Best Dry Shampoos

Dry shampoos are products designed to absorb the extra oil on your scalp by using ingredients like starch, says Angela Kim, DO, MpH, a board-certified dermatologist and a member of the Skin of Color Society. They can help soak up excess oil and give your hair volume.

They work differently than regular shampoo and shouldn’t be a substitute for washing your hair. While shampooing in the shower encases the dirt, oil buildup, and odor on your scalp, which then gets washed away, dry shampoo can absorb the oil, but it stays on your scalp, Kim says. 

It’s therefore worth noting that you shouldn’t use dry shampoo too frequently; otherwise, you risk making your scalp itchy and a breeding environment for yeast, bacteria, or fungus to grow. As a product, it should be used for a maximum of two days in a row, Kim says.

With those care instructions in mind, I assembled a panel of evaluators of different hair types, including me, to try out six dry shampoos. Here are our evaluators:

• Ginger Cowles, CR’s managing editor of new audiences, is a Black woman with long, fine, dark brown hair that falls to her mid-back. She typically washes, blow-dries, and flat-irons her hair once a week and uses dry shampoo primarily on her bangs in between washes. Sometimes, she shampoos just her bangs and the face-framing layers in between the bigger weekly washes. 

• Pang-Chieh Ho (that’s me!) is an East Asian woman with short, straight, thick, black hair. My hair, as previously established, is on the greasier side, and I wash it once every three days. Usually, my bangs are where my hair feels the most oily a few days after a shower.

• Elizabeth Lucy, CR’s senior major gifts officer, is an Ashkenazi Jewish woman with wavy auburn hair with blond highlights growing out. She typically washes her hair two to three times a week with shampoo and air dries it after applying curl cream and combing with a wide-tooth comb. She works out once to twice a day and uses dry shampoo to give a feeling of freshness between workouts and washes.

• Theresa McDermott, a CR business analyst, is a white woman with fine, straight, dark blond hair that has highlights. She typically washes her hair every other day. Because her hair is already on the dry side, McDermott says she uses dry shampoo to delay washing it and drying it out further.

• Subha Ramkumar is a former CR innovation lab project manager who has long, thick, wavy black hair that is slightly dry. She washes her hair twice a week and usually uses a dry shampoo after she goes to the gym to get rid of any greasiness.

For our evaluation, we didn’t include aerosol dry shampoos because they might emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and contain benzene, a known human carcinogen, according to Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at CR.

In a study published by the independent laboratory Valisure, high levels of benzene were detected in the aerosol dry shampoos sampled. In light of the results of the study, Valisure also submitted a citizen petition in 2022 to the Food and Drug Administration to revise industry regulations and recall dry shampoo products with levels of benzene that surpass 2ppm.

It should be noted though that dry shampoos in general often contain fragrances, preservatives, and surfactants that can cause allergic reactions, including contact dermatitis. The inhalation of dry shampoo powder can also lead to lung irritation for people who are susceptible, Hansen says. 

In our evaluation, we tried non-aerosol dry shampoos from Acure, Briogeo, Bumble and Bumble, Handmade Heroes, Klorane, and Oribe. My evaluators and I used them on our hair over a month and assessed them on how well they absorbed the grease in our hair, how easy they were to use, how seamlessly the dry shampoo powder blended into our hair, and whether they caused any after effects such as itchiness. Countless dry shampoo sessions later, these are the ones we recommend.