Dry shampoo

blevinandwomba
blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

I have fairly fine and fairly thick hair with a rather oily scalp. We also have very hard water. This all adds up to greasy hair that does not easily wash clean. I've tried several natural shampoos as well has shampoo alternatives( baking soda and vinegar; soap nuts and citrus peel.) I finally found a shampoo that works pretty well, but still, sometimes even freshly washed my hair doesn't look clean. Washing it more frequently makes my overreactive scalp even worse.

Enter dry shampoo to save the day. It's allowed me to go longer between washings, which is helping to calm my scalp. I'm hoping to get to the point that it looks good without the dry shampoo between washings, but we're not there yet.

I'm not sure where I first got the recipe, I think it was here.

I make it with arrowroot and carob powder- about 40/60 proportion.

In case anyone is not familiar, dry shampoo does not "wash" your hair; it just absorbs oil and makes it look cleaner.

Comments

  • sallyhoward
    sallyhoward Posts: 106 ✭✭✭

    Looks like a good idea to calm your scalp, I hope you get some relief. I remember my mother used to wear a brightly coloured head scarf on those in between wash days!

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for posting this! I buy one from Amazon but I'd love to make my own.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    I have tried dry shampoo for much the same reasons. I found that it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Maybe a change in powder composition is what would make a difference?

    How do you find arrowroot over baking soda? Does it work better? Do you know why carob is in this recipe...what it's full purpose is?

  • vickeym
    vickeym Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The recipe I had originally found had cocoa powder in it. That was used for darker hair, most likely because the white powder was very noticeable. I found that adding the cocoa just made it sticky in my case. I mainly used a baking soda and cornstarch mixture when I needed it. Then just brushed the daylights out of it to remove it after rubbing it all through my hair. It does help and my scalp did calm quite a bit.

    Does the carob get sticky like the cocoa powder?

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning I've never tried baking soda in dry shampoo, just arrowroot or cornstarch. The carob is to keep your hair from looking powdery if it is darker, but it seems to help its effectiveness, as I'll explain below.

    @vickeym I initially used carob because I used up all of the cheap cocoa powder that my mom had bought, and didn't want to use my expensive fair-trade organic cocoa in my hair. However, I recenty started using a higher ratio of carob to arrowroot than I used to, and it seems much more effective to me now. My guess is the lower fat content of carob versus cocoa or the ph difference? It does seem to absorb the oil better. I do know with my current formula I can ... (Please sit down if you're squeamish, this may be upsetting)... go a 5-6 days without it looking terrible. Actually, since my job is closed and I'm not going anywhere- I went 8 days this week- it did look pretty nasty till I washed it, but I also didn't apply any the last day. My hair used to look like that after three days or even two, so I was pretty pleased. I'm hoping to convince my scalp that it doesn't need to overproduce the oil, no one is going to over-wash it.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    @blevinandwomba Well, this is convincing, and I am not squeamish. 😂

    Do you think this work for blonde hair without making it look odd? Some of us here are just that. Some are dark haired, so it wouldn't be an issue.

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    well, I know some people just use arrowroot/cornstarch if their hair is lighter; I would think the carob would show up in lighter hair, but I really don't know. One thing that I have noticed, though maybe it's all in my head, is that the cocoa powder seemed to make my hair look a little darker, and the carob a little lighter/redder. For the record, my hair is in on the dark side of medium brown, fairly neutral/mousey tone, but my scanty highlights are auburn/dark golden blond.

    I also used to use sea salt spray before the dry shampoo, and it did keep my hair looking fresher longer. I never really liked the stiffer feel it gave my hair, but it did look good. Actually, the main reason I stopped using it was that I lost the bottle when I was on vacation, and never got around to replacing it. If you can't do the carob maybe that would be an option?


  • Karin
    Karin Posts: 272 ✭✭✭

    @blevinandwomba you say you have fine hair but lots of it. I have the same, so I have always wondered how you get the dry stuff out of your hair? That is one reason I have never tried a dry shampoo. I can't brush my hair or it looks like I have a massive Afro. I just leave my hair till it looks manky then wash it. How do you manage to get all the powder out so it doesn't look like you have a bad dandruff attack?

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    I can't not brush my hair, or it becomes flat and greasy and tangled. I'm guessing we have different textures. Is your hair curly?

    I do use a boars bristle brush; back when I used a plastic brush my hair looked a lot worse. That being said, brushing is not for everyone. There are homemade spray dry shampoos, but I've never tried them. Here's one if you are curious.


  • Karin
    Karin Posts: 272 ✭✭✭

    @blevinandwomba Yes I have wavy, curly hair with cowlicks. If I brush it goes frizzy lol. I tried a boar bristle brush once years ago when I was trying to see if brushing would help, but the bristles only brushed the top layers of hair, so was a waste of time. I do give it a brush once every few days just before I wash it.