When it comes to my hair, I’m faced with a semi-unusual issue. From the top of my ear to the crown of my head, my hair is virgin and super oily, but from my ear down, it’s still color-treated, bleached, and extremely dry from my stint as a platinum blonde. Because my ends are so incredibly dry, fragile, and prone to breakage, per the instructions of my colorist, I should continue to treat my hair the same as I did when I was blonde — I really shouldn’t wash my hair more than twice a week at most; that is, until all of the bleach grows out.
But when I say the top of my head gets oily, I mean it gets very oily. To put it in perspective, when I had exclusively virgin hair, I would have to shampoo it at least every other day. So these days, half of my hair will start to look almost wet (my apologies for that disgusting visual) about 48 hours after a wash day. And to make matters worse, I have also recently decided to get a fringe — and because they’re in constant direct contact with my skin, they get greasy even faster than my roots.
So naturally, dry shampoos have since become a serious necessity of mine. I’ve always had a dry shampoo in my medicine cabinet for occasions where my hair looked a little greasy and I didn’t have time to give a proper wash. But as of late, I’ve just about tripled the amount of dry shampoo I use weekly, and suddenly, my old holy grails have started to let me down. I had long been obsessed with the French pharmacy dry shampoo from Klorane — it was lightweight, easy to blend into my hair, relatively affordable, and did, in my opinion, the best job at knocking unwanted shine in my hair. But recently I’ve realized that you can’t use it more than one day in a row. If you do, you’ll start to notice a sticky, thick buildup in your hair, and it’ll start to feel and look a little crunchy. The Klorane was great to use from time to time, but I needed something that I could trust to use multiple days in a row to mattify my oily roots without creating buildup.
Desperate, I stumbled into a Space NK, explained my situation to the staff, and asked if they had any recommendations. Without hesitation, three of the girls that worked there said in unison, “You should try the Living Proof one.” Now I remember hearing about the cult of the Living Proof dry shampoo in an episode with Fat Macara, a beauty podcast hosted by two veteran editors. One of the hosts said that the Living Proof dry shampoo has instructions that are a little different than most dry shampoo products out there, but when used correctly, it’s truly one of the best in the business. Allegedly, the formula is special because instead of creating a mask that simply covers up the appearance of the oil, the Living Proof Dry Shampoo mimics the way shampoo interacts with your hair — it actually removes oil from your hair, rather than just mattifying and concealing it.
Unlike most dry shampoos, which you simply spray on the desired area and quickly run your fingers through, the Living Proof Dry Shampoo suggests you spray the product from about ten inches away from your face (so that it evenly distributes, rather than just saturating one area) and then wait for at least 30 seconds. During this time, the product is allegedly working to absorb the sweat and oil on your hair, so when it’s time to ruffle the roots of your hair (as you would with a normal dry shampoo) you’re actually shaking out the product along with the sweat and oil that it’s absorbed.
I’ve been using this product every three-ish days for the last eight weeks and I’m pleased to report that this is, without a doubt, the best dry shampoo I’ve ever used. Not only does it quickly mattify and remove shine from my oily roots, the product doesn’t leave a trace — there’s zero stickiness or tackiness, and my hair feels just as it would if I had showered that morning. Visually and texturally, you wouldn’t be able to tell that I had just applied a dry shampoo — the only trace it leaves behind is a faint floral smell, which could honestly be mistaken for detergent. And the greatest thing about it is you can use it multiple times in a week without feeling like the product is collecting on your scalp — when you run your hands through your hair after applying the product, it really feels like you’re drawing the oil out of your hair and shaking it from your scalp.
I don’t mean to be dramatic, but to say that this has become a staple in my haircare arsenal would honestly be an understatement. I’ve raved about it on TikTok and Instagram and even gifted my sister a bottle for the holidays. And if you’re someone that has bangs, I can’t recommend this product enough — instead of having to wash my fringe in the sink and blow dry them daily (people with bangs know, this is the reality!), with just a quick spray of this dry shampoo, they go from stringy and oily to clean and voluminous within just a few seconds. I truly feel like this product has cut the time of my daily hair care routine in half.
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