My Quest for Great Dry Shampoo

When I worked retail, I would often work a 16-20 hour shift, race home for two hours of sleep and head back to the store. Working such crazy hours and being required to look damn good while doing it had me and my coworkers get super creative with our beauty routines.

I loved the smoky eye look because I could go to sleep with my makeup on, wake up, spritz with The Body Shop’s Vitamin E spray, use a Q-tip to wipe away excess makeup under my eyes, reapply lipgloss and look good. I had a razor, deodorant, a toothbrush and toothpaste hidden in the back of a drawer in the office, and in the store's bathroom was a can of Psssssst spray shampoo.

I can’t recall how I learned about this product, as that it was early in the Internet days and I wasn’t following beauty blogs. All I know is that this product could take my greasy long layers and make them look pretty decent, in a beachy, tousled sort of way.

When I left retail, I left my can of Psssssst. It wasn’t a beauty product I was proud of using, as that in those days the idea of dry shampoo evokes images of sickly old women in nursing homes who don’t have the strength to get out of bed and take a proper shower.

Those days have gone and now dry shampoo is an almost-expected item in the medicine cabinet of any woman with long hair. It extends time between blow-outs, gives body and texture to layered locks, and yes, can help you get away without taking a shower when you’re running late.

Over the past couple of years I have tried various brands of dry shampoo that beauty bloggers and magazines have claimed to be THE BEST. I have spent a small fortune on tubes of white powder that make me look ashy, spray bottles of product that stains my scalp or causes rashes, been embarrassed by brown stains on my white shirt when caught in an unexpected rainstorm, been nauseated by intense smells of lemon, drugstore perfume, or toxic chemicals.

And then I tried Salon Grafix. I am a big Drugstore.com fan – it’s wonderful to be able to order toilet paper, mascara, body wash and deodorant on my lunch break and have it arrive on my front step the next afternoon. I also love that I can get 6 – 12% cash back on my order by going through Ebates – free fast shipping, reasonable prices and money back? Score!

So anyway, I looked through Drugstore.com’s selection of dry shampoos and the reviews for each product and found the combination of high ratings and low price to make Salon Grafix’s dry shampoo seem like a winner. After checking reviews on Makeup Alley (if you don’t have this site bookmarked – do it now!) I decided to purchase.

Do know, no dry shampoo is perfect – think about it, you’re spraying or sprinking some sort of powder that soaks up oil, possibly deposits pigment, and is supposed to make your hair smell fresh. You can’t expect dry shampoo to make your hair just like freshly washed hair, and if the product has pigment, you can’t expect it to only add pigment to your tresses and not surrounding skin. Be smart, follow the instructions, expect reality.

That being said, I am a total fan of Salon Grafix Spray powder Shampoo in the Brunette shade. As you know I have medium to dark brown hair, and it blends in perfectly. Unlike uncolored dry shampoos, this added pigment keeps my hair from looking ashy and actually helps cover up roots when I am late for a color touch-up. I don’t spray it too close to the head which keeps it from dripping or dying the scalp, I spray in various places, let it sit, then brush it through. I have learned a little goes a long way – spray too much and your hair feels as though it has clay in it. I have taught myself to not scratch my scalp after applying because it’s a bear to try to get that brown color out from under my fingernails.

Yesterday I was running late and didn’t have time for a shower so I went for my bottle of Salon Grafix. I loved how at 4pm I could go to the bathroom, fluff my hair and it would not only fluff, but stay fluffed! It didn’t look dry or dull, didn’t look greasy, didn’t look heavy, didn’t look false.

I also love this product on freshly-washed hair. It does a great job at adding texture, fullness and a bit of separation to highlight soft waves and layers.

It also passes the sweat and rain test – I have worn the dry shampoo to a show where I am dancing and sweating and no drip marks on my neck or shirt. I also got caught in the crazy snow/ice/sleet/insanity that DC had last week and again, no brown stains on my forehead, neck, or clothing.

The smell is there – not too strong, but it has a smell that I connect to dry shampoo. If you haven’t used dry shampoo, you may not notice it. It’s not a fresh smell, not a perfumey smell, not a chemical smell – sort of makes me think of old-school hair products – slightly perfumey but with a stale undertone. My husband doesn’t notice it (unlike Oscar Blandi dry shampoo where he said my hair smelled like Pledge and I was across the room from him).

I have been using the same can for a couple of months – I use it at most once a week. Haven’t had any trouble with the can clogging and I can tell by the weight of the can that I will probably have to buy another one in the next couple of weeks. I think it’s a pretty great value.  By the way, it also comes in invisible, blonde, and black shades.

Note: I didn’t get paid for this review, I wasn’t approached to write it, nada. I am just writing it because I think the product is pretty fab and wanted to share it with you!

Salon Grafix