LONDON — James Dyson has managed to tap into homes, hair salons and grocery stores with his technological innovations, but his next venture is his hardest challenge yet — he’s launching hairstyling products.
Chitosan is the name of the collection of four types of a pre-style cream for straight, wavy, curly and coily hair, as well as a post-style serum sourced from the chitosan of oyster mushrooms.
Dyson argues his latest product is, like all his others, technology.
“We’ve been making these [products] and studying hair science for a long time now. We wanted something that holds your [hair]style whilst having a natural look that’s soft and silky, not the sort of crunchy thing [that’s out on shelves],” he said in an interview from the Dyson base in Malmesbury, a small town in southwest England.
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At 77 years old with a billion-dollar empire, Dyson still cares about his hair. He gets his hair cut by British celebrity hairstylist and salon owner Larry King.
The Chitosan products have a hand cream texture to them that soaks into the hair and hands without that post-grubby slime.
The bottles are refillable with a pump feature that dispenses 0.22-ml every time. The products retail at 49 British pounds for the full-size bottles and 44 British pounds for the refill. They have been developed to work in tandem with Dyson hair tools, but can also be used on their own.
“The goal is that this will help to bring in new members to the Dyson family and [introduce] people who may not necessarily be using our machines. This is an entry point for them to be able to experience the world of Dyson,” said Justina Mejia-Montane, global head of product innovation and packaging development at Dyson’s beauty division.
In 2012, Dyson invested 50 million pounds to develop its first hair care tool — a process that took four years. Since then the business has hired Kathleen Pierce, a former senior vice president of global transformation and channel innovation at Estée Lauder Cos. in November 2022 to head up Dyson’s beauty division as president.
“To some, it might seem a bit of a step change to enter into this side of the business, but for us, it’s a bit of a natural extension,” Pierce said.
It’s not lost on her that the launch will make Dyson become the outsider in a saturated market.
“Being the outsider is our comfort zone, we feel good in that space. This product is very considered and it’s about addressing different hair types. At Dyson, we have the ability to test in a lab bit by bit and [bring] those parts together, as well as immediately taking it into a torture test,” she added.
Five years ago, Dyson conducted a global hair health survey internally to better understand what issues they needed to be tackling. That survey then went into development with the company’s engineers and Dyson’s community of ambassadors and professionals.
It’s been a busy year so far for Dyson.
In February, the British technology brand unveiled its latest innovation — the Supersonic r.
It’s an evolution of the brand’s Dyson Supersonic hair dryer, which launched in 2016, but this one comes with a catch: it’s for professionals only, including celebrity hairstylists and salon owners.
The shape has shifted, too, from a lollipop-looking dryer to something more resembling a lowercase “r.”