I tried James Dyson's new hair oil. Is it as good as his hairdryer?

Times

18 hours ago

He's the British megabrain whose £300 vacuum cleaner-inspired hairdryer put lesser rivals to shame but can James Dyson convince us to switch up the products we use to nourish our locks? The inventor has dabbled with hair products before, in the form of his Chitosan styling cream, but his latest innovation is perhaps the buzziest beauty launch of the year so far.
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Dyson Omega hair oil is a blend of seven omega-rich oils, one of which is sourced from sunflowers grown on his Lancashire farm. Provenance has long been a buzzword in the food world; Dyson appears to be banking on it catching on in — and disrupting — the beauty aisles. It will cost £45.99 for what looks like a 30ml glass perfume bottle and is part of a new range that includes a £59.99 leave-in conditioning spray. They won't be launched until August 27 but I managed to secure both products before their global unveiling and I'm putting each to the test.
First I spritz the leave-in spray on after a shampoo and a quick towel-dry. It's lightweight and silky. I find that the knots come away easily when I then run my hairbrush through it: big tick. There's no sticky residue and, even damp, my hair feels soft and workable. It smells nice but not remarkable. That's no bad thing — there's no hair health science behind a nice scent.
I'd happily leave it there on a normal day — air-dried hair is a bit cooler than full blow-outs at the mo — but I'm keen to see how the spray reacts with heat. With my usual finger zhuzhing, paddle brush and hairdryer handiwork, it dries straight, smooth and with a nice bit of volume. In short, it does its job.
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Next, the hair oil. It can be used on damp hair but I'm more interested in what it adds post-styling. I work 3-4 drops through my hair, paying particular attention to the ends and more frizz-prone undergrowth. Again, it's effective: my hair looks shiny and smooth, and isn't weighed down. There are no flyaways. My husband pays it a compliment as we pass in the kitchen. However, I'm not entirely convinced it's transformative. I suspect it's only Dyson fanatics who won't think twice about parting with nearly £50 for it.
Still, given that over the past decade Dyson's hairstyling tools have so thoroughly crowbarred themselves into blow-dry routines globally — the Supersonic hairdryer (£329) and Airwrap curler (£400) in particular — and are the bestselling hair electricals at John Lewis, there are plenty of those fanatics around.
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