Product engineers reinvented the wheel this week. Okay, maybe they just redesigned the hair dryer. Dyson known for their vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, fans, and heaters has now entered the beauty game with their new design, that reportedly cost $71 million to develop. The company has called it the Dyson Supersonic and will cost $400. The price tag is astounding for a hair dryer, however, the fashion industry is probably going to latch on to the premium product quite quickly, getting the money to those engineers who arguably reinvented the hair dryer.
Credit: Dyson
Tom Crawford, the Head of Product Development for New Categories at Dyson told TechCrunch, “When Dyson goes into a new category, we always think about how we can make it better. Part of the challenge is making sure we invest in the right technology and testing to do so. The first part of this was to learn the science of hair. How to test it, how to make it repeatable, and then how to measure it. We built our own state of the art laboratory dedicated to investigating the science of hair.”
Yahoo spoke to Dyson as well, revealing that the company sent their engineering team to beauty school to gain inspiration before developing the new hairdryer. How many engineers can say they’ve been to beauty school in their illustrious careers? Dyson said, “We are experts in all things airflow, fluid dynamics, hardware…all things engineering. But we surely aren’t style experts. Having a group of young engineers attend styling classes made them see the end benefit of this machine and how the hair dryer can truly be improved.”
What is under the hood, you ask?
Dyson says they have created the Dyson digital motor V9 . It is a small motor that the engineers managed to fit in the handle of the dryer, instead of the usual head placement of the motor in other dryers. They have also developed a glass bead thermistor which transmits data to a microprocessor which the company says “intelligently controls the patented double-stacked heating element.”
We’re starting to understand why this engineered hair dryer costs $400.
Check out this video that shows off the technology – the part we care about most, right engineers? – of the new Dyson Supersonic.
