Friday, May 15, 2015

Dry Shampoo Reviews: Why to Use and What to Use

Confession time!  My hair is ‘dirty’ 50% of the time.  I do not have time to wash and style my hair every single day.   I’ve been thanking my lucky stars for the invention of dry shampoo.  It’s a real life saver.  I decided to try it just a mere few years ago and have been a dry shampoo addict ever since.  It’s way healthier for your hair too, shampooing all the time can really dry it out.  I'm lucky in that I have fairly normal hair, not too oily, not too dry so I am an especially good candidate for dry shampoo.  Some days, after I wash my hair I will even purposely add dry shampoo into my freshly clean roots as dry shampoo is a great texturizer and will help give your roots a little oomph!  I’ve tried multiple brands and lately found one that I’m just head over heels in love with so thought this is the perfect opportunity to share and give a review on what I’ve tried, what I like and what I don’t, and these are my un-biased opinions only, unfortunately I'm not getting paid for these opinions so you get them for free.  You're welcome.     

Let’s just start with my FAVORITE!  LUSH No Drought Dry Shampoo.  Love, love, love this stuff!  

So who has been in a LUSH store?  I have to admit that I’d walk by these in big cities and thought looks like a just another cool soap store {as I continued to walk by}.  We recently got one in Des Moines and again, it’s always looked intriguing to me but not intriguing enough to get me thru the doors.  Until I started to Google dry shampoo reviews and read about LUSH’s.  As soon as I walked into LUSH, I realized right away what all the hype was about.  All their products are handmade, and the picture of the person who made your product is right on your product as well as the date it was made.  All of their products are made from the freshest and purest ingredients, no harsh chemicals here (and p.s.... to my surprise it's not just a soap store, lots of awesome cosmetics to be had).  Price points in the store are good too for what you get, No Drought runs about $14 for the large bottle and $7 for the small.  I must say, I bought the small bottle and glad I did, a little bit goes a long ways and since it is made with fresh ingredients with no preservatives, there is an 6 month expiration date on the product so I suggest to start small and decide if you need a larger bottle or not.  Plus it’s a great size for travel.  I really love its lemony-lime scent which smells fresh and clean.  The main ingredient is corn flour, which is naturally super absorbent. 

The product is not as easy to apply as the other dry shampoos I've tried, mainly because its a dry powder.  I don’t suggest shaking onto your hands and then applying but rather shake directly onto your roots and into a paddle/bristle hair brush and then literally scrub it into your scalp with the brush.  It will help invigorate your roots to give you volume and to make sure the product is all absorbed into your hair.  The product is clean feeling but may feel a tid grittier than some of the other products I’ll be reviewing next.  I actually like the little grit it gives; it just helps add clean texture to my roots.  Overall, I can’t say enough good things about this dry shampoo, it really makes my hair look just as clean {some days even better than freshly clean} than any other dry shampoo I’ve tried.  I can’t wait to try more of LUSH’s products!


This shampoo gets high marks on Google reviews as well and it’s more common to find in retail stores.  I picked mine up at Target and for an affordable $5, you get a huge bottle!  This stuff works pretty good, I love the aerosol can for fast application and it absorbs easily.  It also does not leave any gritty feeling like most all dry shampoos do.  For $5, it’s a win.  A few drawbacks, it doesn’t have a really nice smell, in fact it doesn’t have much of a smell at all.  I prefer that clean smell in my hair.  And lastly, the ingredients on the back – I’m not a major organic freak but since having a child, I have paid more and more attention to what I’m buying and putting in and on my body and with this product I don’t even know what the active ingredient really is.  It’s reads like a foreign novel, as well as in big letters: FLAMMABLE on the back.  Well that’s because it’s an aerosol can but either way, not so comforting.

My very first ever dry shampoo was Suave Refresh and Revive, mainly because I just wanted to try something on the cheap.  And by on the cheap, I mean $3.  For $3, this stuff is amazing and has gotten high reviews on Google.  Who would have thought, right?!   

I remember using Suave as a kid and when I became an adult I swore it off like the plague.  Well folks, the tables have turned and Suave has made a great dry shampoo that I like to stash in my gym bag.  The best part is the smell, it has probably the best smell of all of them I’ve tried.  It works pretty much just as well as the Not Your Mother’s Clean Freak but more grittier feeling and takes a little more work to absorb in.  If you are looking for a dry shampoo to just start out with, this is the one I would suggest.  It’s cheap so if you don’t like it, then you can part ways with it. 

The last dry shampoo review is a total bust.  I love Redken products and have been using them for years.  I have a cabinet full of Redken and some of my favorite shampoos/conditioners are Redkens.

But I must say their Pillow Proof Dry Shampoo is a flop.  Same crappy foreign ingredients, the smell is not fresh at all.  It absorbs some oil but does the least for my hair.  Sadly, I cannot recommend this one, hence no hyperlink for this product.  And it's the most expensive one, $18 bucks for this can of crap.  And I'm the type that can't throw anything unused away.  So now I'm left with it. It's currently a fine flammable dust collector on my shelf. 

I cannot give Batiste a full review but it’s Google’s number 1 rated dry shampoo on many sites.  

I have tried it in-store (I’m totally guilty of this!  I try products in store before deciding if I want to buy them.  HELLO dry shampoo spraying in the aisles! Heck I even try the grapes in the produce department before I will buy them, I’ve bought my fair share of rotten products in my lifetime!) so when I tried it in-store I didn’t think it was anything special personally.  I think it gets most raves from brunnettes, they make one specific for brunettes because dry shampoo does have a tendency to spray in whitish in color and it needs to be brushed in good to eliminate any powdery look.  I never have this problem being a dark blonde and actually find that the dry shampoos usually hides the outgrowth of my highlights really well.  But if you have dark hair, Batiste might be right for you!  The one pictured above is not specific for brunettes, this is the one I tried in-store that I can attest was not that special in my opinion.  Wasn't bad but wasn't special enough to make it in my cart.  

** I want to put a disclaimer out there:  just because I don’t wash my hair every day, I usually do shower every day.  Key word being ‘usually’ as today in example I have yet to and may choose not to.  There is no excuse to be the stinky kid, I DO practice good hygiene while being a dry shampoo advocate!