Three Micellar Dry Shampoos Enter... And They're All Actually Pretty Good

I am a devotee of dry shampoo, and if given the chance I will evangelize about the best ones, the best method of use… I could easily fill 45 minutes with extemporaneous thoughts on this miraculous stuff. A few months ago I wrote about Bumble & Bumble’s Pret-a-Powder Post Workout Dry Shampoo Mist. I liked it, but it turns out I wasn’t really using it to it’s full potential, AND I didn’t realize this is part of a whole new trend in postponing hair washing: Micellar dry shampoo. FYI: You’ve heard of micellar water, and perhaps you know that the deal there is that there is cleansing oil suspended in micelles.. that’s how it cleans your skin so thoroughly… yadda yadda. Micellar dry shampoo is the same thing, but now it’s silica or cornstarch or whatever grease sucking thing suspended in the micelles, so when you spritz and give your scalp a little scrub, the absorbers are released, and your hair is cute again I have since bought two more micellar dry shampoos, figured out the best way to use them, and decided which is the best for your money.

First of all, usage. I have mentioned before, most recently in that Bumble & Bumble post, that the best time to use dry shampoo is when your hair is squeaky clean. If you think dry shampoo is a scam, could it be that you’re applying it to your three day old, greasy locks and expecting to look like you just got a blowout? That was absolutely what I did when I first tried dry shampoo, and it was a mistake that made me mistrust the whole dry shampoo family for quite some time! Here’s how I use my aerosol dry shampoo (my favorite is Not Your Mother’s, the purple one). When it’s time to wash my hair, I wash it after a workout, probably in the mid to late afternoon. I comb it out, then wrap it up in my towel turban and leave it alone for, I don’t know, awhile. An hour? Sure. I take my hair down and don’t touch it. I go to sleep. I wake up in the morning and liberally apply my Not Your Mother’s dry shampoo, making sue to concentrate on prone-to-grease areas like my temples, the nape of my neck, and the crown of my head. This adds tons of volume to my hair, and honestly I’m addicted to it and will not accept my hair any other way - I took some Serious Medication when I was 19 and it didn’t help my health but it DID decrease my hair volume by half and it’s never come back, and now I’m a tad bit self conscious about it.

How many millennial’s lives were fundamentally changed by this makeover scene?

Moving on! I live my life, and workout at some point in the day. This is where the micellar dry shampoos come in. When my hair is sweaty (I like to apply as soon as I can post-workout, so my sweaty strands don’t have a chance to dry) I shake up my bottle of micellar dry shampoo and spray it liberally on every bit of my hair that’s greasy. Again, the temples, the nape of my neck, and the crown of my head. I also lift up sections of hair and spray a bit over most of my scalp. Now this is the important part: Rub the product in a little, if you must, but after that DON’T TOUCH IT. I take a shower, get in my PJs, go on with my life, but just leave my hair be. It will OFTEN look a little haphazard. This is not the time to try and cheat your way out of a hair wash before you go out to a nice dinner. If you need to look cute, just wash your hair, you animal. Ideally, I don’t touch my hair till the next morning. I KNOW. YES. TRUST ME.

When I wake up in the morning I brush out my hair and honestly? It looks basically brand new. I have worn my hair down on DAY THREE of this routine and not only does it look fine, it looks GOOD. I said in my initial Pret-a-Powder post that this stuff is just going to make your ponytail look okay, and it’s not going to perform any miracles, but I take that back. I can go a week without washing my hair (my typically greasy hair) and it looks great. And that’s a week of sweaty Peloton rides, HIIT workouts, and very hilly dog walks EVERY DAY.

I will say, this seems to only work on sweaty hair. I’ve tried it after a walk where I just got a little dewy, and the results were not great. I think the trick is that you need to let this product dry with your hair as the hair dries. This is why I try to apply ASAP after a workout, and if I don’t get sweaty enough, I’ll wait till my faintly sweaty hair dries and then I’ll use aerosol dry shampoo.

So now you know how to use this stuff, and how (I’m guessing) it works, here are the products I tried and what I thought. To my surprise, they all worked the same. There was not one that made my hair look significantly different, for better or worse. I give myself full credit for this, and I think it’s my tried and tested system that gave them all the ability to perform to their full potential. You’re WELCOME. Anyway, I had to judge them on other things, and I DID.

Bumble & Bumble Pret-a-Powder Post Workout Dry Shampoo Mist

Price: $30 for 4oz ($7.50 per oz)

Packaging: 10/10

Scent: 6/10

This is the OG, or at least the first one I tried. It’s also the only one specifically marketed toward post-workout use. The scent isn’t bad, but it’s a little strong and cologne-y for my taste. The spray bottle is actually pretty amazing - it doesn’t get stuck and it pops back up fast so you can really spritz with speed. It’s a little costly, but it also lasts a long time. I think I bought this bottle in February? Early March? And yes, I did start this experiment and use other ones, but this bottle is still going. If I really needed a dry shampoo mist and I needed it NOW, this one is at Sephora, and is good. Plus, it comes in a travel size, either for travel or for just trying it out.

Wander Beauty Extra Mileage Hair Refresher Dry Shampoo

Price: $22 for 2.73oz ($8.70 per oz)

Packaging: 0/10

Scent: 10/10

I had never delved deep into Wander Beauty as a brand, and I’d only heard of their makeup, so I was kind of expecting a hair product from a makeup brand to be a dud. I was wrong! (Also, they make other hair stuff, not just this). Extra Mileage has my favorite scent of the bunch - it’s vaguely floral and clean but fades quickly and just leaves a whiff of freshness, not scent. BUT, and this is a HUGE BUT, the bottle is shit. The spray nozzle clogs and there’s no fixing it. It is so completely unusable that I had to use my Bumble & Bumble spray top just to be able to use the product. (The two bottles are the same size and the switch was actually a perfect solution, but I shouldn’t have had to do it!) It’s hard to recommend a product that, in its original packaging is literally unusable, but the actual dry shampoo is really good! After reading many reviews, this is a super common problem and I assume Wander Beauty is working on a fix, but the only way you can use this admittedly good product is to decant it into your own bottle. For the cost, that shouldn’t be necessary.

R+Co Spiritualize Dry Shampoo Mist

Price: $29 for 4.2oz ($6.90 per oz)

Packaging: 9/10

Scent: 8/10

This one is my winner! R+Co Spiritualize Dry Shampoo Mist has a great scent that isn’t too heavy, but isn’t completely unnoticeable. It’s like the Wander Beauty spray’s ever-so-slightly grittier cousin. The bottle isn’t as good as Bumble & Bumble’s, just because that one lets you spray and spray super fast. This spray nozzle needs a little more time to reset, but we’re talking fractions of seconds here. I have used an entire bottle and it’s never clogged. It’s also, by volume, the cheapest of the bunch, and if you get it from Nordstrom, like I do, you get those sweet sweet points.