15 New Uses for Your Hair Dryer

Hand held hair dryers were introduced for the domestic market in 1920, and since then countless hairdos have relied on that combination of heat and air to achieve their coiffed perfection. But the humble blow dryer has plenty of other services to offer around the house–here are a handful of them:

1. If you need to quickly set the icing on a cake, the air and heat of a hair dryer can quicken up the process.

2. If your cake won’t unstick from the cake pan, use your hair dryer on the bottom of the pan then invert it, it should drop right out.

3. Running an ice cream scoop under hot water helps, but you can also try using a hair dryer on the carton to soften ice cream for easy scooping.

4. Some people use pots of boiling water to quicken freezer defrosting, a hot hair dryer works even more quickly. (Be careful of puddles of water and the dryer, though.)

5. Automatic ice-makers can get jammed with frozen ice, relieve that with a long blast of hot air to melt unwanted icebergs.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Margie B.

10:43PM PST on Nov 11, 2011

Great Tips

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Kiana S.

5:05AM PDT on Oct 2, 2011

Thanks for the great tips! I rarely use my hairdryer for my hair, but if you have a fridge that gets iced up a lot and needs to be periodically defrosted a hairdryer helps speed things up a lot. Put a spare tupperware container under the ice to catch the water and you can be done before all your cold things start to warm up and spoil.

Karen B.

12:04PM PDT on Sep 20, 2011

Maybe all those people so worried about electricity should turn off their computers.

11:58AM PDT on Sep 20, 2011

Warming up the sheets before getting into bed on a cold night. Make sure the top sheet is pulled up to the pillow, lift up the top sheet about 8 inches and point the hairdryer between the sheets-moving it around and up and down. Your bed will be warm and cozy.

Marie V.

11:38AM PDT on Sep 20, 2011

I spilled water on a wood table once and did not notice until the wood had turned greyish, which meant that the water had penetrated the stain. I used the hair dryer on it and within a few minutes, the wood was dry and back to its natural color.

Eternal G.

5:12PM PDT on Sep 19, 2011

...16 don't buy one, you don't need one!

Sanja T.

1:00PM PDT on Sep 10, 2011

interesting... thanks

Sonny H.

7:55PM PDT on Sep 6, 2011

I like the use of the dryer on old pictures stuck to the albums.

Leah C.

5:55PM PDT on Sep 5, 2011

This list, with an exception of a few, is common sense stuff.