Shark HD112BRN Hair Blow Dryer HyperAIR

When I first purchased this blow dryer in September of 2022, I hesitated. I waited. I debated spending well over $200 on a blow dryer - I've *never* spent that kind of money on a blow dryer, not even on my salon-quality Babyliss dryer (which I was replacing). However, I LOVE Shark's vacuums and have been a loyal customer for 20 +/- years, so based on my experience with the brand, the purchaser reviews, and the promises from Shark about their advanced technology + avoiding damage to my fine hair - I was finally convinced and bought it. YAY, yes? Not. So. Fast. It hasn't lived up to the hype. Not even close. First, this thing is H-E-A-V-Y. And when I say it's heavy, I mean it's the kind of heavy that you need to keep this thing on your nightstand or under your pillow as a weapon against intruders. Be prepared for arm fatigue for the first six weeks of use. Your arms and hands will legit get tired as you're drying and styling your hair. My momma didn't raise a wimp, so I sucked it up and told myself that I was doing it for my locks. My dominant hand and arm are now a bit more toned as a result (bonus, I guess?). The second thing is that the controls for adjusting the strength, heat, and cold air blast just aren't located in intuitive places or operated by more intuitive controls, so even after several months of use, I found myself still having to interrupt my drying and styling to make changes that you'd think you'd be able to do on the fly after a little bit of use. NOPE. Thirdly, I purchased the option that included the concentrated nozzle and the drying/styling brush. I have fine hair that's on the straighter side, so this seemed like the appropriate option since I won't be using a diffuser. However, the tools suffer the same design flaws as the dryer itself - nothing is intuitive to use as far as your hands are concerned, so I'm constantly interrupting my drying and styling to just try to get the #$&+ tools to work for me. Switch sides of your hair? Okay - stop drying your hair, fiddle with the styling brush to change the direction of it, and then you have to rotate the brush around to find the right position and angle for that part of your head - and you have to do that every single time you move to a new section. Every single time. Like you, I value you my sanity, so I finally just ditched the attachment tools all together because seriously friends, life is far too short for all of that hassle. It's a battle that we time-pressed users shouldn't have to engage in when you're one handed (because you're literally holding a two-ton brick of a hair dryer with one hand while simultaneously attempting to maneuver the controls and attachments with the other), and it was resulting in wasted time that we don't have. You'd think a company like Shark would have engineered all of this to be the kind of user-friendly tool that we've come to expect from the brand. But they haven't. Lastly, and here comes the worst and most insulting part: After owning this dryer for just six months and only using it a few times a week, it's suddenly started to shut off mid-blow dry + style entirely on its own. Now, you may be asking yourself why this would happen, as I did I (though I did it with some expletives because I only blow dry and style when I have somewhere to be). I can't be certain, but it seems like the unit is overheating. My filter is clean, though TBF, there's no great way to clean it. The unit doesn't open up so you can remove a filter and clean it thoroughly like you can with every other blow dryer I've ever owned. No, with this piece of modern engineering technology, you're supposed to only use something like a soft-bristled toothbrush to attempt to clean the filter from the outside, and FWIW, mine's never seemed dirty. Regardless, I've been doing that faithfully all along since I'm so used to doing it anyway, so the only thing that I can attribute it's premature demise to is that there's some kind of hardware component failure in the guts of the beast. This does have some kind of limited two year warranty through Shark, but it will have to be sent in to be serviced, and it looks like there's a charge of around $30 for this, of which I'm entirely salty about. An appliance this costly should have a manufacturer that stands behind it fully for at least a year. Add to this that it's also created the need for me to buy ANOTHER hair dryer, because my Shark HyperAIR doesn't work, and I still need a way to dry my hair for however long it's going to take to get this one shipped to them, fixed, and returned back to me. Yes, I'm cussing again. Unfortunately for Shark, this brought about a revelation, and since I love you all so much, and let's face it, you've read my review novella so you should be compensated for that effort: I discovered a hidden gem that's right here on this site and it will save you your hard earned dollars, some swears, some unnecessary workouts, and the need for a third arm when blow drying that hopefully none of you have. It's called the Remington D3190 that is also an Ionic-Ceramic Tourmaline blow dryer. It's lightweight, user friendly, fits nicely in your hand, has a THREE YEAR limited warranty, and is under...get this...twenty dollars as I'm typing my review. It actually dries my hair faster than the HyperAIR, which I think is because without all of the messing around and wasted time with controls and attachments, it's just a more efficient tool to use. Even if the price goes up to double what it costs at the time of me leaving this review, you'll still be money ahead, with nicely styled hair, and have far less exasperation in your life. You're welcome. Now, you're probably wondering what I'm going to do with my fancy (not so fancy) Shark HyperAIR after I get it back from Shark, and even if you weren't, I'm going to tell you: I'm going to get it fixed and see if I can't sell it on Marketplace or some other site. I cannot recommend it as an appliance after my absolutely horrendous user experience, and I hope to spare some of you from the same fate. It hasn't done anything to improve the quality of my hair experience in six months, though it has given me some fits. SAVE YOURSELVES. Save your sanity. Save your dollars. (Unless you're into really expensive paperweights. Then, meh, this might be for you?