Sunday, January 19, 2014

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!

No comments:

Post a Comment