The Dry Shampoo Tip That Changed Everything: When—and How—Are You Using Hair Powder?

Let me be honest: For the past decade, I have not-so-secretly thought of the supposed hair-transformative effects of dry shampoo as a full-blown urban legend. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t want to believe that an aerosol can filled with corn starch could give me Daria-in-the-Céline-ads hair. But years spent testing every possible spray, powder, mist, and brush formula in the Vogue beauty closet had royally failed to instill either a) Parisienne fluff or b) French girl cool to my shoulder-length cut. As for making my hair look cleaner? Not so much.

And then, last fall, a hairstylist friend suggested that I try the following tricks and report back. First, after spraying an aerosol formula along my roots in sections, I should wait a full two minutes—timing it on the clock—before running through them with a boar-bristle brush. This would allow enough time for the dry shampoo to completely absorb the oils that were weighing it down. Secondly, since my hair tends to look greasiest when I wake up, I should try the aforementioned trick just before going to bed—and then again in the morning—to counteract any oil buildup while I slept.

I did as instructed. And guess what, dear reader? It actually worked. Suddenly I get dry shampoo. No, correction, suddenly I love dry shampoo. In fact, as I write this, Klorane’s Tinted Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk for Brunettes is stockpiled in warehouse-level bulk inside my suitcase, where it will be making the trip to Paris with me tomorrow for the next ten days of fashion shows. And if I get stopped in customs at the airport for questioning, I’ll tell them it’s really quite simple: I have to stay in tonight and dry shampoo my hair.