The Glossy 50 honors the year’s biggest changemakers across fashion and beauty. More from the series →
The Innovators: These thought leaders advanced their respective industries with groundbreaking products or ideas.
Few brands have managed to dominate a market like Dyson, with its Supersonic hair dryer launched April 2016. In its first year after launch, it became the bestselling hair dryer in the U.K. and greatly contributed to the company’s overall sales boost of 45%. The product, which now retails between $400-$430, has become a social media darling. On TikTok, the hashtag #dysonhair currently has 1.5 billion views.
“The humble hair dryer hadn’t been redesigned for decades when we launched the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer. Since then, we’ve seen a renewed energy and focus across the global hair-care category as others have seen the opportunities,” said James Dyson, founder and chief engineer at Dyson. “Meanwhile, we remain focused on our research and better understanding hair types and how to maintain hair health.”
Seven years post the launch, Dyson — best known for its cordless vacuums — is building on the momentum of its hero product and expanding its hair-care offerings. In November 2022, the company announced that it’s dedicating over $885 million to developing 20 new beauty products that will launch over the next four years. The investment will also contribute to opening up new Dyson labs across the globe.
“We are committed to solving more problems [in hair care], and our investment into beauty will allow our engineers to continue to develop exciting, new and disruptive technologies,” said Dyson.
He added, “We have a major testing program underway and increasingly use Al, developed in-house, to interpret and analyze image and performance data to add value to something as subjective as style.”
The first new product to come out of the company’s expanded hair focus was the Dyson Airstrait straightener, launched in May. The tool uses air rather than hot plates to both straighten and dry hair, preventing any heat damage. According to Dyson, the product sold out within a week. The company declined to share annual sales figures for 2023, however, in 2022, Dyson reported $7.8 billion in revenue.
At the root of Dyson’s hair-care category fandom has always been the innovation behind the products. Dyson said it took six years to perfect the technology behind the company’s Airstrait launch. Also this year, Dyson launched two attachments for its Airwrap multi-styler: a large round volumizing brush and a diffuser.
Click here to see all 2023 Glossy 50 honorees.
