This is the easiest way possible to make your hair look clean when it isn’t. It’s also cheap. And smells like chocolate. What more could you want?
This is best for brunettes and dirty blondes. Just mix equal parts cornstarch and cocoa powder. Apply it to greasy roots with a big, poofy brush (make sure to tap it until there is almost nothing left on the brush). Dust it in thoroughly, and off you go with a scalp that smells like hot cocoa. Yum.
LOVE your website!!
Will be using your grout cleaner and dry shampoo recipes
Thank you SO much!!
Lynn
Thanks, Lynn! Let me know if you need any help with anything and I’ll be happy to lend a hand 🙂
Could you tell me please big poofy brush? Like the ones for the mineral makeup or is this a hair brush? Just found the page and my Mom is bed ridden so she could really use this on days she has to go to her doctor. Please let me know and thanks.
It’s just something like a big blush or face powder brush, Rayne—not a hair brush. Something to let you easily dust the shampoo into your hair. I hope this works for your mom!
I would like to know (also) what a big poofy brush is…I doubt I have one, but I’m really wanting to try this shampoo!
Something you’d use for blush or face powder, like this. I just use a really cheap one I got off eBay from China as I don’t care how soft the bristles are when I’m just brushing powder into my hair.
This is wonderful, thank you! I’ve been looking for a dry shampoo recipe. Can’t wait to try this. And thanks for putting together this terrific website.
Thanks for reading, Adriana, and enjoy the dry shampoo!
Wow, this is such a easy DIY! Dry shampoos are so popular right now and I’m debating on purchasing one of those to try it out. But this recipe is much of more natural 🙂 Gonna go dig in my pantry for these ingredients!
Awesome! How did this work for you, Karen?
I don’t really understand the concept of dry shampoo, but I am attempting to start better caring for my natural curly hair and am curious about dry shampooing. Could you kinda give me an idea of how the concept is supposed to work?
Jennifer, I can’t speak for everyone but my reason for using dry shampoo is the chemicals that strip my hair in regular shampoo. Like you I have naturally curly and thirsty hair. Whenever I wet shampoo the oils get visibly stripped and I end up with a frizzy thirsty mess no matter how much conditioner I put in. The dry version is much healthier and my hair is less frizzy meaning I don’t need to put more chemicals from a frizz reducer in it. I haven’t been doing this long but I also use either vinegar when I need a conditioner or coconut oil. The dry shampoo not only soaks up any extra (very rarely) oil but it also traps any dirt. Good luck to you, Rayne.
Do you have to brush it out? It seems odd to me to just leave it there. I’m afraid I’d end up picking at my scalp all day long.
Hey Jennifer! Have you had a chance to try the dry shampoo yet? What did you think?
I haven’t, I wish I had! My boss is out of the country this month and I’ve had a lot on my plate. :/ What I desperately need right now is a scalp treatment, my skin is soooo dry!!! 🙁
Oh no, your poor scalp! My boss was away last week, so I know the feeling. Have you had any more free time as of late? Hopefully you’ve had some time for some pampering 😉
I’ve not, but I did find a great deal on some sulphate-free shampoo! Been using it about a week and so far I am liking it! It’s weird trying to get used to no lather when I wash my hair! 🙂
How interesting—why doesn’t your shampoo lather? What’s it called/what’s in it? All my shampoo bars lather because, as far as I know, sulphates are a preservative and have nothing to do with lather. I’m curious now!
Thanks for chiming in, Rayne! I don’t have curly hair (despite many years of very concerted wishing), so it’s great to hear from the curly side of things 🙂
Rayne,
Do you use store/salon bought shampoos and conditioners, or do you DIY it? I have read that most traditional shampoos strip too much oil from curly tresses, because of the way the hair folicle is shaped. Also, got any tips on scalp treatments? I wonder sometimes if that would help with that “itchy” feeling problem I have.
Hey, Jennifer! I’ll add to what Rayne has said—I use dry shampoo to help stretch out my hair washes. On the last day of my wash cycle I will style my hair as I want it (usually pulled back into a braid or something), and then use a large powder brush to dust the area around my part, as it’s the roots that get greasy first. I only use a very small amount of the dry shampoo powder, and it works almost like an eraser for oily hair. It absorbs & disguises the oily look in an instant. And, because you apply it with a brush, you don’t need to worry about having too much in your hair—it’s just a very light dusting. Think of it kind of like hand sanitizer—you don’t wash it off, and you don’t notice it after about 10 seconds. As to feeling like it would irritate your scalp—again, the amount is very small, and you just apply it to the hair, not directly to your scalp. Some store bought dry shampoos will have you massage it all into your scalp and hair and then brush/shake it out, but that method doesn’t work with this dry shampoo. Hope that helps!
Hello, I’m in love with your blog, and jealous your ingredients supply ^_^.
Dry shampoo is something I’ve wanted to use. I’ve tried baking soda once, but due to my black hair, my hair looked dandruff-y because of it that I ended up washing my hair anyway. The baking soda did make my hair noticeably less greasy though.
Oh, I have mid-length black, straight and fine asian hair with a lil’ bit of reddish tint.
Do you have any suggestion what I should mix with cornstarch and cocoa powder to suit my black hair? Will activated charcoal okay?
As I live in the tropics where the humidity is high, I think putting baking soda in the mixture will make the “grease-sucking power” of the dry shampoo stronger. However, I’m afraid since the granules are less fine than those of cornstarch and cocoa powder, it will not blend well and I’ll still end up with dandruff-y looking hair despite the cocoa powder.
So, what do you think? Any suggestion would be much appreciated.
Thank you so much 🙂
Thanks for reading Yullani! I imagine baking soda wouldn’t work all that well on your black hair 🙁 You could try activated charcoal, or black Australian clay. Black oxide would also help. I’d recommend blending it all in a coffee grinder (I just get an extra one at Value Village that I only use for DIY projects)—that’ll help with different particle sizes 🙂 Have fun! I bet you’ll love your new dry shampoo.
It’s an alcohol-based shampoo. I’ve been reading up on caring for my curly hair and most of therecommendations I have found have been for sulphate-free shampoos, as sulphates dry out curly hair more than normal hair. I figured it was worth a shot. 🙂
Hmmm… that’s… odd. Alcohol, in most cases (ethanol), is super drying. Only in cases where it’s something like cetyl alcohol (which is actually a fat and is solid) is it not (source). What are the ingredients in your shampoo?
Ok, so I don’t completely know what I’m talking about. 😛 I looked at my shampoo bottle this morning and it’s not alcohol-based. It’s Joico Smooth Cure Sulfate-Free Shampoo. The key ingredients, according to ariva.com, are tacuma butter, brazilian nut oil, hydrolyzed keratin, and quadramine complex. Go to http://www.beautybrands.com/product/joico+smooth+cure+sulfate+free+shampoo.do?sortby=bestSellers for a complete list of ingredients. So far I am liking what it does to both my hair and scalp. While my scalp is still sometimes itchy, the overproduction of oil due to the stripping of my hair’s moisture seems to have stopped.
Ok, phew! Glad to hear it 🙂 The ingredients you mentioned are all great (I have most of them, haha), but the other ones are mostly mysterious and/or latin 😛 They don’t have the specific shampoo on Skin Deep, but they do have the brand—it looks like their products run the gamut of safe to eeeeek. How has it been working over the last week or so?
So far so good. I have to use a bit of regular shampoo to get out product if I only have time to dunk my head under the faucet, but so far the new stuff still seems to be cutting down on excessive oil production. The big test will be in 3 weeks when I go spend the day at the waterpark! Stay tuned to see if it can control the inevitable frizz, lol!
Awesome, I’m glad to hear it 🙂 Do you braid your hair when you go swimming? I only ask because I pretty much have to (as well as for sleeping and other head-tossing type activities).
It’s not quite long enough to stay put in a proper braid, unfortunately. I will have to slather mousse on a high ponytail and maybe bring some conditioner to run through my hair a few times throughout the day to fight any dryness.
So… how’d that trip to the waterpark go? 😉
It was great!! And I managed to keep my hair under control by keeping it in a bun!
Awesome! I need more water park trips in my life 🙂
Hi Marie, I just made this recipe dry shampooo!!! I LOOOVVVEE LOOVVE LOOVVEEE the chocolate smell 🙂 It’s insane how well it works like an eraser!!! Crazyynneeesss! Do you think it’s fine to use this for more than one day (closer to washing time)? Also, if I want to leave my hair down, can I distribute the powder throughout the roots of my hair with the pooof brush, so not only do it on the parting at the front?
Awesome! I love how just a few simple ingredients can come together like this 🙂 Feel free to use it as much as you like—just be aware that too much will leave you looking a bit powdery 😛 I have found that the dirtier my hair is, the better it is to leave it up and back—this allows me to control/hide the greasiness, but feel free to leave it down and see if that works for you!
Hi love your blog !! So many great ideas and love how you always use natural ingredients. I have always used cornstarch baby powder for in between shampoo days but like this idea much better . I have extremely sensitive skin and use organic /natural products . I have very fine hair and due to some health issues it sometimes falls out . I find the powder really helps to try mask this problem . I was wondering what you would suggest for very light / honey blonde hair to blend more easily. Many thanks 🙂
Thanks, Michele! I’d recommend blending a yellow/blondish clay with your cornstarch—it will help with the colour and the oil absorption 🙂 Multani Mitti is quite yellow (moreso than the photo shows) & could be a good place to start.
Would it be possible to use Arrowroot to substitute the cornstarch?
Definitely!