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The Dyson Supersonic Revolutionizes Hair Drying

I’m dating myself by admitting that the first two things that popped into my head upon eyeing the Dyson Supersonic hair dryer was: 1. I want to replace our loud and heavy hair dryer ASAP, and 2. I wish it would play this song while blowing hair dry. 80’s flashback rap classics aside, Dyson has engineered something remarkably novel in the hair appliance category, miniaturizing a motor similar to their Air Multiplier fans and integrating it into a small, yet powerful handheld appliance.

If you’ve ever stood in front of a Dyson Air Multiplier, you know despite the absence of any visible fan blades, the units can put out a significant amount of airflow with precision. The secret is the company’s digital motor, a quiet and efficient jet turbine of sorts which produces consistent sheets of air rather than the choppy bursts of ebb and flow of air produced by traditional fans.

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The V9 motor us capable of 110,000 revolutions per minute, producing a powerful, yet quieter hair drying experience.

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Dyson invested $71 million to scale the same motor technology into what eventually became the Dyson digital motor V9, a 27mm wide, 13 impeller blade capable of blowing 13 liters of air per second at a very precise width of just over an inch. That sort of power and control is additionally partnered with a smart temperature sensor designed to monitor and control the heat output 20x per second, with the purpose of preventing hair damage sometimes associated with overly aggressive hair dryers. Dyson engineers also moved their motor mechanism into the handle, resulting in a compact and lightweight hair dryer easier to handle and orbit around the head while in use.

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At $399.99 the Dyson Supersonic qualifies as 1st adopter expensive. But its premium quality extends to the inclusion of a handsome carrying case.

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All this glorious progress comes at a price, with the Dyson Supersonic announced with a $399.99 price tag, with reservations being taken online, with later in-store availability exclusively at Sephora this Fall.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.