





British technology company Dyson, best known for its futuristic takes on vacuum cleaners and hand dryers, has turned its attention to the humble hair dryer—but it won't be cheap.

In fact, the device (full name: Dyson Supersonic) will cost £299 when it goes on sale in the UK in early June and $399 when it crosses the Atlantic in September. That price tag is around twice as much as hair dryers used in high-end salons.

Dyson claimed to have invested £50 million and four years of research into development of the new technology, making it quieter and—apparently—less damaging to hair. The resulting device has a motor that the company said was eight times faster—and a lot smaller—than those used in the most popular hair dryers sold in Japan, where we're told 96 percent of the population owns one. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, Dyson's hair dryer will go on sale in Japan first.

Unlike most conventional hair dryers, the motor in the Dyson model is situated in the handle, a design choice intended to lower the noise, and give it better balance. The motor has 13 blades instead of the usual 11, and is surrounded by acoustic silencers, which, as Dyson claims, has allowed its engineers to push a particular tone emitted by the motor beyond audible range for humans.

For advanced temperature control, the dryer is equipped with a glass-bead thermistor which measures heat 20 times a second. This data is fed to a chip that controls the flow and prevents the user's hair from overheating.

Dyson also promises that the dryer is highly adjustable, with four heat settings, three airflow settings, and a cold shot. In addition to the dryer itself, Dyson has developed three magnetic attachments that remain cool to the touch, because the hot air that goes through them is contained in a sandwich of cold air, the company said.

The new dryer costs twice as much as most of the devices used by haircare professionals, but Dyson has nevertheless said that it intends to target the device not only at professional hairdressers, but also at the consumer market.