Easy Three Ingredient DIY Homemade Dry Shampoo

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Dry shampoos have become more and more popular over the last little while. They can be a major time saver for those who need a quick pick me up or don’t have the time to completely wash and style their hair on a given day. They’re also great for maintaining your hair’s health and vitality. Too much washing and heat styling will break down your hair and strip it of it’s natural oils, drying it out and leaving it brittle and fragile. Dry shampoos allow you to maximize the time between your washes and blow drying sessions. Shinier, healthier hair is the result.

How to Make Dry Shampoo:

Although they’re a must-have beauty product, store bought dry shampoos can retail for anywhere from $5 to $40, giving us one more expense to cover. To eliminate the extra expense (not to mention the chemicals most store bought formulas contain), try out this homemade dry shampoo recipe. It’s tried and true and can be made for less than a couple dollars.

It will absorb any excess dirt and oil at your roots and revive your hair in a snap. I’ve found that it also gives me extra volume too.

How to Make All Natural Dry Shampoo. So simple! Total life saver. PrettyThrifty.com

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Cornstarch (you can also use Arrowroot)
1/4 cup Baking Soda
5-10 drops Essential Oil (Lemongrass, Lemon, Grapefruit, Jasmine, Lavender or another fresh scent)
A small or medium sized jar with a tight lid
A large, fluffy makeup brush

Instructions:

Mix the cornstarch and baking soda together in a bowl with a fork. Add five drops of essential oil and mix until very well blended. If you want the mixture to be more potent, add up to five more drops. You can also choose a few different essential oils that go well together and create a unique blended concoction. Use 1-3 drops of each (5-10 drops total). Have fun experimenting to create your own signature scent. We love blending lemon, orange and pink grapefruit for a delish, fresh citrus version.

Store in a jar that is big enough for you to easily use with a large makeup brush. Swirl the brush lightly in the mixture and apply to your roots. I create a deep part on one side and lightly dust the shampoo with my brush along that part. Next, I create another part (no more than an inch closer to the middle) apply the mixture again. I repeat this and work my way all the way to the other side. You can also ‘spot treat’ and just dust the shampoo in particular sections where you need it that day. Keep in mind that you only need to apply it to your roots.

Once you’ve applied the shampoo, let it sit for a bit. It will look kind of greyish right after the application, but don’t worry! It takes just a bit for it to fully absorb and you’ll brush it out afterwards as well. I like to give it anywhere from a few minutes to about 20, depending on how soon I need to be ready. For very dark hair, use the dry shampoo an hour or two before going out. This will give the lighter shampoo mixture time to absorb and disappear. See variation 2 below for another alternative for dark hair.

Next, use a boar bristle hair brush to comb through each section of your hair, brushing out any excess shampoo. You can also top things off by using your hair dryer on cool or medium heat for just a few seconds.

Variations:

1. Create floral scented version by incorporating real flowers. Skip the essential oil or choose ones that blend well with your favorite flower. We recommend rose petals or lavender – really any flower that ‘dries’ well. Add the fresh flower petals to the mixture and seal in a tight container. Store for 2-3 weeks before using (in a dark, dry, cool place for best results). This option makes a very pretty gift. 🙂

2. For darker hair, substitute unsweetened cocoa powder for the cornstarch. This will create a darker mixture which will blend more quickly into darker shades of hair. For this option, vanilla essential oils work well. You can also try other scents, but you’ll want to test them out and pick ones that won’t clash with the light cocoa scent.

3. For an extra ‘drying’ formula, substitute the 1/4 C. Baking Soda with 1/8 C. Baking Soda and 1/8 C. Baking Power (half a 1/4 C. or 2 Tbs. of each). Baking powder will dry out your hair a little bit more than baking soda, so replacing half the baking soda with baking powder will help tackle your hair if it tends to be particularly oily. For normal hair, this variation may dry out your hair too much. Try both options to see which works best for you.

A Few Final Tips

* We’ve seen other recipes including things like cornmeal, salt, ground oatmeal and even ground almonds. After trying some of these variations, I wouldn’t recommend them – it was too hard to completely brush them out and my hair was left feeling very.. well, gritty.

* Also, some people use a shaker container for their dry shampoo. We like the brush method much better since you can apply it directly to your roots where it is the most effective. We found that we had less control with a shaker and that our roots were under treated and the rest of our hair was over treated.

If you try this out, let us know which formulas and variations worked best for you! Do you have any favorite scents? We’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Easy Three Ingredient DIY Homemade Dry Shampoo

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