Share: Tell us what you love and hate about Dry Shampoos!
my answer: The SMELL! They’re often SO strong and cloying that it makes it hard for me to use them. I love that they extend time between a wash if you don’t have time/are lazy.
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Love Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray in lieu of dry shampoo.. pretty much the same thing on one level, but less build up and gunk.
Hate the smell of most dry shampoos as well. Yuck.
AMEN! Have you tried the Oribe Soft Dry Confitioner? It CLEANS too! It’s my #1 HG Hair product!
I as well frequently use Oribe Texturizing Spray. I like it, but it smells strong! I also like Bed Head Oh Bee Hive! and Bed Head Rockaholic Dirty Secret. Oh Bee Hive! is great because it gives my hair mattified volumr. Neither of the two Bed Head dry shampoos smell too strong or cast too much of a white film on my hair/scalp. I like using dry shampoo because I have dry hair and overwashing would be horrible for my hair. Dry shampoo has helped make my hair healthier than it has been in years.
HATE the white cast that the non-colored ones leave… Otherwise I think dry shampoo is great, both for skipping a wash and for adding some volume and texture.
Applying the dry shampoo at night can help with the white-cast issue! Though that means more product on your pillow, I find it really helps my hair & just switch/ wash pillow cases.
Hey Christine, you should give the Rene Furterer and Klorane ones a go! Those don’t smell all that strong at all!
I think I have both of those… definitely the Klorane, though.
I use Batiste in cherry… it’s not as sickly sweet as most I’ve tried… and I like the batiste formula.
I *really* like the idea, but I’m kind of afraid to try thim as I hear a lot about white casts, strong scents, stickines… And of course even the little travel/sample sizes od Batiste here aren’t super cheap. i mean, it’s not a life necessity 😉 But someday I’d like to try one, LOL!
I hate that a lot of them have aluminum starch in them. Why would I want aluminum all over my head??? Ugh. GOT 2B Rockin’ It Dry Shampoo doesn’t have it plus it’s a bargain, so I use that.
I don’t use it very often, but when I do, I mix my own dry shampoo by shaking the following together in a baggie:
equal parts starch (corn, arrowroot, tapioca, rice – usually tapioca) and
22% Dutch processed cocoa powder
a few drops of essential oil or a couple sprays of perfume optional
which works well for how dark and red-toned my hair is. I keep it in a parmesan shaker, apply 2 shakes at a time bent over the edge of the tub, then brush through to decide if I need more. It doesn’t stain my scalp, ‘fall out’ during the day, or present any other issues aside from sometimes making my nails a bit dirty-looking. I used to add essential oils but no longer bother as smelling a little like chocolate is fine.
This works as well for me as any commercial dry shampoo I’ve sampled. Dry shampoos started out not being much more than the above, but, the field has exploded lately so there may be new technology. I have thick, medium-dark hair that leans oily, which is probably ideal for this method and it might not do so well for fine hair. Also, I tried using just plain starch at first but found I had to brush it in so much, to eliminate any ashiness/white cast, that I might as well just have washed my hair to begin with. Not sure if, if I had lighter hair, it would blend in better on its own.
I like them! My favortie one is Bed Head Dirty Secret!
I bleach my hair, so they’re my best friend. I didn’t wash my hair often to start with due to the fact that it’s a curly/wavy hybrid, but when you bleach naturally brown hair, it becomes even more of a prerogative to allow your natural oils to permeate the hair as much as possible.
I don’t actually find the lot of them all that strong smelling, but I’ve only used Bedhead and NYM, which just have a fairly neutral chemical smell that dissipates pretty quickly. (The latter is only $4, so it’s not a wallet abuser if you want to try one.) I do think you have to be careful with over applying if you have very dark brown or black hair – it can build up and create a hair-spray like whitish cast. I generally only apply it right at the scalp, underneath layers instead of throughout the whole head of hair.
Dry shampoos .. all kings all brands .. make my scalp itchy. I wash my hair every other day and on the no wash day, I’ll shampoo my bangs (as I need to re-style them due to the most obnoxious cow lick). I may spritz my 2nd day hair with a body spray to fresh up the scent, but that’s it.
Monica.
I attempted to use a dry shampoo on a geologic field study this weekend in the Mojave desert. I don’t think it really helped out that much. It was an ipsy sample one though. Is be willing to give another a try.
Dry shampoo is a multitalented product! I especially love dry conditioner, though, my preference being the one from Oribe! My hair can’t get by without it! What it does is magic to hair thst naturally mattes up! Safely allowing a comb to go through intensely gnarly knots! My favorite dry shampoo powder is most definitely Oscar Blandi Pronto, not the spray.. This is great to absorb grease and really works well & smells lovely! Bumble & Bumble Pret A Powder is a divine spot on powder that is lovely to work with, and Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray is another HG. The Oribe smell intoxicatingly great and leave my hair in better condition! Ah, the smell., but it’s really how handy it is for me and my hair struggles, so this is a total RAVE from me! 😀
I love the volume and the faint brightening “white cast” because I’m blond. I like the affect aerosols like Batiste give because it seems to get rid of more oils, but I worry about all I’m inhaling…and they’re all so smelly. Blow Pro makes one that’s unscented and non-aerosol, so it has been very handy for travel-on flights. I notice though that it’s first ingredient is corn starch, and people use cornstarch in homemade dry shampoos, so I must try it!
I love that I can get an extra day out my hair, and use them for volume.
I hate that they leave my hair looking a little gray and some do smell horrible – or leave my hair sticky.
The best for smell and feel are the Lush dry shampoo – but it has the worst packaging – it gets all over. And Batiste’s Wild and Flirty (I think), in the leopard packaging. If you like Angel perfume – you will love that dry shampoo!
I absolutely hate them. I have big and thick hair tho it’s short. But I dont think those corn starch absorbs the excessive oil from my hair to make it look good. I simply think it messes my hair up by making it clogged, tangled and stiff, as if I have put on too much hair gel from the 80s. Anyway I prefer washing my hair everyday no matter how busy I am.
I have really short hair so they’re not very useful to me anymore, but when I had longer (wavy-curly, very frizzy hair), they were fantastic for extending time between washes to keep the natural oils along the hair shaft as well as creating even more volume. Along with no-foam shampoos, they completely revolutionized my hair care routine. Can’t recommend highly enough for people with my hair type.
I’ve played around with a lot of them, and I agree – the smell is so annoying. I spray a little bit of Batiste Clean Scent on my roots by my temples before I go to bed and that’s generally enough. It soaks in the oil and I don’t get the white cast – a little fluff in the morning is all I need. I have wavy hair that gets frizzy easily, so I can’t do that trick with the Oribe spray. I love that stuff, but it’s so freaking expensive!!
I really love the Suave and Batiste dry shampoos, especially the Suave one with Keratin and the Fresh scent of Batiste. The only one I didn’t really like was the Tresemme one – it was hard to get rid of the white cast and left my scalp crunchy. Batiste scents are hits and misses for me too, I really did not like the scent of the original.
I love them! Dry shampoo is great for those days when hair is definitely dirty but you don’t have time till evening. I do dislike the smell though. They usually smell good but it still essentially smells like, “I was ashamed of hair my hair looked this morning.”
I have a love and hate relationship with dry shampoo. The majority of brands I have tried left my hair with a white cast and felt sticky. I’ve tried high end brands and drugstore… I would rather wash my hair on most days than use it. Still looking for the perfect dry shampoo.
I have very fine, straight light har and use dry shampoo to increase the volume and absorb oil the last day or two before shampooing. i have the B&B dry shampoo but need to increase my skills in applying it. Other than that, I’ve tried many brands but go back to the old drugstore brand PSSST. Don’t think it would work on dark hair, I think it would show.
I have oilier roots and my hair tends to lie flat (and dead). I’ve tried to stop washing daily but haven’t found a dry shampoo that works well. I’ve tried Oribe, Batiste, Oscar Blandi, Got2BPowder, etc and each one has its own issues – strong perfume, white caste, leaving hair gunky, doesn’t work, etc. And my face tends to get irritated from the dry shampoo and oils from my hair. The most acceptable one so far has been Tresame, and even then, I mainly use it to give volume to clean hair.
Rant: I hate dry shampoos for myself. They make my hair feel gross. I don’t like the white cast most of them have, because my hair is dark.
Rave: Dry and waterless shampoos have been a great help for my son. His Asperger’s Disorder includes sensory issues, and he cannot stand getting a regular shampoo. These products have been a huge help in cutting down how frequently he has to get a “real” shampoo.
I’m not lazy and I have time but the humidity kills my hair, so much sweat from the heat and my hair looks and feels way too greasy and I hate even brushing it like that, gross! The white stuff used to bother me but I just brush it thoroughly and haven’t had any problems, though I’m blond. I’ve used it on my daughters brown hair – too thin for coconut oil, my mistake! And hers didn’t end up white either.
I love that they give me texture, but I hate having products in my hair when I sleep. My main caveat is how most of them leave a white residue on my dark hair.
I never really use them because like you, I can’t stand the smell! But it’s not JUST because of the smell, it’s also that I just never find myself needing to use it, because even if I didn’t shower daily my hair doesn’t get greasy thankfully. But for people who’s hair does get greasy, I think that it can help, so if you can get past the strong scent it’s good haha.
I feel they’re useless…I’d rather just wash my hair.
I’m very scent sensitive, and I have to say that I don’t mind the scent of Suave’s dry shampoo at all. It’s…faintly candy like, I guess? If that type of scent is bad news for you personally, I guess it’d still be bad, like if it were faintly jasmine it’d be a no-no for me.
I tend to only need it when I’ve cut my hair fairly short, which then makes me have half a can of dry shampoo left over until the next time I chop my hair off again.
Love the fact that I can buy a couple days’ worth of not having to wash my hair; hate having to deal with clumpy bits of residue. Have tried a DIY and it works well – at least the clumpy bits (if they happen) match my hair.
The LUSH one smells lovely – like lime 🙂 I hate the aerosols with alcohol in them. Having naturally thin-ish hair to the middle of my back means no alcohol and I can’t wash it too much.
When I went in for surgery on my head, I got told to avoid washing my hair for a MONTH!
So, I had to rely on dry shampoo which absolutely sucks because like most products, there is only so much a product can do. I managed 17 days before my hair begun to look really bad, especially at the back of the hair. It got so knotty & nearly untamable.
Let’s just say that I immediately leapt for joy when I finally got the “okay” to wash my hair. So nasty.
Hey! We who ritually use dry shampoo are not necessarily lazy! 😀 I love dry shampoo so I don’t have to wash my hair so often. It’s long, but not necessarily thick, and dry shampoo helps to keep my oily scalp at bay a bit & helps the condition of my hair (less blowdrying etc.).
I usually don’t mind the smell of powder ones (like the one by Cake Beauty though it is sweet) but aerosol ones can be too much to handle (Batiste – hold your breath)! Unfortunately aerosol ones often absorb more oil if you’re trying to extend time between washes, but I tend not to repurchase aerosol.
I haven’t used an Oribe texturizer, and I’d really love to try a Ruth Crilly CoLab invisible dry shampoo! Both are proving difficult for me to find online (shipping to Northern Canada).
Rumour has it that COLAB Dry Shampoo will soon be available in Canada and will hit the following retailers’ shelves in February: London Drugs, Jean Coutu, Lawtons Drugs, and select Pharmasave and Pharmachoice stores. You’re welcome 🙂
OMG really !! Finally ! I really want to try this and so many brands are not accessible in Canada ! All we have is Bioderma !
I just don’t get them at all. Most of the ones I’ve tried made even me, who can tolerate loads of strong scents, feel sick. I must be doing something wrong, because I don’t get much volume, and even the darkest one I’ve found is too light and makes my hair look dusty.
I do like the idea of the make your own one I saw here. Will give that one a try.
I love dry shampoo! My favourite is the dark brown Batiste. I don’t find the smell that bad, and it doesn’t leave that white cast.