Dyson launches its first hair straightener: the Corrale

Dyson has just launched a new addition to its haircare range – the Corrale straightener. It’s a cordless device with a magnetic charging cable. Its lithium-ion battery lasts for 30 minutes and recharges in an hour and ten minutes. It comes in two colours: the now familiar Dyson fuschia or purple. You can buy one from the Dyson site. It’ll set you back £400.

Dyson product launches are always fun for the engineering stories that come with them. The ‘cyclone technology’ that many of its vacuum cleaners use is a centrifugal separator that very efficiently gets the dust out of the air and into the vacuum cleaner’s bin. 

The company’s Airwrap harnessed the Coanda effect to style hair without using as much damaging heat. ( The Coanda effect describes the way that gas or liquids flowing near a surface tend to follow the shape of the surface. It explains why you’re going to have a very bad time if you try pouring anything from a vessel without a spout as said liquid ‘sticks’ to the side of the container and ends up all over your counter.)

This time around, Dyson’s big claim is that it straightens hair with only half the damage caused by ordinary straighteners. As you’ll know if your aim in the mornings is to get mirror-flat hair, the more you straighten your waves, the more likely it is that the heated plates of your straighteners will cause damage to the shafts of the hair.

The technology behind Dyson’s claim comprises flexible plates that mould to fit the section of hair being straightened. This means that the correct amount of tension is applied to all of the strands, so that the straightening effect is improved without the need to use as much heat.

The company says: “Flat hair irons apply tension and heat only on the thickest part of the hair tress, the strands at the edges are not clamped, leaving them slack, unheated and leaving flyaways. It requires multiple passes on the same section of hair tress to give an even look, by which time excess heat may have caused reduced strength and less gloss.” 

The plates are made of a manganese copper alloy to maximise thermal conduction and flexibility. There are 15 micro-hinged facets on each plate and each plate is precision machined to 65 microns thick (which is approximately the width of a human hair) to adapt to the shape of the lock of hair being straightened. The plates are tourmaline-edged to produce an ionising effect that’ll reduce static.    

Dyson claims to have spent £25 million on the Corrale and has been developing the product for seven years. Engineers working on the product grew their own hair and those that couldn’t used wigs to test straightening technology on themselves. According to the press release, one engineer even straightened his beard.

The Corrale has three heat settings and uses the same heat technology as other Dyson hair products, measuring the temperature with much greater accuracy than rival products.

The Corrale costs £400 and is available to buy from sites including Dyson. It has an airplane-safe setting, so the battery can be removed and it can be brought on a flight in cabin luggage.  

Are you a Dyson fan – or do you want one? To check out the latest and greatest deals on Dyson products, have a look at our round-up of Dyson discounts.