How Dyson Went From Fancy Vacuum Maker to Beauty Titan

When Ben Hogan arrived at Dyson Ltd. in 2015 after trying to design the world’s fastest bicycle, he was a mechanical engineer used to working, as he puts it, on nuts, bolts and plastics. One of his first projects at Dyson didn’t involve its famous high-tech vacuum cleaners, but women’s hair. He developed a now-patented power cord for the Airwrap hair styler: It rotates with the tool, solving the perennial tangling problem.

As Dyson has leaned into beauty, committing some $667 million to research and development over a four-year period, so has Hogan. Most recently he found himself trying to figure out how to cold-press sunflowers in his kitchen and debating the humidity-prevention properties of various oils, both exercises to help formulate Dyson’s new hair-care products, which he now uses on his beard. “James”—as in Sir James Dyson, the company’s 78-year-old inventor-founder and chief engineer—“likes to go into unknown places and try to do things differently,” says Hogan, a design manager. “We didn’t know anything about cosmetics, but sometimes you’ve just got to go in and give it a try.”