Now Dyson is engineering our hair care, with 2 styling products for flexible hold. At £49 a bottle, are they really another stroke of genius? We tried them along with the latest heat tool
Just when you thought your hair care routine couldn’t get any more ‘Dyson’ (Supersonic hairdryer, check. Airwrap, check. Corrale straightener, check. Second mortgage, check) the engineering upstart now does hair styling products. Chitosan is the name of the new Dyson hair care range and there are two products so far: a Pre-style Cream and a Post-Style Serum for all hair types and textures.
Like the tools, the price is premium at £49 (£44 for the eco-friendly refill). The products are presented in a stylish precision-dosed purple and pink pump dispenser (that looks not unlike Trinny London's refillable skincare).
It comes on the same day that Dyson teases its new Airwrap ID multi-styler, an improvement on the original Airwrap in that it's app-connected and programmable to remember your favourite settings. It will set you back £499.99 when it's available at the end of September.
The new launches are available online but you can try before you buy at Dyson Demo Stores in London, Kent, Manchester and Birmingham. The styling creams have 15ml mini versions too.
Chitosan is designed to go with Dyson’s hair tools (although you can use without), which will be welcome, as a frequent criticism of the electronics has been that they aren’t as good at setting a lasting style as a hotter tool. Their USP, after all, is avoiding heat-damage. Could Chitosan help you get better styling results from your Dyson hardware?
As for Dyson beauty, this is only the beginning. There is “a lot more in the beauty pipeline to come” we’re told.
Why is Dyson making hair care?
One might assume that Dyson would go the ‘white label’ route, commissioning a lab to put something together for them. Their own UK production plant is surely all nuts, bolts and screws? But no, they have thrown themselves into beauty ingredient R&D with the same problem-solving gusto and attention to innovation as they have for vacuum cleaners and fans – as if holding the perfect style was on a par with cycloning up your dog hair. They make Chitosan themselves at their own UK factory.
What do they know about plant-based ingredients, though? News to me – Dyson is also one of the UK’s biggest farmers, particularly of peas and strawberries (look for Dyson strawberries next time you are in M&S). When it comes to veg they have form.
What is in Dyson Chitosan hair care?
While you won’t find strawberries or peas in the haircare (yet, but as I said, more to come), you will find oyster mushrooms, or more specifically a molecule derived from them called chitosan (hence the name). This is what gives fungi structure and flexibility – two qualities that we want for our hair. Chitosan is also found in skincare as a moisturising ingredient.
Dyson has done a fancy bit of engineering, which they have called ‘Triodetic technology’. It’s a way of shaping the chitosan into a triangular structure (triangles being the strongest architectural shapes, as seen in the geodesic domes of the Epcot Centre of the Eden Project) so that the product can wrap around individual hairs in a mesh, rather than sticking strands together to hold a style. The result is a flexible hold with no crispiness or stiffness.
A light cream that goes on to wet hair to condition and give hold. It claims to give you up to 50 per cent less frizz. Choose from one of four for your hair type: light or rich conditioning for straight-to-wavy hair. Or light or rich conditioning for curly-to-coily hair.
A serum to use after drying, and between washes, on dry hair for hydration and hold. Hyaluronic acid acts, unusually, as a moisture shield in up to 80 per cent humidity. It also promises up to 50 per cent less frizz.
Is Dyson Chitosan hair care silicone-free?
No. It has what they call ‘high-performance silicones’ which don't feel like they are overly coating your hair. I certainly didn’t get that silicone ‘slip’ feel when I tried it. It uses a variety of weights of oil (castor, argan etc) for smoothing.
Does Dyson Chitosan have heat protection?
Not officially: they don’t market the products as such because, in theory, you don’t need a heat protector if you are using Dyson tools, because they don’t damage your hair. But they do contain oils such as castor and argan, which are naturally heat-protecting.
What happened when we tried Chitosan and Airwrap ID?
At Dyson HQ pre-launch, I was allowed to sniff the Chitosan range and to see videos of boffins in white coats putting hair under tension tests, so they can make claims such as ‘twice the hold’. And I’ve had celebrity hairstylist and Dyson ambassador Chris Long the Pre-Style Cream on my hair with the new Airwrap ID.
There was only time for Chris to demo two curls in my hair, which he then swiftly removed, so I didn’t leave looking like an extra from Little House on the Prairie. Because of that, I couldn't immediately test the staying power but I did like how both serums felt weightless as if I wasn’t wearing styling products at all.
The fresh scent was not something I expected (was I expecting engine oil?) but they've gone to the effort of choosing a scent with top, middle and base notes to add to the premium experience.
I've since been given samples and run them through my usual hair styling routine. I didn't notice that my hair was necessarily smoother than with any other styling product, but what surprised me was that the following day, my style - including a couple of waves - was pretty much intact after a night's sleep and yoga session. I put that down to the Post Style Serum, which was good on definition and hold but with absolutely no clumping or crispiness: my clear winner.
The precision pump dosing means that (once you’ve worked out how much to use) you’ll never overdose. At this price, you won’t want to waste any. Whether I’ll get the bottom of my pot and find that it’s £49 well spent, watch this space.
I loved the Airwrap ID, particularly being able to see each curl timed for me on the app. There's an automatic cool shot at the end - previously you had to be done manually. A hair stylist told me that the trick to creating lasting curls with the original Airwrap was finding the right product to use with it, to get the curls to last. Is Chitosan that thing? I think it might be.
Buy Dyson Chitosan £49, refills £44 now and the Airwrap ID £499.99 from end September