side of the handle, and the LED display next to the buttons lights up to show which setting you’ve selected. I found that I didn’t really have a problem with accidentally changing settings once I’d begun styling, but the new lock button on the power switch that keeps your settings in place is a thoughtful addition for anyone that might worry about doing so.
The attachments feel solid and well-built, snapping onto the main dryer body with a satisfying magnetic click. If you regularly use styling attachments, you’ll know it can be a problem when diffusers or other attachments twist loose or fall off mid-dry; the Blow 2025’s magnetic connection solves that problem, keeping each attachment securely in place even during longer styling sessions.
Overall, the Blow 2025 is a pleasure to use – it’s light and comfortable to hold, super-quiet, and it’s very easy to select and lock in your chosen heat and speed setting.
Should you buy the mdlondon Blow (2025)?
The Blow 2025 is a good upgrade to an already great hair dryer – as long as you’re in the market for a premium product at a premium price. It’s lightweight, powerful with strong airflow, versatile with its nine heat/speed settings and ceramic technology, and impressively quiet. Adjusting and locking in your preferred heat and speed settings is intuitive and easy, and the attachments (including the welcome new diffuser attachment) are well-designed and clip on simply and securely. The whole drying and styling process feels smooth and effortless.
The only real drawback is the price – at the time of reviewing, only the Dyson Supersonic (in its various forms and models) costs more to purchase. But if you want fast and healthy styling and have £200 to blow on a blowdryer, the Blow 2025 earns its price tag.
