Straight Up

Put down the dryer. Dyson’s newest device can give you a sleek blowout right out of the shower.

- MARGAUX ANBOUBA

I signed two nondisclosure agreements, flew seven hours from New York City to London, and took a two-hour bus ride to bring you this story. Welcome to Malmesbury: population 7,181, and home to D9, one of the biggest innovation centers in the beauty space.

The D refers to Dyson, the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner and the brand that made airwrap a verb. D9 is just one small part of the company’s 75-acre technology campus. At Dyson’s invitation, I visit an acidic-smelling room filled with millions of dollars’ worth of 3-D printers; meet a scientist who grew his hair down to his shoulders to self-test everything he’s developing; and eat in the company cafeteria, where there is a pizza oven enameled in the exact same shade of fuchsia as the brand’s hot tools.

For the last six years, “Project 553,” now known to the world as the Dyson Airstrait ($499; dyson.com), was coming to life here. Former jet engine and automobile engineers worked on the handheld tool, which went through thousands and thousands of prototypes—all made on those 3-D printers—and harnessed 25 years of airflow research started by the brand’s founder, Sir James Dyson. (Dyson was knighted in 2007, and in 2019, Queen Elizabeth II was photographed at Buckingham Palace with a Dyson fan in the background—which proceeded to sell out almost instantly.)