James built a $28b fortune after inventing Dyson vacuums. Here is his next radical idea

Technology giant Dyson is raising eyebrows with perhaps its most left-field product launch to date, and the first in its 30-plus-year history to not require electricity.

Hair serums.

James Dyson: “We like to learn things for ourselves and find new ways.”

It’s a bold move for a company that has built its reputation on bagless vacuums and, more recently, hairdryers and headphones. There’s a long history of companies that have ventured too far out of their core competency, with some eventually paying the price and falling into irrelevance.

For James Dyson, however, the foray into styling products shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The company’s founder and chief executive, who, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has a fortune of $US18.4 billion ($28.8 billion), said in an interview that Dyson had been researching hair health and associated problems over the past 12 years.

“We know from our research that most Australian women are not happy with the hairstyling product they have purchased,” he said.

Dyson’s new hair serum range.

“Most retention products use simple polymers in their formulations, which create a brittle, glue-like hold between fibres that act to lock the strands of hair and impart that crunchy feel that I am sure we have all experienced.”

“We’ve engineered something that works differently. It started with research into new and different ingredients. This led us to chitosan, a complex macromolecule derived from oyster mushrooms.”

The range is called Dyson Chitosan, and it includes a pre-style cream for wet hair and a post-style serum once styling is done. Both retail for $89, and refills are available for $79. The products will be available from August 23.

The company has form in experimenting with out-there innovations, some of which have yet to see the light of day.

In 2019, Dyson announced it would design and manufacture an electric vehicle, plans that were scuppered later that year because they weren’t “commercially viable”. Dyson nearly went up against the likes of BMW and Tesla, and it’s finding itself now in 2024 up against the likes of Sephora and Mecca. A prototype of that car now resides at company headquarters.

The company is also now in the headphones space. In 2023, it released Dyson Zone, a headphone-air purifier combo. Its latest noise-cancelling headphones, dubbed Dyson OnTrac, are coming later this month.

James Dyson said that while his company was now headquartered in Singapore, it was also one of Britain’s largest farmers and had more than 350,000 acres of working land. The company’s research and development operations remain in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, in the UK. Dyson employs about 14,000 people globally, and didn’t need to recruit many new employees to develop the serums, according to the chief executive.

“Generally, we like to learn things for ourselves and find new ways,” he said.

“During the process, our engineers uncovered frustrations with existing products, and one outcome of that was the development of the precision applicator. We wanted to take the guesswork out of styling so it dispenses precisely 0.22ml every time, preventing product wastage or overuse.

“We have also ensured the product is refillable, and the NFC chip enables easy access to educational content and styling tips.”

Dyson’s electric vehicle never saw the light of day.

The executive said he personally tested each of Dyson’s products himself, including the new serums.

“The observant may have noticed that I have been growing out my hair … Now you know why,” he said.

For sceptics, and there will be a few, James Dyson’s message is simple: just try it.

“When we launched Dyson Supersonic [hairdryer], it felt like a leap,” he said. “But we understood the high performance of the product and hoped people would feel the benefit.”

As for other potential future verticals, however, Dyson is staying mum.

“There are plenty more problems to solve,” he said.

“In beauty, we are always deepening our understanding of the science of hair and developing technology to improve styling for people with all hair types. I’m very excited about the potential of new ingredients, and we are continuing to grow the links between Dyson technology and our farms.

“Watch this space.”

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