We Tried It: A Shampoo That Promises To Cut Your Drying Time In Half

When we think about all the time we spend standing around, blow-dryer in hand, styling our manes, it's a little disturbing. While we love the look of freshly blown out hair, we can't stand the thought of wasting away those precious morning minutes blasting our hair dry. So, when the It Factor Shampoo & Conditioner — a hair-care duo that promises to cut your drying time in half — landed on our desks, we were hopeful, but skeptical.

We've fielded plenty of "miracle" claims in our day, only to be disappointed when the product fails to live up to our (admittedly high) expectations. The line, which features a shampoo and conditioner for fine hair and one for medium to thick hair, uses a proprietary VaporBoost system that's said to release the bond between water molecules and your hair, speeding up evaporation.

We wanted to put this purported dream team to the test, so we asked Nizzi Karai Renaud, our V.P. of Marketing and Merchandising, to take them for a spin. Nizzi, with her enviable mane of thick, waist-length hair, was the perfect guinea pig for this particular challenge. Read on for her firsthand account, and to find out if these wonder twins actually do what they claim.

"I have waist-length hair that is very thick, somewhat wavy, and there's a lot of it! It will seriously take my hair two hours to air dry and I normally use golf-ball size dollops of conditioner. For the It Factor products, they recommended using a quarter-size amount for the shampoo and conditioner. The first time I used the products, I went ahead and did my usual air dry routine and did not see any difference. While I did love the shampoo and appreciated that I didn't need to drown my hair in conditioner, I didn't love how my hair felt once it was fully dried. It felt like there was a residue on my hair, and I'm sure there's probably something that needs to be activated by heat, though my attempts to nerd out by analyzing the ingredients were less than fruitful.

So, for round two, I went ahead and did something I only do maybe four times a year: I busted out my hair dryer. And the results were definitely miraculous — I couldn't believe how quickly my hair dried once I used the hair dryer. As a bonus, the texture didn't feel too dried out after the fact, which is the number one reason I don't like to blow dry my hair — well, that and the fact that I'm lazy. It takes me about 20-30 minutes to blow dry my hair normally (longer if I want it stick straight), but with the It Factor products it took me 10 minutes. Sold! Now, I'd actually consider maybe blow drying my like eight times a year instead of my usual quarterly blow out."