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Sometimes the quest for perfect hair feels like a never ending one. After you get the right stylist, who can lock down your cut and color, then you need the right shampoo and conditioner, product, and styling tools. And even with a phenomenal routine in place, there’s still the matter of… completing it every day. That requires time and energy, two other things that we can all run low on midweek.
Into this dilemma steps what many women among us consider a miracle product—dry shampoo. It’s the secret to skipping your morning hair routine, prolonging the staying power of an epic blowout, or recovering a clean, chic look after a workout without braving the hassle of a gym shower. In case you haven’t been introduced to the power of a great dry shampoo, here’s a rundown on everything you need to know about the category, why it works, and how to incorporate it into your routine.
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What Is Dry Shampoo?
Dry shampoo is a hair product that uses alcohols and starches to soak up the excess sebum that our scalp produces over the course of the day. Sebum is the scientific name for those natural oils that can make hair strands look greasy, so the dry shampoo soaks up the grease, reducing its appearance making hair look and feel cleaner for an extended period of time—all without a wash. Though it has the word “shampoo” in the name, this product doesn’t actually clean your hair, so using it in between washes or just a few times a week is best. Dry shampoo usually comes in a powder form and goes on as a spray, but some other options are liquid sprays, pastes or even foams.
How Does Dry Shampoo Work?
Dry shampoo works by soaking up the excess grease or oil in the hair—and don’t worry, we all have it, no matter how clean your hair is. Sebum is natural, and tends to collect over the course of the day, but it can be more concentrated after we sweat. For some people this means after a workout or a commute, for others, their hair just tends toward more oil and grease collecting throughout the day. A spritz of dry shampoo is especially effective after a fitness moment, as a touch up for those who walk or bike to work (or want to!), and on days where there’s no time for a shower and a hair routine.
What to Consider for When Shopping for a Dry Shampoo
The most important thing to consider is how you want your hair to feel. Is scent the most important aspect? Volume? Clean beauty concerns? There are so many different categories of dry shampoo for a good reason, everyone’s hair is different. Knowing your hair and its tendencies when oily or dirty is a good first step, but also consider your budget and the most important elements when it comes to how you want your hair to turn out after using the product.
Ingredient List
This is one of the most important aspects of selecting a great dry shampoo, because some of the first and/or cheapest options on the market contain ingredients that are harmful to the environment and your health. Searching for brands that prioritize natural ingredients or pass the standards for the clean beauty category is a good way to put these concerns first. More importantly check for easily avoided toxic ingredients like talc and benzene before you make a purchase.
Hair Color and Desired Finish
Some brands have now begun to make tinted versions of dry shampoos, so there are brunette and dark-haired products that guarantee they won’t leave white residue that shows up easily on darker follicles. For lighter hair, the white cast is less of a problem, although there are also blonde-specific products. Figuring out if you want a volumizing and textured finish or just a light, clean and dry one is another thing to nail down before making a selection.
Fragrance
Some people shop purely on what is going to make their hair smell best, and frankly, that’s a totally valid rubric in my book. Since one of the benefits of dry shampoo is helping mask the smell of sweat, these products tend to have strong scents, and we even selected a couple options that are best for exactly this below.
Our Top Picks
Like most products in the haircare world, finding the perfect dry shampoo is contingent upon knowing what works best for your hair—it’s personal, not objective. Still, there are a few major categories to navigate around that will help you hone in on the best fit for you, like greasy and oily hair versus a sensitive scalp, what works better for blondes and light hair versus brunettes and dark follicles, and even how much you want to spend. Whether it’s price point, scent, or clean beauty standards driving your search, here are our picks for the best dry shampoo for just about everyone.
Best For Oily Hair
Talc and benzene free, this dry shampoo really does cleanse hair, removing oil, sweat, and odor, and using fast-absorbing powders that won’t leave their own residue behind either. A perk of using Living Proof is they also make their products with pollutant protection, which is something more dry shampoos should focus on.
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This non-aerosol option is 99% naturally-derived, vegan, Leaping Bunny-certified and cruelty-free, so even the most ethically-driven, sustainability-aware shopper can feel good about using it. Plus, the charcoal and biotin work together to keep hair dry, hydrated and strong with no grease or shine. Charcoal is a perfect detoxifier of impurities and oily build up in hair.
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Best For Fine Hair
Olaplex already has a great reputation for helping to rebuild and restore hair, so you can count on their ingredient list to be very health-focused. This product is a detox dry shampoo, so it uses rambutan seed extract and ultra-fine micro starch to remove impurities and grease, along with the proprietary and patented Olaplex bond building technology, of course. If you want a product that’s helping restore your hair even as it lifts and volumizes, this is it.
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Rice protein sourced from Brazil helps give this product its effortless volume, a great boon for balancing out fine hair that goes limp when greasy or unwashed. Silica helps further remove oil, and Pro-Vitamin B thickens and builds volume.
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Best For Dark Hair
The last thing you want when you’re already having a non-wash day for your hair is a bunch of residue from the dry shampoo you chose. Instead, IGK’s formulation is a calming white tea powder that blends right into hair, no matter how dark, and relies on charcoal to detoxify impurities. It’s called first class for a reason, y’know?
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Best For Blondes
There’s a lot more focus on brunettes and dark-tinted dry shampoos, since the powder tends to show up more in darker hair, but the blondes need a little love too! This option is a super natural one, and the emphasis on lighter hair comes through in the active ingredients—arrowroot powder and kaolin clay are mixed with a small amount of cocoa powder that makes this tan-colored formulation great for the blondes among us.
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Best For Thin Hair
Gardenia scent and keratin formulation? This is a game changer of a dry shampoo, and even more so if you have thin and fine hair. Keratin boosts hair growth and collagen further helps with increasing thickness and fullness. Plus, this is a great price point for a superb product.
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Best For Itchy Scalp
This Italian hair brand has been a go-to for so many salons for decades, and at this point, their products speak for themselves. Rice flour is an incredibly gentle starch that should work to absorb oil for even the most sensitive scalp without disturbing the balance.
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Best For Greasy Hair
Lotion to powder? Seeing is believing with this inventive R+Co product, which also includes fine-milled powders (that emerge as you blend it into your scalp), colloidal oatmeal cleanses, absorbs dirt, and soothes the scalp, radish root ferment to soften hair and condition it, and a proprietary “bleu molecule complex” that adds strength and shine. Combined, this winning formula erases grease from your hair and scalp for another day, even for those who tend toward super greasy hair.
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Best For Volume
Oribe is a luxury brand known for their high-performing products that are incredible, and this texturizing spray is one of the best in their whole line up. Not just a dry shampoo, but a dry spray designed specifically for building texture, the zeolite crystallines in their formula is what helps create a voluminous tousled look. Ginseng root, aloe and mango keep everything hydrated while the crystals do their work.
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Best Scent
Dry Bar does many, many things very well, and what else does every single one of their products have in common? An amazing, amazing scent. Their Detox Dry Shampoo is no different with a variety of options that makes it the best bet—everything from grapefruit mimosa to vanilla bourbon is available, so pick your poison. Their formulation with micro-fine rice powder and golden root extract keeps hair dry, yet hydrated, all while smelling incredible.
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Best Splurge
At $52 this is one of the most expensive options in the category, but it’s spendy for a reason—Gold Lust is the crème de la crème inn hair care with a signature combination of watermelon, lychee and Edelweiss flower to protect hair blended into their translucent starch powder. The secret ingredient is celery seed extract, their own powerhouse for removing oil from the hair and scalp.
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Best Affordable Dry Shampoo
Batiste is one of the most classic dry shampoos out there, and remains ultra affordable. It uses a rice starch to help defeat sebum, and isn’t overpowering with just a subtle lavender scent.
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Known for her line of affordable luxury haircare, celebrity stylist Kristin Ess nailed it with her under $20 dry shampoo that smells like a million dollars—magnolia, pear water, caledonia sandalwood and white amber? Talk about luxury. That and the wheat protein used to eliminate grease and oil make this a very popular pick for frequent dry shampoo users.
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If budget is a big concern, but you still want a super effective, sustainability focused option, Not Your Mother’s is one of cheapest brands on the market. This formula utilizes rice and barley starch to absorb sebum and is free from sulfates, silicon, aluminum and parabens.
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Best Clean Beauty Dry Shampoo
Before writing this post, a brief survey of my own friends revealed that six or seven of them are Amika fans! This is a cruelty-free product that’s formulated without sulfates and with mandelic acid (AHA), rambutan seed extract, and arrowroot powder to eliminate oil and keep hair hydrated while removing grease. This one is also great for volumizing, if that’s your desired style.
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This completely natural, non-aerosol mist almost landed in the scent category because of how amazing it smells! Sulfate and silicone free, a “freshness cocktail” of essential oils including thyme, grapefruit, peppermint, lavender and cedar is a huge draw. The other? Natural-origin silica powder to combat oil, reduce odor and refresh your scalp.
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Best Powder Dry Shampoo
What could be more luxe than carefully applying your powdery dry shampoo with an elegant half moon brush instead of a spray bottle? Persimmon, a natural deodorizer, combines with bergamot, yuzu, and lemongrass for a weightless, subtle refresh.
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Billie has always been ahead of the curve on affordability and customization, so it’s no surprise their Floof Dry formula comes as a superfine powder in either blonde or brunette tint, and incorporates biotin for strengthening hair with baking soda, and rice starch.
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Best Natural Dry Shampoo
As the natural pick on our list, you better believe Kaia Naturals also avoids aerosol. Their formula is a 100% plant-based. Available in either untinted (blonde) or tinted (brunette) options, the tapioca starch, arrowroot, activated charcoal and Japanese Camellia scent make this a cult favorite. For this product, the brand recommends using it overnight for best results.
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Dry Shampoo FAQs
While dry shampoo should never be a complete replacement for regularly washing your hair, it can be a great way to extend your blowout, refresh after a workout class or an active commute, or even zhush up your bedhead on a no-shower day (I know, they just happen sometimes.) If you’re just starting to explore the admittedly packed world of dry shampoo, here’s the rundown on a few basics to get you started.
When should you use dry shampoo?
Dry shampoo is good in a pinch when you don’t have time (or energy) for a shower or your full hair-washing routine—and it can be a great option for removing oil and greasiness, which naturally build up between washes. But that same dirt and oil also build up on your scalp, which is why washing is still so essential. Think of taking care of your scalp as an extension of your skincare routine (it’s still skin!) as a good general rule.
Even if these products can get your strands looking clean and grease-free, real shampoo and water is *Beyonce voice* irreplaceable. Using dry shampoo can also lead to a build up of product on your scalp, so incorporating a scalp scrub once or a week or so into your shower routine isn’t a bad idea!
How do I apply dry shampoo?
First of all, do it in sections! Don’t try to cover your whole scalp with one spray, but piece through different sections of your hair and apply the product at the roots. You usually don’t need any on the shaft or ends, but should instead brush it down from the roots for better distribution. Maintain enough distance from your scalp that the product can be applied evenly, usually about six-eight inches is a good rule of thumb. Also important: Give the dry shampoo time to dry, maybe 20-30 seconds, before brushing it through and distributing it throughout your hair. Especially if the product has a white cast (as many do), and you have darker hair, brushing it through can help it blend in, both from an effectiveness standpoint and to remove the white color.
How often should I use dry shampoo?
Not more than a few days in a row, because of scalp health! Extending a blow out or a professional haircut or styling is a good use case, as is application right after a workout class, commute, or otherwise sweaty moment. But more than a few days and the effectiveness will go way down, as build up of the product on your scalp will be inevitable, and build up only leads to more grease, oil, and shine.
Is dry shampoo bad for your hair?
Again, everything in moderation. Using dry shampoo a few days a week is arguably good for your hair, because over-shampooing can actually strip your hair of nutrients and natural oils it needs to stay healthy. But like with any beauty products, paying attention to ingredients is the most important factor! There are plenty of dry shampoos with additives that aren’t great for your hair, like sulfates, talc, aerosol, propane, butane, and benzene, an ingredient that made headlines a few years ago when the FDA issued a recall on some dry shampoos that contained this carcinogen. Luckily, there are plenty of options that are sustainable and emphasize clean and natural ingredients, so if that’s one of your main concerns check out our recommendations in those specific categories above.
How can I avoid white residue from dry shampoo?
As options for dry shampoo have increased, the white cast and dullness initially associated with some of the earliest iterations have, thankfully, been greatly improved upon. There are now tinted options specifically for brunettes and blondes, plenty of translucent powders and sprays, and lots of brands that have tweaked their formulas so the white residue isn’t an issue. If your favorite dry shampoo does leave this residue, don’t fret—wait for the product to dry 20-30 seconds after application and carefully comb it through your hair. Repeat this process until the white cast has blended into your natural color. The white cast is also sometimes a byproduct of applying the product too close to your scalp (six or more inches away!) or unevenly in one spot. Spray it on evenly and from a far enough distance, and the look of white residue can usually be avoided.
Looking for more hair care advice? Read our hair care edit and make sure you don’t miss our low maintenance hair routine! Browse our beauty shop to find and buy all our favorite Pick(s)s!
