What Is Dry Shampoo And Why Is It A Must-Have?
Everyone has different cleaning and grooming needs, and there is a natural shampoo option for every scalp, every routine and every need.
Sometimes this need is the ability to get rid of greasy hair when you do not have the time to properly wash or dry your hair, and this is where some people swear by dry shampoos.
How do they work, why are they effective, and why do people swear by them as part of a busy lifestyle?
What Is A Dry Shampoo?
Typically, shampoo is used to reduce the amount of oil and grease in your hair, which can make it difficult to manage, messy and uncomfortable on the scalp. It typically needs water to work as it needs to be built into a lather to be effective at cleaning hair.
Rather than being a liquid, cream or lotion, a dry shampoo is a powder that absorbs the oils in hair and makes it look cleaner. Many of them also have fragrances to help them smell nice as well.
Despite many modern dry shampoos relying on aerosols, dry shampoos in England predate the rise of shampooing in the UK by over three centuries.
Clay powders work in a similar way to the starch-based dry shampoo solutions seen today, and many of the powdered dry shampoos seen in the 16th century were colours, acting as a mix of a dry shampoo, styling product and temporary hair dye all in one.
However, the first modern dry shampoo was sold in the 1940s and has existed with various formulations ever since.
Explaining how it works is only part of it, however. It is also important to know why it could be beneficial for your routine. Here are some of the times in which a dry shampoo is needed.
A Quick Fix
Everyone has a day when they are in a rush. Perhaps they overslept and did not have a chance to get through their entire morning routine. Perhaps they have to go to an emergency meeting or event and cannot wait for their hair to dry and do not want to travel with wet hair in cold weather.
There are a lot of times when a proper shampoo is simply not possible, but thanks to dry shampoo, there are alternative options.
The only consideration you may need to make is that because the powder will stay on your scalp, you should not use dry shampoo for more than two days in a row as you will need to wash it out to avoid irritation.
After Workouts
Whilst rushing to get ready is often associated with sleepy winter mornings when many people start work before the sun rises, dry shampoo is also ideal for hot, sweaty days as well.
In particular, it works particularly well after a workout or gym session because it absorbs sweat and smells from your hair, giving you a cleaner, matte finish.
For Festival Season
Similarly, if a shower or bath simply is not available, dry shampoo can work as a temporary stopgap.
It can be suitable for backpacking holidays, long travel legs where you want to stay fresh or festivals, where it is not always a guarantee that you will be able to access a shower during the three days it is on unless it rains.
Styling Hair
Dry shampoo works as a form of styling product, keeping hair in place much like a hair spray, albeit often without some of the harmful ingredients sometimes found in some styling products.
It can be used to tease hair, keep pins in place, as a replacement for styling mousse, and could even be used to create a ponytail.
It also makes hair easier to work with because it adds texture, avoiding the problems sometimes found with silky slick conditioned hair when getting it cut.
Protects Hair
Shampooing your hair is a vital part of any hair care routine, but it is possible for your hair to have too much of it.
There is a debate about how often you should wash your hair, and the answer will depend a lot on your type of hair. In general, unless you have oily hair, you do not necessarily need to wash your hair every day, and doing so can potentially be harmful.
The oils that shampooing strips out to make your hair look less greasy also help to protect your scalp, and you need at least some of it to stop your hair from getting brittle.
Unless you have quite greasy hair, shampooing every day might not be beneficial, so a good stopgap is to use dry shampoo on days when you are not washing your hair otherwise.
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