It’s no worse and no better than my previous hair dryer in most respects. One thing that I do like is that it has multiple heat settings – cool, warm, hot – which I didn’t have with my previous hair dryer (Revlon New Feel 1875) both have cool shot buttons you can use for a quick burst of cool air (but this one, as I mentioned, has cool as a setting as well.) I’ve been using this for several weeks with the negative ion setting on and I haven’t seen any improvement in the health of my hair. The size of the hair dryers is a bit on the large size but not unmanageable.

If you want it for the multiple heat settings I would recommend it. If you need a new hairdryer in general I would recommend it. But if you’re buying it because of the hype or think it will be a significant upgrade from an existing hairdryer, it doesn’t live up to its claims.

It’s still a good hairdryer by most standards, it just doesn’t perform miracles.

When you live in an apartment you can’t easily add a whole house water filter to your water system.

One of the IT items floating around in articles on the internet right now is a shower water filter from Jonathan Product available at Sephora http://tinyurl.com/9364v I think part of the reason people are talking is that it’s $95 with $55 replacement filters (that you’re supposed to change out every 3 months.) That’s over $200 per year.

Beauty Addict asks whether the product is real or a gimmick: http://beautyaddict.blogspot.com/2005/12/designer-waterfor-your-hair.html

The story is gimmicky but the product isn’t. It isn’t a new product either.

I bought a shower water filter 5 years ago. Granted I took out the filter at some point when I didn’t have the money to buy a new one but that’s another story. Where I live now I really think it’s time to buy a new filter.

I bought mine from Real Goods http://www.Realgoods.com I beleive they have been bought by Gaim.com for a lot less than the Jonathan one… what they seem to be selling now is a silver version of what I have in white plastic and is $68 with $28 replacement filters.

Looks like Home Depot http://tinyurl.com/bv3dr has one for $20 (the shower head unit) but like the Jonathan version, it doesn’t have a corded sprayer you can spray down your tub with (something I like.) But it looks like you can put the spray-head of your choice on after the filter.

Do water filters really make a difference? YES! I have a pur water filter on my kitchen sink – I put a pot of water on to boil because my house needed the humidity. I did one pot of regular tap water and the hard water left a large amount of minerals once the water boiled down – it was actually white on the pan. Then I tried with the purified water … a LOT less white when it boiled down.

Another trick for stripping the hard water build up out of your hair – dunk or pour apple cider vinegar over your hair. (This may not be a good idea if you have color treated hair – I’m not sure how it affects the color.) Make sure you don’t get any in your eyes (it BURNS.) Go about shaving your legs or whatever and then wash like you would normally afterwards (or twice with shampoo if you think you still smell of vinegar and then your conditioner.)