You can learn a lot about a person by looking at how they spend their morning. After all, how you start your day speaks volumes to not just the kind of things you’re into, but what kind of person you really are. Are you an early riser who likes to leisurely ease into their day? Is it hyper-efficient, or the one time of day you steal away for yourself?
In our “Mornings by the Numbers” series, we’ve collaborated with Dyson to illustrate how their new, practically weightless, and basically Nobel Prize-worthy Supersonic Hair Dryer is changing how we do mornings, by the numbers. After all, with drying time whittled down to mere minutes (on average six times faster than other models on the market), one question remains: what’s a girl to do with all of that extra time?
Jen Atkin is busy. Like “Hobby? What’s a hobby?” busy. Not that she’s complaining—we don’t think we’ve ever seen anyone so passionate and always on about what they do for a living (and Atkin does it all). She somehow manages to balance her duties as a stylist to a long list of clients you’re probably already well-acquainted with—scroll through her IG if you’re not—on top of developing and promoting new products for her hair-care line, Ouai, and running her own content site, Mane Addicts. Somewhere in between, she managed to come on board as an ambassador (and occasional guinea pig) for Dyson’s new Supersonic dryer. How does she do it all? We had the same question—here’s what we learned.
Jen Atkin’s Mornings by the Numbers
Wake-up time: 6 AM
Daily workout class: 1 hour
English Breakfast Tea: 1 cup
Daily supplements: 2 (a probiotic + Vitamin B12)
Out the door in: 30 minutes
Scheduling apps that keep her going: 3
Makeup routine: 15 minutes
Dyson Supersonic Blow-drying & Styling: 15 minutes*
“The first thing I do in the morning is kiss my husband, because I don’t get to see him a lot. Then, I have to have English breakfast tea. I go into my kitchen, I make tea, sometimes a smoothie or shake, and then I check emails. Two or three times a year, I do Dr. Lipman’s Be Well cleanse. I take a probiotic and I take vitamin B12 every day.
“If I’m trying to go work out, it’s gotta be a 6 AM wake-up. I go to Pilates, I love Barry’s Bootcamp, I love Modelfit, which just opened by my house. I like to mix it up. I use ClassPass, so I never get bored.”
“When we’re traveling, it’s jet-lag city, so I usually start with coffee. If I’m in town for New York or Paris Fashion Week, we usually work on 6 or 7 girls a day; if it’s red carpet awards season, same thing. It’s all about coordinating with my team and making sure we have good communication. We use Trello for our to-do list, so we can all share it; we have a shared iCal so we all know where everyone is; we use Slack for communicating, jotting down notes. I’m a tech nerd, so I like to use whatever we can to help us out.
“If I’m in L.A., my morning is usually going to set, deciding what the look is, whether it’s a magazine cover or a commercial, and just really working long hours. The days that I’m not on set or in the salon, I go into the office downtown.”
“Honestly, I am the last person I care about, so I do my makeup in the car on my way to work. I’m usually out the door in 30 minutes. I grab a snack, get my computer, all my chargers, my Snapchat spectacles, and head out the door. I have a really quick routine. For hair, I use Ouai Dry Shampoo Foam, and I use our Ouai Wave Spray if my hair’s fresh out of the shower. I use the Dyson diffuser most days. Sometimes I use the nozzle and have my hand as a diffuser, and then I use the Ouai Matte Pomade in my hands.
“I first started working with Dyson over a year and a half ago. I got to see it at the very beginning. Honestly, I was a little skeptical because it was so small, I didn’t think it would actually be as powerful. But once I actually plugged it in, I was like, ‘I have to have this!’
“The Supersonic was something that’s so innovative in a category that has not been improved on in so long, and I feel like out of any company to do it, Dyson is it. I immediately fell in love with the aesthetic of it; I love the design, how quiet it is. I actually went to the Malmesbury headquarters and met the engineers. It was amazing!”
“The first question people ask about is the price point. ‘Is it really worth how much it is?’ You only buy so many dryers in your lifetime, why not have the best of the best? It has an intelligent heat control, and the filter is now in the handle, and it lights up when it needs to be cleaned. I don’t know one person, professional hairstylist or otherwise, that has ever cleaned the filter of their hair dryer. It’s disgusting! It gets so clogged; and the engineers explained to me, [at that stage] airflow isn’t happening anymore. Once that gets clogged, you’re trapping in heat, so it’s almost damaging your hair even more.
“The magnetic nozzles are also really important. The styling concentrator and the smoothing concentrator makes it easier for me to explain to my clients what they’re good for. It has an actual protector around the nozzles, so you never burn your fingers. As a hair stylist, that’s amazing! And then the diffuser! I think the diffuser’s back, I’m so obsessed. If anything, a diffuser is another tool in getting girls in and out of the bathroom faster. I think we think of it as for these ’80s big curls, but you can actually get a really cool natural bend using a little bit of wave spray, a volumizing spray, and the diffuser.”
The Dyson Supersonic, by the Numbers
2,000: Scientists & engineers involved in the development of the Dyson Supersonic (!)
$71 million: Cost of research & development of the dryer (!!!)
6x: motor is on average (six times) faster than other dryer’s motors
3x: volume of air drawn into the motor compared to normal dryers (thanks in part to Dyson’s patented Air Multiplier™ technology—basically this allows it to stream out high-pressure jets of air)
20: times a second (!) the dryer’s glass bead thermistor measures the temperature (the data is then sent to the dryer’s microprocessor, which controls the patented heating element).
4: Temperature settings (high, medium, low, constant cold)
3: Airflow settings
3: Magnetic attachments
16: Patents pending on additional magnetic attachments
*Results may vary depending on hair type.