Some people think dirty hair is bad for you, or as soon as the hair gets oily it needs to be washed.  I am here to widen your prospective on oily hair, it can actually work to your advantage when you have a good can of dry shampoo.  Dry shampoo can be your weapon of disguise for greasy hair. Nobody loves that feeling of heaviness or itchiness of the scalp but there are ways you can use your oils as part of your styling routine. I’ll begin by explaining to use dry shampoo, what your natural oils do for you, and finally  how to replenish moisture in your hair .

How to use dry shampoo

*Note: if you don’t have an oily scalp, you don’t need to use dry shampoo unless you feel necessary or want added volume. Dry shampoo adds grit which helps with voluminous hair. However, you may still want to read the following.

Brush the oils down from scalp to ends, repeatedly -couple of times- each day (ex. once in the morning, and once at night). Brushing your scalp is just as important as brushing your hair because it stimulates the blood flow in your scalp and pulls the excess sebum off the scalp. Pulling excess sebum off the scalp helps the dry shampoo not work so hard and get pasty from all the dry shampoo and oils. In turn, the excess of oils and dry shampoo can make your scalp itchy. The goal is to work all the oils throughout the hair to receive the benefits (paragraph below) of the sebum, and to get the excess oil off the scalp. As you continue this regimen, your hair will get more lustrous, humidity resistant and frizz proof. I usually brush my scalp to ends 1 to 2 times a day and spray my scalp once a day (only because I have really oily scalp).

Then I would part your hair and spray a dry shampoo on your scalp everywhere, part and spray, part and spray. I prefer an aerosol version. Make sure to shake the can really good so you can distribute the powder evenly. My favorite dry shampoo is from Onesta (available at Transit Salon).

If you don’t have really oily hair, you can reduce the amount of days per week you apply the dry shampoo, but I highly recommend brushing from scalp to ends every day, so you can also stimulate the scalps blood flow.  

Benefits of  sebum

To start out your natural oil’s are produced as a first layer of defense to protect  your skin (scalp) and hair .  Your natural oils help protect your skin from getting dry and from becoming more prone to getting infections and diseases.  It is not necessary to excessively shampoo your hair because it can dry out your scalp and hair.  However, as consumers we become accustomed with buying products that smell good and that clean our hair, which isn’t bad. We just have to learn how to re-hydrate/clean our hair properly. 

I don’t recommend doing this method of using dry shampoo instead of regular lather shampoo every time your trying to cleanse your scalp (check out how to shampoo your hair here), primarily because your hair needs water- moisture! However, using dry shampoo is a great method if you know you’re not wanting to wash it for several days (for example, if you just got your hair styled or you are trying to preserve your hair color). Our natural oil’s are also a great heat protect-ant and work great against humidity as a water repellent/defrizzer to create lustrous hair.

When you do finally wash your hair, I recommend using a hydrating conditioner or mask to replenish nutrients into the hair and seal in the water (moisture). Be sure to rinse in cool water. Before you know it you’ll be having longer lasting color, styling and better hair days!

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