Dyson moves into the beauty device arena with ‘supersonic’ hair dryer
And who better to invent a futuristic adaptation that focuses airflow to help protect hair from extreme heat damage, than Dyson.
The newly launched ‘Supersonic hair dryer’, created by a team of over 15 motor engineers is tipped to be Dyson’s smallest, lightest, most advanced digital motor yet with four heat and three airflow settings that protects the hair from excessive temperatures.
From vacuum cleaners to hairdryers
The British technology brand, famous for its innovative vacuum cleaners, invested £50 million in the development as well as a lab to further delve into how hair reacts to stress and how to keep it healthy.
Four years in the making; the team tested the product on different hair types and built test rigs which mechanically simulate hair drying techniques – which can differ around the world.
To date, the firm reports over 1010 miles of real human hair have been used in testing.
Changing the game with ‘a sound frequency beyond the audible range of humans’
Traditional hair dryers can sometimes have a weak airflow, meaning they are slow while others with strong airflow are not necessarily controlled.
According to chief innovator and company founder, James Dyson; a glass bead thermistor in this device measures the temperature 20 times a second and transmits this data to the microprocessor, which controls the double-stacked heating element.
“The volume of the air drawn into the motor is amplified by three due to this technology, producing a high pressure, high velocity jet of air and is up to eight times faster than other hair dryer motors and half the weight,” the ambitious entrepreneur explains.
By using an axial flow impeller inside the motor, Dyson engineers have been able to reduce air turbulence and swirling while the use of 13 blades instead of the usual 11 has pushed one tone within the motor to a sound frequency beyond the audible range for humans.
All about noise reduction
To further reduce noise, they have also embedded the small motor in the handle, surrounded by acoustic silencers.
With a wide range of products now available and at a host of different prices, the beauty devices market is continuing to be dynamic, nearly doubling in size since first tracked globally in 2014.
According to market researcher Kline, the segment increased globally by nearly 14 per cent in 2014 as new products, inspired by professional technologies like lasers and the first-ever wearable mask devices, helping fuel consumer interest.
In Europe, the market is driven by the rising ageing population and rising awareness about potential healing applications of beauty devices in the treatment of skin and hair problems.
The UK is tipped to be the most promising, however, as a whole it is still not as big as in the US and Asia.
