Salon Couture: May 2011

Alright, time to give you the rundown on dry shampoo.

What is it?

Dry shampoo is a super-fine powder that comes in spray-on form. Its main purpose is to soak up the oil your scalp produces, which is what makes our hair look dirty. This brilliant cylinder of dust can literally take the hair from looking oily and limp to looking freshly blown out.

What are the benefits of dry shampoo?

When you apply dry shampoo, you’re allowing your natural oils to stay in contact with your hair longer. Dry shampoo = best of both worlds. Oils can stay put, nourishing the hair, while the powder takes away the unwanted grease!

Some of you thermally straighten your hair with a blow dryer and/or flat iron. When you do that, you want to make it last as long as possible so you’re not over doing it with heat styling. Putting dry shampoo on freshly straightened locks can easily extend the life of a blow out. Think of it like this; high temperatures cause condensation + gland stimulation at your scalp. Oil, sweat and moisture lead to curls coming back. Applying dry shampoo to the roots before working out or stepping out into warmer weather can significantly slow that down by soaking it all up!

Bangs and Forehead problem, Dry Shampoo works wonders for keeping out the greasiness on your bangs. It also gives incredible added texture to short, cropped hair when applied on top of a water based pomade or paste.

When hair is super thick, curly or coarse, it naturally lacks moisture because oils don’t travel down the hair as quickly. It could need more time between shampoos! Going one extra day between washings can help natural oils make their way down the hair shaft that much further. If the hair is very dry, try lightly applying dry shampoo on the part only.

The only people who don’t really need dry shampoo are those of you who don’t produce much oil or those of you that have a dry scalp. The few who can go 3-5 days without so much as a glimmer of unwanted sheen are very lucky. Just be sure you’re properly conditioning and getting nourishment to the ends of your hair!

When do you put it on?

Dry shampoo goes on air dried or blow dried hair. Not on wet hair.
It works well if you put it on right after you blow dry your hair the first day, so that when the oils come out the dry shampoo catches them! This keeps it from getting dirty and flat to begin with. I’ve come to find that dry shampoo on clean hair leads to extra bounce and volume.

Where do I get it?

There are lots of different kinds of dry shampoo out there today. It’s become widely available and insanely popular so you won’t have a hard time finding it. Salon Couture Loves Kenra's Dry Shampoo! Test it out! See how your hair feels and most importantly how it looks!

How do I apply it?

If you’re wearing your hair down, you don’t need to apply underneath in the back, mostly just on the top, maybe around the part and along the front hairline. If you’re wearing your hair up in a bun or ponytail, you’ll want to get underneath a little bit. The ultimate trick with ANY dry shampoo is patting it in. Not brushing, not wiping with your hand, just patting it lightly until it blends in.