Sir James Dyson first came for the vacuum. Then the blow-dryer. Then the curling iron. Then the straightener. And now, he’s coming for his own designs. His latest — a straightener and blow-dryer combined, called the Airstrait — is meant to cut down the time it takes to do your hair in half. Could it replace your? “It could,” says Dyson, the billionaire who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2006 and is known as the Steve Jobs of hair. “And it’s quicker.
The morning before the launch I sat at a breakfast table full of beauty editors playing a guessing game of what could be next: “Maybe hot rollers?” one said. Dyson launches are always a secret that everyone wants to know about. The engineers are not even allowed to tell their partners. “They’re absolutely not allowed to,” says Dyson, laughing. “So when we launch, it’s a great relief.”
One of the most unique characteristics of all Dyson hair products are the shocking results on all hair types. In 2023, it shouldn’t be shocking, but the unfortunate reality is that most hair tools aren’t universal and they leave Black women in the dark because it’s a challenge to tackle more coarse hair. For Dyson, it’s a challenge he finds globally and one he enjoys taking on, in fact, it’s where he starts the development of his tools.