Due to my incredibly dry skin yet ridiculously oily scalp, I am always looking for amazingly absorbent dry shampoo. The search for it has been both long and hard, but I think I can say that, at last, it is finally over. And so, today, I am going to share my journey-ending discovery with you.
Let’s get started.
Herbal Essences “Color Me Happy” Dry Shampoo
Okay, so dry shampoo and I have an interesting relationship.
I’ve struggled with a very oily scalp since I was about eight or nine years old. Unfortunately, though, back then, no one ever told me about dry shampoo, so my only options were to either wash my hair everyday or to, on the second day, wear it up in a hideously matted ponytail, using mostly hairspray and a comb to mask the oiliness. Oh, and baby powder. Yeah, there was always lots and lots of baby powder on my scalp growing up…
It’s no wonder I never got any of the boys!
Anyway, you’re probably wondering why I wouldn’t just wash my hair every single day like every other human being out there, but it honestly just wasn’t (and still isn’t) that easy; because I, as I said before, suffer from incredibly dry skin (that leads to eczema in the wintertime), it ends up making every bit of my hair that isn’t near my scalp also incredibly dry. So if I wash it everyday in the shower, after about two days in a row, it becomes so dry that it literally starts falling out of my head in clumps — whether or not the shower is hot or the shampoo extra gentle.
So the bottom line is that the general concept of soap on my head every single day is simply too much for my overall dryness to handle, and so I physically cannot wash my hair more than every other day. Unless I want to be bald, of course. Which I don’t; I’m peladophobic.
And so, as a child, I had to deal with the oiliness.
Ugh, it was awful…
But then high school came, and in those magical years of beauty maturation, I discovered the equally magical product called “dry shampoo.”
Yes, legend had it that said “dry shampoo” could remove the oiliness on your second-day-scalp without drying out the rest of your hair and thus causing you to go bald. And so, I just had to try it out for myself.
Unfortunately, though, every dry shampoo I’ve ever bought — from Batiste to L’Oreal to Not Your Mother’s to Pantene — did nothing but make my scalp feel (and sometimes even look) even more gross than before.
They would either take away some oil (but not nearly enough) or visibly soak up all the oil yet not make my scalp feel clean, which would drive me nuts all day long. There were also a good many that left too much of a white residue behind that, even when blended, ended up tinting my hair gray for the day. All of the translucent solutions, however, were never quite absorbent enough, and all of the ones tinted brown would only make my hair look even greasier than before. There were also many that simply added grossness to the scalp — you know, those ones that are supposed to rough up clean hair so as to make it more easy to style. Yeah, those obviously never worked. And, finally, we have my favorites: the ones that don’t work at all unless you put half of a can in your hair at one time. But then suddenly it’s too much and you can’t even get a brush through it. Yeah, those ones are fun.
Well, after my last bust, I went to the grocery store to try to find more. I was honestly open to try anything, but my local Target that day was, well, quite disappointingly stocked. And so this Herbal Essences dry shampoo was my only option. But due to my general desperate need of dry shampoo, even though I don’t really like Herbal Essences (because it tends to dry me out), I picked it up anyway. I mean, why the heck not?
As you can see, the one Target had in stock was from their “Color Me Happy” collection. According to its label, it’s for color-treated hair, and it provides an “instant,” “1st day clean” feel. Also, it is “luscious rose” scented.
Okay, so it doesn’t sound too bad, right? I mean, sure, they’re the same general promises that most dry shampoo labels put forth, and, sure, my hair isn’t colored, but it couldn’t be that bad, right?
Right.
Freaking right!
Ladies and gentlemen, I HAVE FINALLY FOUND MY PERFECT DRY SHAMPOO.
Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. God is good. God is real. All prayers get answered. Good dry shampoo exists. God finally made good dry shampoo exist. Hallelujah. Praise Him again. And again. Hallelujah. Amen.
Okay, so, as you can see, there are only four steps to this dry shampoo: shake, spray, rub in, then brush. Honestly, though, I’ve never seen a dry shampoo with more steps than this — or with different steps than this, actually. So, it works just like every other one out there. Which is good for someone who sucks at dealing with hair care products, like me.
Okay, so now to show you what it really does. Below is me and my second-day hair a few minutes after we woke up:
Before you go saying anything snarky, I sleep in braided pigtails because of my hair’s length; if I leave it down or in regular pigtails, it becomes an untangle-able mess, and I can’t sleep in ponytails because they hurt my head. Plus, braids help me keep the waves my hair naturally has into the second day. So, as dowdy as I look, braids it always is! But, in all honesty, who really cares? I go to bed to sleep, not to embody Miranda Kerr.
And, yes, I have two hair ties in my right pigtail, thanks for noticing.
#JudgeMe
But, anyway, the point of that is, due to the braids, you can’t really see the oiliness. As soon as I take them out, though, you can tell straight away that something hasn’t been washed — mostly due to no volume whatsoever on my scalp.
A.K.A. The oil mattes down the top of my head, and I look like pin-shaped, greasy freak.
Here’s a better angle with even better lighting, for your viewing enjoyment:
Lolololol, I’m so gross.
But just spray a little of the magic on top and underneath, and everything is fixed!
(I’m so enthused.)
Above is me before I rubbed the product in. As you can see, there is an odd mix of white and oil on my hair, making me extra attractive. Here’s some closer looks (because I know they are totally what you want to see):
What I love about this dry shampoo is that, even though it has a white tint to it, the tint is barely there, so you can see where you sprayed it but also very easily blend it out, which is great for anyone who isn’t blonde.
And then once I rub it all in (which I tend to do in nice, little, circular motions with my fingertips), this is what I look like:
It literally looks like I just got out of the shower and blow-dried my hair.
What???
Plain and simple, I’ve never found a dry shampoo that makes my hair look this fresh. And what’s even better is that it feels as clean as it looks — as well as lasts. After a few hours at work or a brief trip out to the grocery store, I’m not suddenly feeling very oily once again (whether or not I actually look it). This dry shampoo very truly has the clean feeling of shampoo that doesn’t go away that all dry shampoos should have.
And the icing on the cake is that when I have it in, I can still run my fingers through my hair. Yes!!!!
Herbal Essences, you’ve nailed it. I give you a five out of five. As well as many claps. Many, many claps.
Two things to note, though:
First of all, I never brush my hair once I put dry shampoo in; I use my fingers to smooth anything that looks out of place down, but I never, ever, ever run a brush or a comb or such through my hair once the product is in. For me, it just makes it look dirty all over again (because my scalp is so oily), which I found to be true even with this particular one. However, brushing once the product is in might not have any effect at all on you. So if you do brush it and still look awesome, cool! But if you don’t, then simply put some more back in, tousle and blend it, and leave it alone. You’ll look perfectly alright.
Second of all, Herbal Essences has two other dry shampoos: “Naked Volume” and “Body Envy.” Next time around, if any of my local stores have them in stock, I am going to try them out, just to see if they live up to this one. Feel free to try them out, too.
As for where you can purchase these, any of your local stores that sell Herbal Essences (Target, Walmart, Walgreen’s, CVS, Rite Aid, Giant Eagle, Piggly Wiggly, Food Lion, etc., etc.) should have it in stock. If they don’t, though, you can find the products on Herbal Essences’ website:
Here is “Color Me Happy,” the one I have.
Here is the Naked Volume version.
And here is the Body Envy one.
Herbal Essences provides under the “Buy” button links to websites that have the product available so you can purchase it. “Color Me Happy” is $3.49, “Naked Volume” is $4.97, and “Body Envy” is $4.59, all at Walmart (online). I believe that I paid right around $4 for mine in store at Target.
And that’s it! I hope this was helpful to anyone looking for a great dry shampoo. Also, I’d love to know whether or not it worked for you as well as it worked for me, so leave a comment below if you’ve ever tried it out.
See you soon! ❤
P.S. – I forgot to talk about the rose scent of this product! If strong smells bother you, have no fear with this dry shampoo. It smells light and fresh, kind of like artificial rose but also kind of like general dry shampoo. It’s very light, though; normally, dry shampoo practically chokes me, it smells so strong. This stuff, however, I can spray with the bathroom door shut and my fan off and be totally fine. Not that I recommend that, though; aerosols are very, very bad to inhale.
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