While being one of the more well known companies, General Electric was not the only one to produce hair dryer devices at this time. During the same period, Sunbeam Electronics was another major competitor, producing a large variety of hair dryers in a number of different shapes and sizes. Sunbeam Corporation was an Australian electric company which was initially incorporated in 1902 (Victorian Collections n.d.). With similar models to the GE hair dryer, the concept of these dryers remained the same, as they allowed for your hair to be dried portably whilst multitasking and doing other chores. Just like the General Electric hair dryer, the device was also made in a round plastic casing with a wire attached to the motor. Although the hair dryer from Sunbeam was produced in Australia and the hair dryer from General Electric was produced in Canada, there are many visual and physical similarities when looking at the both of them.

Another manufacturer that made a competing hair dryer to General Electric’s was Clairol Inc. of Canada. Whilst the materiality and concept of this hair dryer, being a machine unit attached to a bonnet, appear to be very similar to GE’s, the design is slightly different in regards to the colours, the use of a round dial to control the heat settings as opposed to a lever-like controller, and its rectangular shape as opposed to a circle. Observing images of the Clairol hair dryer, it also appears to not come with a wearable strap, which would make it not as easily portable as the General Electric model.