In June, to my dismay, I had to travel for work for the first time in five years. It was my first flight at all in five years – so I was well out of practice doing things like creatively stuffing a quart bag with toiletries. I saw some awesome wisdom from frequent flyers to use contact lens cases for travel and stop blowing money on waste generating, expensive price-per-ounce/mL travel sizes.
Let me explain.
In my area, and in much of the US, you’re not getting out of a typical women’s salon haircut for less than $54. Using the CreaClip to cut my own hair saves me over $210/year assuming a quarterly cut (my situation). Now, I trim more often since it is so quick!
I never saw myself as an As Seen on TV buyer, but between the Turbie Twist and this, here we are. The CreaClip was pitched on Shark Tank (never seen it).
I’ve been harping about aerosol dry shampoos being a problem for a while now. I’ve switched to tapioca starch. But maybe you aren’t as much of a DIY-sort or just don’t want to mess with all of that, and I hear you.
Sometimes, you just aren’t up for a project (though it is low effort, I swear). Sometimes, we just need something that’s ready-to-use without the potential for a mess.
I Dew Care has a great little non-foam, non-aerosol dry shampoo for you – Tap Secret ($10-16). It’s most cost-effective to buy 3 (to get it to $10 ea), so if you have friends or family members who might appreciate it as a holiday gift or want to try it, I recommend that route!
I loved the idea of it so much that I bought I Dew Care Tap Secret to try despite having a solution that works for me. And I haven’t been just buying things to try them!
As an added bonus – the container is reusable! I figured even if the contents aren’t for me, I’d get a super-convenient tapioca starch dispenser.
To use it, you uncap it and tap the foam puff along your hairline. I tend to do my part, make another part/section, and tap again. Then, just like you’d use any other powdery dry shampoo (even aerosol), massage it in and shake it out, done.
I haven’t traveled in a long time, now, but I really love the idea of this dispenser for travel. No tiny aerosol to jam in your quart bag. No benzene.
Happily, there was no discernable fragrance which is a big win for me. Likewise, it did a nice job of absorbing oil without leaving a white cast or greyishness once it was massaged in. It definitely got me through another day without shampooing.
One thing that was a drawback for me personally is that this dry shampoo has clay as an ingredient. You may enjoy depending on your preferences! It’s great as an oil absorbing agent, and it means a little goes a long way. For me, though, using enough to get the job done gave my hair some hair some, “teeth,” or grip. This is great for volume, but can come at the cost of the ability to run your fingers through it.
The downside of this quality, though, is that it feels awful to run your fingers through. It isn’t unique; if you’re used to using texturizing powders like this one from Big Sexy Hair (oh, cool – they now have a lighter option, Lite, that I haven’t tried) or this one from Kristen Ess, it’s a similar feeling.
I think those products have their place (indeed; I own the Kristen Ess one and have used the original Big Sexy Hair one), but by themselves, they aren’t dry shampoos. That quality isn’t what I’m looking for in a regular dry shampoo product. I still want my hair to mostly feel like hair.
On the upside, it washes out easily so no problems there. I’ll use it, but I’d definitely use it when I planned to shampoo the next day. It may also be one of those products that is best used before your hair seems oily – so I will need to report back on that.
Since the applicator sponge is integrated with the packaging, I don’t know if you can take it off to clean it. Given the nature of the product, I’d think you’d want to eventually if you’re reusing the container. Despite my critique of the contents, I’m not ready to swap them for tapioca starch yet (maybe I’ll find a use for those properties), so I haven’t disassembled it to find out.
Finally, I would recommend I Dew Care Tap Secret dry shampoo despite not being completely satisfied with the texture aspect. Having a thorough understanding of the texture will help you use it effectively and work around what I consider its only critical point.
I switched away from conventional, aerosol dry shampoo well-before the news broke that the dry shampoo cans have been spewing poison at an uncomfortable rate. Instead, I use tapioca starch as non-aerosol dry shampoo to minimize oil between washes.
Non-aerosol dry shampoos have been available for a while. However, many of them come in the form of foam that claims to dry quickly. I haven’t tried them personally as they seem impractical; even if they dry fast, damp-looking roots can still be a problem. If I have time for damp hair, I would prefer to wash and dry it quickly.
Instead, on Jean’s advice, I use tapioca starch decanted into a few containers that I apply with a brush or puff. I realize this might sound like lunacy, so here’s more detail on HOW I go about using it:
Embarrassingly, I had a heated hair tool become problematic recently. I had my Hot Tools iron stored with a bunch of tools in a drawer. I hadn’t used it in a while, but needed to be presentable for some Mandatory Fun at work. Since my hair was dry, the Airwrap wouldn’t be a good fit. Thus, I reached for a reliable tool to do some quick low-effort wrangling of my hair.
What I found, though, was that the handle of the iron was odd: the texture wasn’t the same. It was inconsistent and, inexplicably, tacky or sticky. This wasn’t because of product build up, though – we’re talking the handle, not the barrel.
…or, maybe not. I tried to clean it; no dice. I ventured and gave using it a shot anyhow, because nothing was unsafe from an electrical or heat perspective. This was a mistake, though: strands of my hair stuck to the handle as I curled. I ended up pulling out a few strands as a result. Ow.
Early last week, I wrote an informative and scathing piece on carcinogens in dry shampoo. The news on the matter was focused on brands under Unilever’s umbrella, but unfortunately independent analytical lab Valisure found benzene in more dry shampoo.
Not in a few. 70% of the latest round of tests, featuring 150 batches from 30+ brands across multiple parent companies, came back with high levels of exposure. Here are just some of the affected brands: