I'm a big user of dry shampoo, since I have oily-yet-dry hair. If I can go a day without washing it, I will, to prevent the lengths from drying it out any more than necessary. But the roots get greasy quickly, so dry shampoo is absolutely necessary if I want to go more than 24 hours between washes. In fact, even if I wash my hair before bed, I usually need a little dry shampoo to get me through the next day without my hair going limp and stringy. In a pinch, corn starch works just fine. But sprays are usually easier and quicker to use, so I've tried (and reviewed) a lot of them in an attempt to identify my favorite one.
And I think I have found the best one! Only it's not the product I'm reviewing here. It's Batiste Dry Shampoo in Cherry, which costs about $8. The many other fragrances of Batiste presumably work just as well, but this is my favorite scent. I went through two cans last fall and winter and didn't have time to write up a proper review (just a quick one on Instagram). When I replace it, I will review it, finally.
In the meantime, I've been using Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk. Like many of the other pricier products I've reviewed here during the last year, I wouldn't have tried this if I hadn't been able to use Birchbox points to buy it. Even so, I got it in a Birchbox sale, so I didn't have to spend a full $20 worth of points on it. Klorane always pops up when people talk about their favorite dry shampoos, so I wanted to see if it was somehow better than the cheaper ones I've used. I've fallen into that trap before. It's not. But it does have some good qualities.
One of the most interesting things about this dry shampoo is the packaging. It's not an aerosol can. It's a flexible plastic bottle that you squeeze to send a poof of powder out of the nozzle. It works pretty well, although of course you can't get a continuous spray like you can with an aerosol, so you tend to end up with powder concentrated in certain spots. But non-aerosol dry shampoos seem to last a lot longer than aerosols. I just finished the Oscar Blandi powder reviewed here last week, and I've been alternating this Klorane with that since at least last December, and I think it's still about half full. (It also comes in a regular aerosol can.)
As for effectiveness, I'm not very impressed. Ideally, a dry shampoo will absorb oil without making my hair stiff or rough or dull, and maybe add some volume, though the latter is optional. This stuff does add a little volume, but it's not great at absorbing oil. In fact, I had a really hard time figuring out which of my photos was the before and after - even after looking at the time stamps, I was confused. See for yourself:
 |
| Before (hair unwashed for 24 hours) |
 |
| After |
On the plus side, it has very little fragrance. More often than not, I dislike the smell of dry shampoos, which tend to be very heavily (and sneezily) perfumed). That problem is avoided here.
Overall, I think this would really only be a good option for people with light hair that isn't very oily, who are looking mainly for a little volume. Also if you want a barely-scented, non-aerosol option, this is one of the few out there. Your best bet is probably Amazon, who sells it for about $17. I probably shouldn't have bought the "gentle" version, because my hair clearly needs something more heavy duty. But as you can see, Birchbox does their usual shitty website thing and doesn't actual label this as "gentle" on the product page. To be fair, it's not very clear on the bottle's label, either.
Anyway, I'll use this stuff up, along with some mini cans of other dry shampoos that I also got from Birchbox, and then I think I'll go back to the Batiste Cherry - and review it, next time! Once again, the theory that I will get a better product if I pick something expensive has proven untenable. Seriously, I have heard people say, "Klorane is the best and you just have to pay more to get the best, that's all there is to it." Fuck that.
Interesting that you posted this when you did - I had literally just ordered the very same Klorane dry shampoo. I tried it out today for the first time today, and I actually like it so far - I have dark brown hair, but it is reasonably invisible in my hair, I find that Batiste leaves a lot more white residue. Maybe I spray the Batiste too heavily - I don't know! I think I have very different hair than you - dry hair overall (and a dry scalp and dry skin), but ~3 days after I wash my hair, it gets a little oily at the roots and refuses to behave, especially at the cowlick on the crown of my head. Dry shampoo helps a lot, but I don't know if it's due to absorbing oil or adding texture or what. I also really like the Bumble & Bumble Prêt-à-Powder, which is marketed as both dry shampoo and adding texture/volume, so I guess I like that kind of thing?
ReplyDeleteI wish I could figure out the equivalent volume / use-per-ounce of aerosol dry shampoo vs powder. Even though the Klorane and the Bumble&Bumble are pricey, I think they may actually be very similar in cost per use for me than Batiste, which I go through relatively quickly.
That is really interesting! Thanks for commenting. I suspected it might work better for people with a different hair type than mine, so that's good to know. I wonder if the problem with the Klorane for me if that I'm using more, since it doesn't absorb the oil as easily, and that's making it more visible.
DeleteI'm with you on the cost-per-use confusion. When I compared the Oscar Blandi powder in the previous review to a can of Suave dry shampoo, I found that it contained 2.5 oz. vs. 5 oz. for the Suave. And yet the Oscar Blandi lasted at least 5x as long as any aerosol can I've used. I definitely don't use less product with the powder either. There's something weird going on there. Does the propellant in the aerosol can count toward its weight? That isn't very helpful for a consumer, if so!
Do you think the Klorane packaging is good enough to be worth buying it, using it all, then refilling with cornstarch or whatever? I usually go with aerosols because I can't seem to get the powder-on-a-makeup-brush technique down, but if this dispenser gets the application process closer to an aerosol, I'd pay the $20 just to have the container to refill.
ReplyDeleteARGH I wish someone would come out with a propellant-free aerosol dry shampoo (like they do with those compressed-air spray lotions). That and I wish (though I'm pretty sure this isn't possible) they'd make one without all the alcohol in it. Or that it was easier to keep cornstarch or baby powder or whatever else you use to make your own evenly suspended in the alcohol base. I'd make my own more often if it didn't destroy the spray bottle tubing after a use or two every time.
(And I wish the Batiste cherry scent liked me as much as I like it, but somehow it's just instant migraine, where some of the other scents, that I don't even like, don't do that. Thinking my next try, when I finish the half-assed Garnier bottle I have now, will be the Aussie one - it smells nice so maybe I'll get lucky and it'll work too.)
YOU ARE A GENIUS. Somehow it didn't occur to me to see if the lid comes off, but it does, so the bottle can be reused. This is probably the next best thing to an aerosol, but it does tend to concentrate powder in smaller spots. I think it would work better with a powder that was easier to comb through. When I finish the second half of my bottle, I'll try refilling it with corn starch and see if that works. People even gave me suggestions for scenting corn starch last time I posted about it, so I will have to try that! It's possible that a different type of powder wouldn't be fine enough for the bottle to work or something, but I won't be able to experiment for a few more months, once this is eventually finished. Opening it up, I could see that I do have more than half of it left.
DeleteHalf of me (maybe 75%) wants to stick with Batiste, because it was great and probably as close to perfect as I'll get, and the other half wants to try some of the new ones, like that Aussie one. I always think there must be something just a tiny bit better out there. What does the Aussie stuff smell like?
Hmm, maybe I'll get one and try it out too... or maybe try one of the Sephora or Ulta ones in similar packaging. I'm a sucker for interesting packaging I can repurpose after the product's gone.
DeleteThe Aussie stuff smelled vaguely fruity, I think? It's been a while. Fruity/candy scents are kind of my thing so I have to figure that's what it was.