Tourmaline

[benjamming]

Tourmaline is touted as providing negative ions in such things as hair dryers. Any validity to the claims such as provided below from this link? Silence HP Hair Dryer

"WHAT IS TOURMALINE?? Tourmaline is a semi-precious gemstone that's revered by scientists for its remarkable electrical properties—when heated, tourmaline takes on a natural negative charge. The Silence HP Ionic dryer utilizes these naturally produced, negative ions to split large water droplets into smaller molecules that immediately evaporate, thus drying the hair quicker, sparing the hair cuticle from excessive heat exposure while locking in moisture and shine. The result is that your hair dries faster than with a conventional dryer, free of static and frizz, and full of body and shine."

 

[djb]

This only works if you use a magnetic softener on your water supply...


Seriously, it's a scam. It won't dry hair faster, or with less power. If this product does anything special (it likely doesn't), it's probably producing ozone. Ozone does have some beneficial effect, but it breaks down many organic materials including hair.

 

[oilyriser]

I bet hair would dry faster if you placed your hand on a large Van De Graaf generator.

 

[MarkC]

Tourmaline is not a single thing, it's a group of about 12 or so crystalline silicate minerals, so if you buy into the benefits of negative ions and such, you'd need to be aware of what specific mineral in the tourmaline family you're using.

 

[benjamming]

Yeah, but they only say tourmaline & no details.

Do you buy into the benefits of negative ions & such?

 

[MarkC]

I believe negative ions exist, as do positive ones. I doubt that
A. whatever mineral is used in these things produces a very measurable amount of negative ions.
B. you need a hair dryer to make your hair soft and/or static- free. Just don't let it dry out.

We have several different devices at work that produce either positive or negative ions, depending on which button you push, or
Negative ions are actually produced in small amounts when water evaporates, I think, so I don't know if they actually make it evaporate faster, not really my field.

 

[benjamming]

Q: How do I tell if a dryer is Ionic?

A: The only way to determine if a dryer is ionic (i.e, generates negative ions) is to test the output with an ion meter. Unfortunately, there are no regulations to determine what levels of negative ions need to be generated to qualify a dryer as ionic. In our research, we tested dryers that claimed to be "ionic" and actually registered no ionic P.P.C.C. (parts per cubic centimeter). Presently our industry standard appears to be below 20 P.P.C.C. The Silence HP Ionic measured 920 P.P.C.C. on the low heat (#1) setting and 1090 P.P.C.C. on the high heat (#2) setting.