Project 07 · AirFlux
Year Sept 2021 to Dec 2021
Context University of Edinburgh
Role Sole designer · teardown, redesign, CAD

A hair dryer with no handle.

A redesign of the Remington dryer that removes the bulky handle, lets the user grip the air tube directly, and reopens for repair.

Redesign Object Teardown Circularity Design for Manufacture Design for Repair
AirFlux, a compact handle-free hair dryer in matte grey polypropylene with a black silicone grip sleeve around the air outlet tube
§ 01 Problem eighty years, no change

The hair dryer has barely changed in eighty years. It has also barely gotten better.

A 1939 Bakelite Princess and a 2021 Remington sit on the same arc: same handle, heater, form, shortcomings. A teardown showed how much was inherited, not designed.

Princess hand-held Bakelite hair dryer made in England c. 1939, mottled brown moulded bakelite
1939 · Princess, Bakelite Mottled brown moulded plastic. England.

In the National Museums Scotland collection.

A modern Remington hair dryer, white plastic, with a bulky handle and rounded body, photographed for the teardown project
2021 · Remington, Polypropylene Same handle, same form. Bigger and glued shut.

The teardown subject.

62%
of surveyed users wished their hair dryer was lighter and smaller
69%
said it was difficult to open and fix when broken
§ 02 Teardown what's actually inside

Opening it up to see what was being defended.

Take it apart, label every component, identify materials and process, let the findings drive the brief.

took it all apart A photograph of the Remington hair dryer fully disassembled, with each component laid out: motor, fan, heating coil, plastic case halves, wiring, screws and grills
Every component pulled, photographed, identified by material and process. Watch the teardown ↗
  1. 01

    Glued shut.

    The case holds together with adhesive, not screws. Once it breaks, you replace it.

  2. 02

    A handle bigger than its job.

    Dominates the form, accounts for most bulk and weight.

  3. 03

    Heavier than it needs to be.

    Walls thicker than needed. The weight tires the wrist in minutes.

  4. 04

    Complex inside, basic outside.

    Motor, fan, heater, wiring, insulation, grills, packed into a casing that hides them.

  5. 05

    Inherited, not designed.

    Unchanged since 1939. Nobody asked if it still earns its place.

The argument

Two moves come out of the teardown. Cut the handle. Open the case.

The handle makes the dryer heavy, bulky, locked to one grip. Cut it, and four findings collapse into one move. The fifth: the case is glued shut, unreachable when broken. Swap glue for screws, and it's repairable again.

§ 03 Redesign grip the tube

The hair dryer, handle removed.

Three concepts tested via semantic differentials. Handle-free won decisively: most comfortable, most inviting. That form is AirFlux.

A page of design sketches exploring different hair dryer forms, with the handle-free concept circled as the chosen direction
Form exploration, the handle-free concept circled.
Move 01

No handle.

Everything below the air outlet tube is removed. Motor, fan, heater sit in line, no detour through a grip.

Move 02

Grip the tube.

Holding the air outlet directly: smaller footprint, lighter, and the grip rotates freely.

User testing

Picked from three.

Ten users compared three concepts. Handle-free scored highest on comfort, intuitiveness, likelihood of use.

§ 04 Two fixes heat and access

Removing the handle created two new problems. Both got solved.

The outlet gets hot, so you can't grip it bare. A changed form meant a changed casing, the chance to make one the user could open.

Multiple silicone sleeve prototypes tested for ergonomic grip on the air outlet tube, with different shapes and grip patterns
Fix 01 · Thermal sleeve

A silicone sleeve over the hot part.

Thermal-insulating silicone wraps the part the user grips. Multiple prototypes were tested for a profile that's safe and rests naturally in the hand.

Exploded diagram of the AirFlux casing with circular callouts showing the silicone sleeve, the screws joining the two case halves, the air outlet, and the mesh detail of the sleeve
Fix 02 · Repairability

Screws, not glue.

Standard screws hold the case together, so the user can open it, replace a heater or fan, and close it back up.

§ 05 Materials six parts, six choices

Six materials, two case halves, one existing mechanism.

AirFlux is designed for mass production. Materials follow function, the case is built for injection moulding in two halves, and the Remington's mechanism slots in unchanged.

every part earns its place A render of the AirFlux hair dryer with annotation lines pointing to each component and labelling its material: polypropylene case, silicone sleeve, aluminium mesh inlet, polycarbonate buttons, stainless steel grill cover, silicone cord rubber
Six labelled components, each earning its place.
Technical drawing of the AirFlux case in two moulded halves, showing the joining seams and surface details required for injection moulding
Moulded case details

The case is designed in two halves for injection moulding, the standard process for dryer housings.

Cross-section diagram of the AirFlux casing showing the Remington motor, fan, heating coil, and wiring fitted inside the redesigned housing
Mechanism fit

The existing Remington motor, fan, heater, and wiring tuck into the new housing unmodified. The redesign sits atop a working mechanism, not in place of one.