DIY Beauty: a dry shampoo dupe from the kitchen
I’m a daily user of dry shampoo and my favorite is the Klorane Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk, which I’ve been using for eons. It works wonderfully for me but it irks me that I have to hold my breath every time I use it as I don’t want my lungs clog full with this powder. I was looking for a more natural alternative and after some experimenting, am happy to have finally made a dry shampoo right from ingredients in my kitchen!
Key ingredient is oryza sativa or rice flour
There are many homemade recipes for dry shampoo but I wanted something fuss free, with ingredients I can purchase right off the supermarket. I first tried using corn starch but found it isn’t ideal. I also tried using baking soda but wasn’t too impressed either. I knew I was missing one key ingredient, oryza sativa, or rice flour – a key ingredient used in the commercial dry shampoos. However, the only rice flour I found in Cold Storage was an organic brand and I was reluctant to purchase it as it cost around S$8 and I wasn’t sure it would definitely work.
Cheap rice flour from Bangkok
But I found my magic ingredient in Bangkok instead for a cheap price of ~ S$2. People probably thought I wanted to purchase this to make some rice cake but little did they know that I intended to use it on my hair. Given its natural properties to absorb oil, this is one good ingredient to be used as a dry shampoo. By itself though, I didn’t find it so great and so I thought – why not mix with the other two ingredients I’ve tried on my hair?
Clabber Girl Corn Starch
So I took out this can of corn starch from my kitchen cabinet and then started mixing some of it with the rice flour. Okay, slight improvement but I feel something was lacking. The texture was too silky soft, compared to the commercial dry shampoo I use. So I ventured forth and added the baking soda into the mixture.
Clabber Girl Baking Soda
Okay, while I do like baking soda and the multiple uses it provides, this is one ingredient I would advice you to use with caution on your hair. Baking soda can bleach your hair over time and also, if you’re not careful, it might burn your scalp. So I don’t add a lot of this but just enough to get a slightly gritty texture from the mixture. In addition, I made sure I did not apply the mixture to my scalp or roots but just in the body and ends of my hair to get rid of the grease.
Avoid getting the powder onto your scalp
A good container for this DIY dry shampoo powder is those pepper shaker. I didn’t use that though. Instead, I poured the whole mixture into an empty Klorane dry shampoo bottle and used that to apply. Instead of spraying the mixture directly into my hair, I sprayed the mixture into one of my palms and then applied the powder to my hair, with my head tilted down. That way, no powder gets to my scalp. This homemade mixture of equal parts of rice flour and corn starch with a small amount of baking soda worked as effectively as my Klorane dry shampoo!
Alternative ingredient
Instead of baking soda, another ingredient that might help is kaolin. However, this ingredient is not readily available in the supermarket and you’ll need to get it from specialized source. But if your hair isn’t too oily, then probably the rice flour and corn starch can do a decent job to keep grease at bay. Yeah, stop that unsightly greasy hair from being plastered to your forehead already!
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sorry sesame…
how to use a dry shampoo exactly? in the middle of the day? or have to be right after the blow-dry after normal shampooed hair…
does it help for my oily fringe, apply to fringe only? or the whole scalp? if sometimes got dandruff can use?
hahahaha nvr tried dry shampoo b4!
awesome! I’m such a fan of dry shampoo…and this just makes it so easy! Thanks for the awesome post (as usual)
Very easy. I only use it for my fringe and side. You can use it anytime, or wait till your hair gets oily and you want to give it a lift.
What I do is to poor / squeeze some powder into one of my palms, tilt myhead or more like I bend over with head upside down and then use that hand with the powder to brush into that part of the hair I want to “clean”. After that, I wait for two minutes and then use a brush to brush the powder off. That’s it. I don’t like to spray the powder on my hair (as per instructions for most commercial dry shampoos) cos I feel there’s less control that way.
Thank you! ?
Hope it’ll work well for you too.
I thought the dry shampoo has to be used on the scalp? So absorp the oil there.
I wouldn’t do that. The dry shampoo would clog the hair follicles…considering I use it every day. Applying on the body of the hair is good enough for me.
Sesame, is this used in lieu of shampoo? or in conjunction?
I’ve never tried this before!
I shampoo everyday as I find it very difficult to go out without shampooing. But have been thinking about alternatives as shampooing everyday can be harsh on the scalp.
Just a thought…if the Klorane Shampoo has Oat Milk…maybe adding in fine ground oats could help? ? Or if Oat milk is available in the grocery ?
hehe ? my nonsense thoughts! ?
Sesame, you are a kitchen chemist!
Haha…no chemist…never even took chemistry! But it’s funny I’ll do anything in the kitchen except to cook. ?
No, not nonsense at all. You’re right but I haven’t seen fine ground oats around and I’m not about to ground them. I also haven’t seen oat milk…I’ll open my eyes bigger for them. ?
Okay, for me, my fringe gets oily like an hour after shampooing. So I use this before I go out. It’s actually formulated for those who don’t want to wash their hair eg. women in confinement. So you can use it in place of the usual shampoo for that temporary lifting effect.
Thanks for the guide and info!!!
wow…this is amazing…thanks!!!and I have like an unlimited source of rice flour so no probs ? shall try it soon ?
Oh that’s great! Hope you’ll like it for your hair!
You’re welcome! ?
Great DIY recipe! And simple too – I am too lazy to engage in complex DIYs that take time and lots of utensils! ?
Apparently there is also a way to create dry shampoo with essential oils…
http://www.essentialoils.co.za/dry-shampoo.htm
If it works, it would make it an effective _and_ fragrant recipe!
Nice with the essential oil but I’m not sure about the talc…thought most pple avoid using talc?
Actually, I was thinking that maybe you could combine your recipe with the rice flour and the essential oils part from that one…
@Sesame: You don’t have to worry about using dry shampoos on your scalp – rice and corn starches will not clog your follicles because they are too water soluble.
Oh ok, that’s something good to know. But I still won’t use it directly on my scalp. Haha…
Oh yeah, that would be nice. I may give it a try soon. I have some rose geranium essential oil and that should smell nice.
can i use this for face mask?
Ah no…but you can use the rice powder as a mask.
just wondering if you know where to get dry shampoo in bkk or singapore? ?
The Klorane one? It’s available in Singapore – Guardian Pharmacy. Not sure if it’s available in BKK.
Robinsons or John Little (same corp group) stock Klorane @ 14.60, 20% off when on sale. It really is the best.
Yeah but they no longer bring in the shampoo in the packaging I like. ?
Do you combine equal portions of each?