Sir James Dyson: Why I Just Completely Reinvented The Common Hairdryer

Common household gadgets that don't work properly have always caught the attention of Dyson founder Sir James Dyson. The latest device to snag some of the well-known engineer's design magic? Your noisy, inefficient, hair-destroying hairdryer that probably cost $15 at the local Walmart (WMT) - Get Report . This week, Dyson brought its $399 "Supersonic" hairdryer to the $1.9 billion U.S. hair care market. Available first in Sephora and then other retailers later this month (it has been on sale in the U.K. and Japan), the pricey Supersonic is everything a cheap hairdryer isn't in large part because the company spent $67 million over four years to develop it. That development process included computer analysis of how the heat of a common hairdryer ruins a person's hair and various real-world tests, such as closing a drawer on the Supersonic to see if it broke (it didn't) and dropping it in a bucket of water to see if it stopped working (it didn't, and no fires were started). "We developed high speed electric motors, and we knew we could make a very quiet and very small motor and a hairdryer you hold above your head, so you want something quiet, light and that doesn't damage your hair," Dyson told TheStreet in an interview at an event this week. TheStreet's Brian Sozzi has details from Wall Street.