I’ve written before about my super easy, all natural dry shampoo recipe. It’s pretty great. It has two ingredients, and that alone is amazing, before you consider that it works. However, it has been brought to my attention that it’s not ideal for those with more enthusiastically oily scalps. So I set out to create something better.
So, somewhat unfortunately (though it makes sense), this deluxe dry shampoo has a few more ingredients. About three times as many, actually. But it sure seems to do the trick. Here are some of the ingredients I added, and why.
French Red Clay—Clay does an amazing job of pulling out and absorbing the oils in my face, so I figured it would do the same for hair. The clay I currently had was French Green Clay, which is not terribly close to my hair colour, so I invested in some French Red Clay, which is a beautiful russet brown/red colour.
Zinc & Titanic Oxides—These white powders help absorb oil and add a bit of opacity to the mix.
Brown Oxide—To get the entire mixture closer to my hair colour, of course.
Wheat starch and cornstarch—My first recipe had cornstarch, and it’s what does most of the absorbing. So I thought I’d try some wheat starch for some variety.
Deluxe All-Natural Dry Shampoo
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp wheat starch
2 tsp baking soda (USA / Canada)
1 tsp zinc oxide
1 tsp titanium dioxide
1 tbsp French red clay (choose a clay that somewhat matches your hair colour, they are available in black, brown, white, and many other shades here.)
1 tsp cocoa powder (eliminate for very light blondes)
Brown oxide, as needed, about 2tsp (or oxide of choice to match hair colour)
~15 drops essential oil of choiceMaterials: 2 medium-sized mixing bowls, a metal spoon, measuring spoons, a fine mesh sieve
Begin by putting all the ingredients, minus the oxide, in a bowl and stirring them together. Use the back of the spoon to press the mixture against the side of the bowl to crush clumps and smaller particles.
Add the essential oil a few drops at a time, using the back of the spoon against the side of the bowl to break up the clumps it will create.
Mix in the oxide until the mixture is about the right color to match your hair (it doesn’t have to be exact).
Pass the mixture through the sieve, from one bowl to the other, using the spoon to press the clumps through the mesh. I did this about ten times, until I didn’t have to use the spoon to press anything through anymore.
Voila! A super fine, super effective dry shampoo! Apply with a large puffy brush, and be sure to tap off the excess.
I never tried dry shampoo before. But with 2 little kids, there are definetly days when I could use it.
I love this dry shampoo! It’s like an eraser for the greasies, which is awesome for dirty days. The only issue you might run into is the colour rubbing off—if you have dark hair and wear a light coloured hat you will probably have some colour transfer. When you’ve got dirty hair it’s best to choose one method or the other 🙂
This recipe is a little different than the one I use (cornstarch & coco & Lavender Oil). I want to give this a try and compare.
Awesome! I’ve made a simple dry shampoo with cocoa, baking soda (added that later, it really helps with the shine), and cornstarch, and it’s pretty awesome, but the clay in this recipe makes it really amazing 🙂
Please buy organic cornstarch otherwise you’ll be exposing yourself to GMO’s. GMO corn, soy and other genetic crops are harmful to our environment.
I 100% agree! I wish we had anti-GMO laws in North America like they do in the EU!
I can’t wait to try this dry shampoo!
I love it—it’s like an eraser for the greasies 🙂
Where can I order/find these ingredients? i.e. Titanium Oxide, French Red Clay etc.
I order pretty much everything from http://www.newdirectionsaromatics.ca.
This is a great idea – I’d never actually thought of making my own dry shampoo before! Thanks for the info 🙂
Have fun with it! It’s great to be able to get exactly the right shade and scent it just the way you like (or not at all, if that’s your thing).
I love using dry shampoo in between washes, but I have never thought of making my own until I came across your website. So now I am going to have to go try making and using some! I also love the fact that not only do you tell about how great natural stuff is but you also tell how to make your own.
Thanks for reading, Briana 🙂 I love having homemade dry shampoo, it’s so cheap and easy (and a batch lasts forever!), and it exactly matches my hair colour, which is probably my favourite part. Stay tuned for more awesome entries, I’ve been playing around in the kitchen and I’ve got some new things I’m super excited to share 🙂
Do you apply it directly to your head/hair part or on the brush? I’ve never used dry shampoo before but want to try it. Just needing newbie instructions. Thanks!
I just brush it into my hair using the poofy brush, like applying blush to my hair 🙂
Gonna have to give this one a try!
Let me know how it works out for you 🙂
I make a Dry shampoo using arrowsroot, cocoa powder, cinnamon powder, & peppermint eo. Smells heavenly. I am intrigued with the idea of using clay, I’ll have to play with it. Thank you!
Ooh, that sounds fantastic! I bet it smells a bit like Christmas 🙂 The clay is a fantastic addition for absorbing more oil, it’s like an oil eraser!
Is it not dangerous to breath in the oxide powders if they are floating around?? I read this somewhere.
You’re right, you shouldn’t be snorting lines of titanium dioxide. However, I don’t find I have any inhalation issues when I brush small amounts of this into my hair with a powder brush (especially considering the oxide powders only constitute about 1/7th of the recipe). When you’re making it you do need to be careful to let the powders settle before opening the coffee grinder (if that’s what you’re using), and I wouldn’t recommend shaking up your storage canister and then opening it straight away.
Nice! I tried this out and used cinnamon and some dried lavender blossoms, then blitzed all the ingredients together in the coffee grinder. The lavender and cinnamon were surprisingly complimentary. The lavender may help with platinum blondes who want to keep the white hot lightness in the hair.
I work out 5x a week; M – F. I’m not sure how this will work out. I just started dropping down the washes from every day to every other day and coconut oil treatments every other night (completely coated hair, slept with it on). This means I have to wash every other day… I may cut it back if the dry poo helps keep the hair shiny and bright.
Lovely! I am still working on my first batch of this and it’s like a grease eraser 🙂 I love the idea of incorporating dried herbs! Did you pass the mixture through a sieve to remove any bits of un-busted-up lavender?
How did this end up working out for you with your workouts?
It works very well. Bleaching my hair reduces the oiliness to begin with, so the moisture at the scalp is the only issue. I’m very happy with the results!
Fantastic!
I was wondering if you could omit the Titanium Dioxide? It’s the only ingredient I don’t have on hand, or on route; and it will be awhile before I place another order (NDA doesn’t sell anymore so sadly I can’t add it to that order) Is there a suitable replacement or just omit it altogether?
Thanks so much for all your hard work!! Thoroughly appreciate and love all my homemade goodies… I think I’ve made 5 or 6 things so far!
In this recipe you can leave it out 🙂 Thanks for reading & DIYing with me!
oops apparently I was wrong before, I just got an order of Titanium Dioxide in the mail today! Is that an indication of buying too much when you don’t even remember what you ordered!? haha
In any case, I just bought tiny amounts of each as I wasn’t sure which one to use; One is labelled as Water Soluble and the other is Oil Soluble… which one are you using?
What are the possible uses for the other?
Haha yay! In this application you can use either one, but I write more about them here.
I have celiac disease. Can I leave the wheat starch out?
Just swap it out, any starch will work—arrowroot, rice, tapioca, corn, etc 🙂
But why cocoa powder?
‘Cause it’s brown, and so is my hair—without it this shampoo makes my hair look grey. One could definitely use brown iron oxide instead (albeit significantly less!), but you would need to run the shampoo through a coffee grinder if you did that 🙂
You really are adventurous! Thanks!
😀
I live in Florida, and am having trouble with my dry shampoo clumping, any suggestions that I can add to keep it loose enough to shake out of a container?
Hmm. Perhaps try the humid-place salt trick, and add some whole rice to your container? It should be large enough that it won’t come out when you shake the container, and it should absorb excess moisture to keep the mixture free-flowing. Let me know if you try it!
Hi 🙂
I have copper-red hair (not my natural colour). Should I leave out or swap some of the ingredients, for colour adjustment, or use it as is?
Thanks!
Hmm. I’d probably leave out the brown oxide and cocoa powder initially, and tweak from there. A red clay will probably be a good place to start for copper-red hair, and some red and brown iron oxides will likely bridge any gap there might be 🙂
Thanks ;)!
Hi Marie!
How often can this be used?
I resorted to dry shampooing to stretch out my washes (i bathed on alternate days) and had even more hair fall than i was already having. I thought it was the ingredients I was using, so even after changing things around thrice, I’ve decided to give up on dry shampooing. It’s a go to for some days only, right?
Another thing, how does baking soda help the hair? I read somewhere that the ph and abrasiveness of bsoda disturbs the hair
Good afternoon Wish!
A good rule of thumb for dry shampoo is no more than two days in a row before a wash. Otherwise, you just cake the stuff on. As for using baking soda on the hair, give this a read!