Dry Shampoo Showdown – 5 Brands

A few weeks ago I tried a new dry shampoo from Herbal Essences Naked, (read about it here), and I was left less than impressed the lovely Rachwat recommended the Aussie Miracle Dry Shampoo, which I was intrigued about but had heard mixed reviews, but hers convinced me to give it a go! When I went to boots they had 3 for 2 on hair care, so naturally I thought it was only logical to buy 3 that I have never tried before comparing with 2 I’ve used multiple times over.

Unfortunately without the aid of a dry shampoo, I would have to wash my hair every day, on occasion I may, if I’m very lucky get 2 days. My hair, especially my fringe is prone to getting greasy quickly, and no shampoo or condition I’ve tried has every helped increase the time It looks clean. All of the reviews below were tried on 2 day old hair.

The long time tried and tested…

Batiste

I’m not loyal to any particular scent of these, I don’t particularly like the dark brown ones as every time I spray, it makes everything else around it brown too! I like that batiste gets rid of any trace of grease, but it goes too far the other way. Making my hair look and feel like I’ve been sat in a dusky attic for years. It’s very affordable, and I like that you can get it in travel size. No amount of massaging in and brushing out gets rid of the white cast it leaves on my hair. The negatives outweigh the positives.

Dove Refresh+Care

I must have been through over 6 or 7 cans of this. When this came out around about a year ago, it had a lot of hype when it came out and I made the switch. I prefer it to batiste 10 times over, the effect isn’t as extreme as it’s not as powdery, but my hair feels much fresher. It’s pretty neutral on the scent front, so if you hate the strong fake scents of batiste this might be worth giving ago. It’s better at giving my fringe a quick freshen up rather than my whole head. It leaves a little bit of powdery residue, but is much easier to work in and brush out. I like this more than any others I had tried, but never felt that there wasn’t anything out there that could possibly better.

So onto the Newbies…

Herbal Essences

In addition to their naked one I reviewed and hated (sulphate and colourant free), They do 2 others which I didn’t realise until I was deciding which 3 to pick up (at least in my boots, there may be more), this one was for adding volume, the rose was for colour protection (colour protection on dry shampoo?). I opted for citrus thinking it would smell fresher. The scent is quite light, not as in your face as batiste, but does make you feel when your spraying that you’re smelling clean.

Unlike the naked one, this does do something! It does leave a white cast on the hair and feels more powdery. It does remind me of batiste but in a much more subtle way, like it has half the power. It brushes out easily and the white cast became non existant. I liked this, but felt that I had to use a lot of it to get a good result, now I have a lot of hair but only use on the roots and in my fringe. I think I would struggle to get anything more than 4 uses out of this can. As for a volumising effect, I didn’t notice any difference, the next product did a better job in that department….

Tresemme Instant Refresh

 For me, this is the most comparable to batiste, it sprays out very heavily, and a few short shots at distance all over the head does a great job of not getting a too heavy coverage. This comes out very white and powdery, but unlike Batiste, it brushes out easily, and leaves my hair both looking and feeling much cleaner. This also helps add a little volume into the hair, so if you like that, it’s a plus.

Aussie Miracle Dry Shampoo

This was the one I was most interested to try, I’d heard mixed but largely negative reviews on this saying it was sticky! But the lovely rachwat had recommended it, and her review convinced me to give it ago.

If you follow the instructions to give it a really good shake, and spray at 30 cm away it’s fine. I can see why people describe it as sticky as I did find the closer I sprayed to my head it left a sticky look, but it brushed out easily. The first time i wore this I felt like I’d used loads and the effect was okay, but nothing special. But on waiting 10 minutes, when I brushed my teeth and left the house I noticed that my hair really did look better. The second time I held back and used much less and it had the same effect, I think It just needs some time to absorb.

It’s not powdery at all, and gives me the best appearance of clean hair, but not so much the feeling to the touch. But I’m happy with that. If you like your dry shampoo to also aid with giving a bit of volume, this one won’t be the one for you. The thing that most impressed me with this is that I used it 2 days in a row, usually it’s impossible to rescue my hair by day 3, but this one worked. It did make my hair feel dry by the end of day 3, it didn’t feel dirty still, and I was so tempted to see if I could rescue it again for a forth day but decided against it!

So which do I like most? I’m torn between Aussie and the Tresemme, I think the tresseme is slightly better value for money in terms of price per bottle, but I also need far less of the Tresemme to do the same job. I like the fact I can get an extra day with this, but they both have slightly different benefits. I would swing either way in the store if one was one offer over the other.

In ranking order I would put them, Batiste last, followed by Herbal Essences, Dove, Joint top with Tresemme and Aussie.

Can you recommend any others which you think I should give a go?

Follow: