The Position-Adjustable Hair Dryer

Janet L. Poole. MA, OTR/L, is Assistant Professor, Program in Occupational Therapy, University of Pittsburgh. A lthough a variety of assistive devices are available to disabled persons for hair care, a review of health care equipment catalogues and the occupational therapy literature failed to reveal any devices designed specifically for drying hair. In particular, persons with upper extremity limitations, such as weakness, incoordination, limited joint motion, or the use of only one upper extremity, may have difficulty drying their hair. The most obvious solution for these persons is a simple haircut that can dry naturally. However, some individuals prefer more elaborate haircuts that need to be dried and styled. They may have their hair professionally dried and styled (an expensive solution) or use a hair dryer. There are two styles of hair dryers available: hood and hand held. The hood dryer requires the use of curlers to style the hair. Managing curlers can be difficult and timeconsuming for persons with upper extremity dysfunctions. Hand-held blow dryers allow concurrent drying and styling, but require bilateral use of the upper extremities as well as adequate strength and range of motion. The pOSition-adjustable hair dryer solves this problem It is a hand-held blow dryer mounted on an adjustable stand (Figure 1) that frees the extremity or extremities to hold a brush or to style the hair. This assembly allows easy control of both the direction and amount of air flow. The direction of air flow can be changed to dry different parts of the head by lightly pushing on the adjustable stand, and the amount of air flow can be controlled by mOVing the head closer to or farther from the dryer.