When Dyson, the British technology company long known for revolutionizing vacuum cleaners, first announced that it would enter the world of haircare, it was met with not only shock and awe but also plenty of doubt. Its first launch, a hand-held hair dryer, came with promises to be lighter, quieter, and easier on hair than others on the market—but at the steep price of $400, beauty industry leaders and experts were skeptical that the tool would find a wide enough clientele.
When the company released the Dyson Supersonic in 2016, however, it quickly proved the naysayers wrong. With rave reviews online and across social media, the hair dryer became an instant success, and despite its high price tag, booming sales quickly followed. Two years later, it launched the Dyson Airwrap, an all-in-one styler that could curl, wave, smooth, and dry hair without the use of extreme heat. The tool sold out almost immediately and within a few weeks, had a waitlist of more than 130,000 people, all waiting to hand over $549 for the device. In 2020, the company launched the third tool in its haircare trifecta: the $499 Dyson Corrale, its take on a hair straightener.
But Dyson’s immense success in the hair space, however surprising to outsiders, is no accident; rather, it’s the product of years of work and sizable investment. “It didn’t just start with the launch of the Supersonic,” says Dyson Reliability Engineer Kate Craft. “We’ve been researching hair for more than a decade and have invested over £100 million into laboratories around the world.” While the launch of the hair dryer six years ago put Dyson on the haircare map as a formidable leader in the space, its efforts have only expanded since then. “We’ve continued to research and develop tools to meet our mission: products for every hair type, every style, with less damage,” Craft explains. “And today, there are over 6,000 engineers, scientists, and stylists working within Dyson globally to help drive this mission forward.”
And while most brands who generate famously long waitlists might use continued high demand as a reason to stop innovating, Dyson has done just the opposite—especially when it comes to its bestselling tool. More than three years after its debut, in 2021 the Airwrap had over 100,000 people still waiting for their chance to buy one and four sold every minute, but that didn’t stop the manufacturer from redesigning the styling device. “That’s just who we are! At Dyson, we are never satisfied with our past successes, and we champion innovation,” Craft says. “We are constantly striving to deliver a better experience across all our Dyson technology and the Dyson AirwrapTM multi-styler is no exception.” Customers wanted more versatility and the ability to style different types of hair, so since its launch in 2018, the company has worked to address these concerns and make the Airwrap style faster, more versatile, and easier to use.
During this time, Dyson has taken into account user feedback on where the Airwrap could improve and has refined its attachment technology to boost performance with enhanced Coanda airflow, where when propelled at the right speed and pressure, air naturally follows an adjacent surface. “We’ve completely redesigned the pre-styling dryer as a 2-in-1 attachment, now known as the Coanda smoothing dryer,” Craft notes. This new attachment has two modes that can easily be switched via the rotating cool tip. When in drying mode, a concentrated jet of air helps to pre-dry hair before styling with other attachments, and once dry, users can switch to the new Flyaway attachment, a beloved feature borrowed from the Supersonic. The barrels have also been redesigned to curl hair in both directions with a single barrel, a notable change from the switching of barrels that was required in the first Airwrap. And to accommodate longer hair lengths and allow for more hair to be curled in each go, what was previously known as the long barrel is now the standard barrel length.
The new design, which launched on June 2, additionally features a new wide tooth comb attachment that was specifically designed for curly and coily hair to help length or tease out curls before styling. “This comb was designed with comfort in mind, no sharp edges to catch on your hair, optimized tooth spacing to allow for adequate tension and root access,” Craft adds. The second generation Aiwrap is available on Dyson’s website and through its retail partners for $599, and it’s already eliciting the same impressive customer response as the first iteration.
With this redesign, Dyson hopes to continue setting the standard for the haircare industry, a goal it’s had from the very start. “We believed in our technology from the beginning, but it’s honestly incredible the success we’ve had since launching the Supersonic in 2016,” Craft says. “We could never have imagined how loved this product would be when we launched in 2018, and this next-gen is our best performing Airwrap yet, so I anticipate this launch will ellipse the success we had then.”
