(This post was written for The Glosse Posse)

I wish I had known about dry shampoos earlier. Prior to 2012, if I had a bad hair day or an oilier hair day, I’d cover my head with a beret (that does NOT mean that every time you see me wearing my beret, it’s my bad hair day). I usually wash my hair every other day so I wasn’t sure what to do when I learned that I would be going on a 4 day camping trip last year – with no showers around (obviously). I didn’t want to stink, even if all of us would smell rather terribly, but I certainly didn’t want to have an itchy or oily scalp either. As I went shopping for some camping toiletries, I saw Klorane’s Gentle and Seboregulating Dry Shampoos on sale.

Thinking the smallest can (travel-size with around 50-55ml) would be enough to test and last for at least 4 days, I decided to go with the Oat Extract. It was a hair-saver! My scalp felt cleaner and my hair looked like it had been washed. The only problem was, after a few uses (3-4 times?), the can was empty. :O That meant the can was only good for 2 days at most, assuming I’d only use it once a day. I had one day left to buy a replacement dry shampoo so I set out to buy Klorane’s full-sized (150ml) dry shampoo. I can’t remember how much it was (maybe almost $20?) but I remember thinking that there had to be a cheaper but natural alternative. So instead of picking up the Klorane can as planned, I went to Lush and was glad to see that they had their own dry shampoo, No Drought. The dry shampoo came in a shampoo bottle (with those caps you can flick up or down) for $13.95, which was much cheaper than Klorane’s and would surely last longer. (I now see that there’s a small bottle (55g) for $6.95 that would have been a much better deal for me but would have still been more than enough for my camping trip.) Because No Drought had a citrus scent, I thought it would be able to frighten the mosquitoes and flies away (it did not) and lightly scent my otherwise would-be smelly hair (maybe?). So I opted for Lush and practised using it before my camping trip.

whereas Klorane’s dry shampoos are convenient aerosol sprays (of white powder apparently), Lush’s No Drought is a bottle of powder (talc, I believe) that you have to massage into your scalp – with both hands. The latter requires only a pinch of powder in your palm but can be rather messy if you’re not too careful. It’s best to be wearing your pyjamas or a bathrobe when you’re massaging the dry shampoo into your scalp. In my case with the camping trip, I ended up having to dust the powder off whatever I was wearing and hope that I didn’t have too much powder in my hair. If I did (I brought a little mirror), I would try to dust off as much as I could before throwing on a summer cap. Looking back, I wish I had gone with Klorane instead. It’s worth the money and saves everyone a lot of hassle. Please note, however that both will leave a powdery residue, though Klorane’s is not as noticeable, assuming you do not spray on a lot.

If both of these dry shampoos are not worth the price for you, you can use baby powder or make your own dry shampoo with items from the kitchen. There are many brands with their own dry shampoos nowadays but I haven’t had the chance to try them out. Another alternative is to use some Moroccan Oil Treatment or Hydrating Styling Cream to revive your hair!