Dyson knows its new professional Supersonic hairdryer looks like a pipe – in fact, they’re proud of it
Dyson will forgive you if the first thing you say when you see the all-new Dyson Supersonic r hair dryer is, “It looks like a pipe.”
“It’s a joke from the engineering team,” said Dyson Haircare Engineer Steven Williamson, who agreed with my assessment as he held up the purple color pipe…er..professional hair care device that I can watch during our video call. I later found out that the product is called Supersonic r because of its “r”-like shape.
Dyson has a history of strange-looking gadgets. The small, powerful vacuums with internal cyclones didn’t look much like the competition, and then there’s the Dyson Zone air purifying headphones and air filter.
However, this time it is a matter of form meeting function. Dyson, which launched its rattling Supersonic hairdryer eight years ago, has learned a lot from that expensive and best-selling product with the noticeable hole in the top. The goal of this new dryer was to build something much smaller, lighter and more powerful that could withstand the rigors of a full day of work in a hair salon. The appearance of the Dyson Supersonic r, unveiled at New York Fashion Week, is in part a direct extension of those efforts.
The tube-like body, which runs straight for about 10 inches before bending (without changing thickness) toward the business end, is “more of an extension of (a barber’s) arm,” according to Williamson.
It’s not just the radically changed body; inside is a mix of well-known and completely new hair drying technology.
Williamson showed me a model with half the plastic casing cut away and I could see that the Supersonic r is packed with technology. In the middle of the long pipe, approximately where you hold the hairdryer, is the famous Dyson Digital Motor (larger versions made famous by Dyson’s long line of vacuum cleaners). That dense bit can make the dryer feel more balanced and perhaps make it easier for professional hairstylists to hold and use for hours.
The new technology includes what Williams called Dyson’s new ‘streamlined heater’, a series of films 0.25mm thick. Nine of them are stacked along the curve of that pipe-like body. Williams said it is a low-constraint design that leaves no hot or cold spots, but provides more heated surface area to warm the air.
Dyson has also redesigned the still familiar-looking air filter on the other side of the dryer (just above the plug). After years of selling the pro version of the Supersonic to salons, Dyson realized that these environments are much more intense than the typical home bathroom, where you might use the hairdryer for 20 minutes at a time and maybe every other day. That’s why the Supersonic r’s filter pops off and has an easy-to-clean mesh inside. There is also a small LED light on the outside that indicates when it is time to clean the filter. For safety reasons, the appliance will no longer switch on if you do not replace the filter cover correctly.
The technical progress is not limited to the Supersonic r-body. Dyson has added RFID chips to all the attachments (five are included in the box), meaning the hairdryer recognizes them all and can adjust settings. If you change the settings while using the attachment, the Supersonic r will remember them and reapply those settings the next time you use the attachment. If this sounds familiar, that’s because Loreal introduced similar mounting technology for its new infrared hair dryer at CES 2024.
Dyson’s Supersonic r even has a Professional price, starting at $569.99 (about $70 more than the current, though out of stock, Supersonic Pro) and should start shipping in April for US consumers. There is no confirmation yet on international pricing and availability.
Promises of a 20% smaller and 30% lighter Dyson Supersonic dryer that could be more powerful, efficient and smarter – even one that resembles a piece of pipe – will also excite home hairdressers. Dyson has potentially good news on that front.
“We want to continue to make progress. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see this coming to consumers in the future,” Williamson told me.
