Ten years ago I wrote the gadget column for Tatler magazine and unearthed fantastic things like a toaster that burned your face into each slice of toast, wine bras that consisted of cups filled with wine to enhance your bust and self-medicate with alcohol, bikinis made from solar panels that generated enough power to charge your phone and, my favourite, a pelvic floor-operated games console remote control designed to train new mums’ pubic visceral muscles while simultaneously destroying alien spaceships.
My contract lasted for years because the excitement over new gadgets proved deep-rooted: At the end of 2022, the UK was named the third country in the world to have built a tech industry worth more than $1 trillion.
The hair dryer was invented in 1888, but the portable version we know today was invented in 1920 by the Racine Universal Motor Company.
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We humans are built by evolution to seek and satisfy our basic survival needs, and when they are satisfied, they automatically trigger a dopamine response: a deliberately addictive feeling of pleasure, satisfaction, and motivation. But in developed cultures where our basic survival needs are easily satisfied, electronic gadgets tempt us with a dopamine high. Our basic human needs to communicate, feel connected, experience pleasure, and find a partner can be enhanced through gadgets. Gadgets are a shortcut to primitive pleasure. According to a neuroimaging study from a 2011 BBC documentary, Apple products stimulated the same parts of the brain as religious people when shown religious images. Gadgets are a symbol of modernity.
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So it’s no wonder I long for the dreamy days of writing copy that hinted at the possibility of a better, smarter, brighter, more productive life, instantly within reach — and all for just £9.99. And this week, my heart was once again filled with momentary joy by an inexpensive purchase that finally eased the frustration of my thrice-weekly at-home grooming routine: a compact, free-standing, height-adjustable, hands-free hairdryer stand.
The joy of a hair dryer stand
If you’re still not convinced, imagine a microphone stand for your hair dryer. It gives you a temporary third arm, allowing you to grip a hair dryer and free up your hands for styling. For less than the cost of a single blow-dry at the salon, it’s your ticket to endless good hair days.
I plug the hair dryer into the nozzle of the stand, sit in front of it, grab my damp hair with one hand, brush it with the other, and within minutes I look like Debra Winger at the end of An Officer and a Gentleman when Richard Gere pulls off my hat, swirls my hair, and carries me out of the factory into a golden future where I’m tall and slim and forever 23. The joy is real, even if the fantasy is tragic.
