Dyson Supersonic Combines Vacuum Cleaner And Fan Technology For $435 Hairdryer

Dyson is a company best known for its bagless vacuum cleaners, but in recent years the company has been branching out by launching a range of bladeless fans. Now, the British company has combined the technologies developed in both previous product lines to launch its first beauty product — the Supersonic hairdryer.

Set to go on sale in the U.K. in June, costing 299 pounds (around $435), the Supersonic uses the “air multiplier” technology from its fans in combination with a digital motor originally developed for its handheld vacuums, to promise faster drying times and “help prevent extreme heat damage to protect natural shine.” To help prevent hair damage the Supersonic will measure the air temperature 20 times a second to ensure it never gets over 150 degrees Celsius.

Just like the bladeless fans, there are no spinning parts on show in the snub-nosed design of the Supersonic, allowing you to look straight through the hairdryer. The device pulls in 13 liters of air per second at the rear and using the multiplier technology, outputs 40 liters at the front. Dyson says its “focused” stream of air will allow users to style their hair and dry it at the same time.

Dyson says that the Supersonic is the result of four years of research at the company’s U.K. headquarters involving 600 prototypes and tests on over 1,000 miles of hair from different nationalities. The entire effort cost over $70 million, according to the company.

“Hair dryers can be heavy, inefficient and make a racket," founder James Dyson said in a statement. ”By looking at them further we realized that they can also cause extreme heat damage to hair. I challenged Dyson engineers to really understand the science of hair and develop our version of a hair dryer, which we think solves these problems.”

While early reports of the product suggested it would be silent, the Supersonic simply promises to be really quiet. Dyson has achieved this by increasing the number of blades used in the V9 motor, which is housed in the hairdryer’s handle. “By giving the motor impeller 13 blades instead of the usual 11, we pushed one tone within the motor to a sound frequency beyond the audible range for humans,” Dyson said.

Dyson claims the V9 motor is eight times as powerful as other hairdryer motors and half the weight.