The Dirt on Dry Shampoo (see what I did there?!)

I will be honest here…. I HATE washing my hair. I could come up with some silly excuse as to why like "Oh I am trying to preserve my color" or "I am trying to use my scalps natural oils", but no… it is just pure laziness. It takes me almost 30 minutes to shower (sorry sis), then a good 30 minutes to blow it out, then 15-30 minutes to heat style it. So when the alarm goes off and I would rather sleep longer than wash my hair, I press my snooze button and grab a can of dry shampoo.

 

Like I said before, skipping the suds can help preserve your color and use your bodies natural sebum (fancy word for oil) to increase "suppleness". I just love that word. It also helps the integrity of your hair by giving your it a day off from a blow dryer and hopefully, hot tools. Dry shampoos are HUGE right now. People are "embracing the filth" and not shampooing everyday, but most consumers only know what a dry shampoo is, not really what it does and how.

 

That’s where I come in! I picked up every dry shampoo that we sell at Salon Centric (I have used over half of them on myself) and dissected the ingredients. I put my Google search to work and got the scoop on what's going on inside!

 -Look how pretty they are! And how many there are......

Dry shampoos are all about absorbing oil. Greasy and oily hair is not pretty… or cool. It also stinks. Starches, silica and/or talc are used to absorb the sebum. Simple as that! Sometimes ingredients like isopropyl myristate or zeolite (a mineral) are added for more absorption (sorry I had to go all hair nerd there).  Usually the main ingredients in aerosol dry shampoos are propellants, used to get the starches out of the can. These are almost always butane, isobutane, and/or propane. This makes most dry shampoos highly flammable. Listed after the propellants and starches comes a list off oils (ironic when we are absorbing oil here, but just go with it) and softening ingredients. Funny because my hair still feels dirty after application… whatever! And last but not least, FRAGRNACE!!!!! Scent can make or break a dry shampoo. You are going be smelling this thing for (hopefully) a few days, so you gotta like it! Most people choose their favorite based on scent, amount of absorbing agents, or how they feel in the hair.

 

After breaking down all 13 dry shampoos that I sell, I laughed because they are all pretty much the SAME ingredient wise. The only ones that are somewhat set apart are:

• Pravana Fresh Dry Shampoo- Actually has PPG-12-buteth 16 which is an active ingredient in antifungal creams and sprays. Interesting….
• Surface Trinity Dry Shampoo- Contains amaranth protein for strength and babassu oil (a penetrating, silicone free oil) for superior moisture. No silica or talc here, only the absorbing mineral zeolite, making it the clearest dry shampoo I have ever used and my personal favorite!
• Alterna Caviar Dry Shampoo- The only powder dry shampoo that we sell, therefore you get far less "chemicals" than the others. It contains more rice starch than the others and has added tapioca starch. It also has caviar extract, it doesn’t really do much but it sounds fancy! This one is ideal for blondes since they can get away with the white residue as well as people with respiratory problems who get irritated by the spray forms.

Some things that a dry shampoo will not do:

• Remove dirt or debris… it is not an Oreck.
• Magically make your hair clean. Its just going to help you prolong some "freshness".
• Attract men. Hasn’t worked for me yet. I think they like clean hair. Dang.

 

Hopefully those of you that are still timid to take the" Dry Shampoo Plunge" gained some knowledge and confidence to try it out! It honestly can be your best kept secret AND save you some time, water and dollars! Good luck!

5 Things That Hairstylists Forget (And REALLY Need to Remember)

 Every day I see so many customers come in who are all at different places in their careers. Some people are super slammed, crazy busy, and booked out for two months. Then you get the people who haven't done hair professionally for 14 years but need help formulating for their new friend who wants to go (my least favorite word) "mahogany". And then there is everyone in between. I have come to realize that no matter where each stylist is at in their career, there are so many key things that people either forget or do not know about in this industry. Here is a list!

 

 

1. Color CAN NOT lift color. I don’t care who you are, what level peroxide you use, or what color line you use….. It is impossible for hair color to lift through previously colored hair. The only thing you can do when putting color over color is darken, deepen or add shine or intensity. This goes for hi-lift colors as well. Color has already been deposited and melanin is in place. The only way to get it lifted (lighter) is to use a lightener (bleach) or color remover.
2. "Color Safe" does not mean anything. No hair color is going to last forever. The sun, water, and free radicals will take their toll on your freshly colored locks. The only way to extend the life of your color is to shampoo as little as possible and use a sulfate free shampoo. If the ingredients list Sodium Lauryl/Laureth Sulfate, you are using a detergent that is used in auto degreaser and carpet cleaner…. Ponder on that. Do your research though, Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate and Sodium Lauryl Sulfate look similar but are COMPLETELY different! (I am planning a big blog post about sulfates!)
3. Dandruff vs. Dry Scalp. They could not be any more different. Too many stylist over recommend dandruff shampoos. Most people just suffer from dry flaky scalp where as the Pyrithione zinc in dandruff shampoos is actually an anti fungal agent that will do nothing for their dry scalp or possibly make it even more angry! I have also seen some people recommend purifying or chelating shampoos. These will just throw off the skins PH balance and possibly make it worse as well. This is defiantly a future topic to discuss but I would suggest some essential oils or Framesi's Dry scalp fluid and shampoo.
4. Mixing a Demi or Semi permanent hair color with anything other than the recommended volume peroxide will not make it "More Permanent". The deciding factor for hair color to be permanent or not is in the actual tube or bottle of color itself. If there is ammonia (or a derivative, usually MEA) in the actual color, when mixed with a peroxide the ammoniated color is able to penetrate the hair shaft and alter the melanin inside. Anything that happens in there is "Permanent". Demi or Semi permanent colors hang out on the cuticle or penetrate just a tinsy bit, but due to the lack of ammonia, even if you mix it with 30 volume, its not going to do magical things and break the law of hair color. 
5. Unless you are cooking a turkey or doing a keratin/smoothing treatment, NO ONE should be setting their flat iron to 450 degrees. That is just crazy talk. I straighten my afro at 390 and even that is pushing it! A setting that high is just melting your ends, frying your hair color right on out and most likely burning your fingers. If you have to use a glove to protect your hands…. You probably shouldn’t be putting it in your hair.