Infrared heat isn’t only for the spa. 

Throughout the wellness and biohacking space, infrared technology has grow to be a hot topic, predominantly with saunas, which may also help with removing toxins and promoting leisure.

But now, a slew of hairstyling brands are harnessing the ability of infrared heat for tools, including straighteners, brushes and dryers.

The rationale? In response to the Cleveland Clinic, infrared works by penetrating through the skin and heating the body from the within out. That implies that infrared saunas don’t must be as hot and hairstyling tools that implement infrared work similarly. (The warmth is reduced, which could reduce overall damage to the hair.)

Consistently using high heat hair tools may cause damage to strands over time, which is why brands are making a case for infrared. 

“If you go above a certain temperature, it affects the bonds and the hair after which that results in the hair becoming more elastic, stretchy after which breaking and damaging,” said Helen Reavey, hairstylist, trichologist and founding father of scalp care brand Act + Acre. 

In response to Reavey, this could be especially impactful on curly hair because the bonds are broken leaving the curl pattern disrupted. 

“Traditional heat will strip the moisture. The infrared helps preserve the natural moisture,” she said, adding it may well boost shine, while reducing frizz, static and damage. 

Silk’n, known for its hair removal devices, is one such brand tapping into the technology. It recently relaunched with a slew of recent beauty devices, including its SilkyStraight, $189, a straightener that uses infrared heat. 

“Principally what it [infrared] is doing is heating the within the hair, while the titanium is heating the skin. This permits the hair to straighten faster, and creates less damage,” said Silk’n president Sandra Cockburn. “By implementing the infrared, the titanium plates don’t should be as hot, subsequently less damage to your hair.”

Bondi Boost, which was acquired by Gauge Capital in 2022, can be using infrared in its latest launch: Infrared Bounce Brush, $98, a heated round brush used on dry hair that gives a blowout look. 

In response to the brand, infrared heat locks in moisture within the hair, which may leave styles looking shinier and fewer frizzy. 

“We mainly designed it for customer convenience [with] hair health because the fundamental priority,” said Angelina James, a representative for BondiBoost. “Its fundamental purpose is for refreshing dry styles and creating smooth, bouncy shiny blowouts.”

She added: “We clinically tested it to prove that it causes no additional heat damage to hair in comparison with air drying.…It locks in moisture because it styles so your hair is smoother and fewer damaged.”

L’Oréal has also bet on the tech with its AirLight Pro, a hair dryer that mixes infrared and high-speed air flow that was developed in partnership with Zuvi, a beauty hardware start-up.

The AirLight Pro, which was unveiled at CES this yr, touts a slew of advantages, including a 30 percent faster drying time, 59 percent smoother hair and 30 percent less energy used as compared to typical hair dryers. The product also received an innovation award at CES.

“The best way that [hair dryers] have produced heat to dry the hair has been mainly the identical for 100 years and it’s been based on what we call thermal coils,” said Guive Balooch, global managing director of augmented beauty and open innovation at L’Oréal. “These are like what you’ll see in your toaster oven where it turns orange where the coils get really hot.”

In response to Balooch, the AirLight Pro takes inspiration from nature for its drying technique.

“If you take a look at nature…it’s a mixture of the sun and winds that dry rainfall really quickly. The technology behind [this] it’s actually a halogen infrared form of light…surrounding the air,” he said.

With this latest innovation, the team is eyeing future opportunities.

“There’s a whole lot of potential in relation to the mixture of sunshine and potentially other aspects in devices,” Balooch said. “Our first obsession is the hairdryer because three in 4 people on the planet have a hairdryer at home.”