Function of an Ionic hair dryer.

[jackiecarty]

I recently heard of these ionic hair dryers. 1. what do they create ions of? how? if it is of hydrogen how does that not become hydrogen peroxide when it comes in contact with the water on hair? there is a new one with a digital reading how can it determine how many ions it produces? they have great claims of reduce ing static? I'm honestly skeptical of the whole thing.

 

[Drakkith]

You are probably right to be skeptical. The whole thing sounds like nonsense. I've seen multiple products that say they use ions to "improve health", "remove toxins", and other baloney. Negative ions are simply electrons, and a buildup of negative ions would result in a huge amount of static electricity. I assume that either these ions are immediately neutralized by the overwhelming amount of other particles all around us, many of which would love these electrons, or people would be noticing large amounts of static electricity in their hair.

I did a quick search and found the following article on the subject.
http://www.ehow.com/about_5084886_pros-cons-ionic-hair-dryer.html

Per the article:

There's no hard scientific research to prove whether ionic hair dryers work better than those that use traditional technology other than anecdotal evidence. If you're curious about this dryer, some models, such as those used by the Good Housekeeping Institute, can be purchased for a reasonable sum. If you're nervous about parting company with your money for what might be a passing fad, test a friend's ionic blow dryer using your regular styling routine and check out the results.

Furthermore, the following link pretty much destroys any product claiming that the negative ions affect the structure of water clusters.
http://www.chem1.com/CQ/clusqk.html

In short, it's crap. Don't believe it.