The Quest for Dry Shampoo

With my long hair, dry shampoo was not really necessary so I made my own blend of it. My hair is naturally prone to get oily and the longer it gets, it begins to switch from that to dryness. My hair adapts and like some crazy adapting parasite, it no longer "likes" the dry shampoo I was using before. (For reference purposes, the post about the dry shampoo I mix can be found here. Basically I blend cornstarch and old foundations or bronzers in order to darken  it and then I brush it on my hair with a cheap kabuki). 

After a few attempts with my cornstarch blend, I realized that my hair needed more touch-ups throughout the day but the powder was too messy (and not really portable either). So it was finally time to give it up and look into having a dry shampoo (at the very least, by my desk). 

The first one I have on hand is Suave Professionals Dry Shampoo Spray, which I had actually picked up for a light camping trip. I didn't have any intention of using it myself (I was getting it out of consideration for the other ladies that I'd be camping with), but one day I just got fed up with my hair and decided to use it anyway. The one stand out thing about this is that I love the scent and at the very least for that night that I had it on, it worked well. In general, it works well for immediate use (and I will reiterate that the scent is lovely) but it did not hold up well for the eight hour day. In fact after 4 hours, the greasiness returned full force and weighed down my hair. If you have super oily hair, this may not be the one you should opt for.

Given the problems I experienced with it, I'll definitely hold on to the bottle and use it for touch-ups, especially for short events. It smells good and not as chemical as some of the others I've tried out. For work however, I decided to keep a bottle at my desk just in case. Since CVS was closer, I ran in there but they apparently don't carry the Suave version, so I ended up getting the TRESemme version.

TRESemme Fresh Start Dry Shampoo Spray For Oily/Straight to Normal Hair (or the Volumizing one) feels... well, kind of ickier. Okay, I know that's not much to go on. From the beginning, it smells terrible. An hour after I sprayed it on, I had a headache because of the fumes. How terrible. My hair felt pretty weighed down and just felt like there was way too much product in it. Which is comical considering how much less I sprayed on as compared to the Suave Dry Shampoo. Anyhow, almost immediately after the chemical attack on my hair, I noticed how dull my hair looked. I decided that I wanted to exchange it immediately, even with my headache.

I ran back into CVS and grabbed the last bottle of Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo that was on the shelf. (At this point I'm still wondering why dry shampoos don't have their own section but it's probably because most stores only carry a limited selection of them). Because I actually need to wash my hair, I won't have a review for it just yet. I did notice that it uses almost the same ingredients as Suave so it remains to be seen how much I will enjoy it.

I like charts so let's break this down.

Dry Shampoo Comparison
Brand	Type	Scent	Performance	Cost	Verdict
Suave Professionals Dry Shampoo Spray	Not even sure what it's base is aside from a lot of alcohol to dry out the grease.	Tropical, perhaps grapefruit, either way, it is pleasant.	Last about 4 hours in my hair. Which probably just means that it needs to be reapplied throughout the day (that is if your hair is super oily). Doesn't weigh hair down though which helps and while it can leave splotches of white, they are easy to rub in. A lot is required to do the job though.	~ $4	Decent so far, but for the amount that is needed and the questionable ingredients I'm not sure I'd purchase it again. The bright side is that I don't hate it enough to demand a refund.
TRESemme Fresh Start Dry Shampoo Spray	Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Kaolin, Citrus Grandis (Grapefruit) Fruit Extract, Citrus Tangerina (Tangerine) Peel Extract (amongst other things).	Terrible.	Immediately weighs down hair and makes it look dull -- it seems almost more beneficial to just wash my hair. The fumes are terrible.	~ $6	No! I returned it on the same day. This was a terrible purchase.
Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo (Review)	Same as Suave.	Pleasant and light though I can't place the scent.	Works well, does create a bit of a matte but doesn't overtake my natural shininess.	~ $7	Great1 Very long lasting and keeps my hair fresh without weighing it down. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this one as it works better than the others.