Favorite Drugstore Dry Shampoo for my Asian Straight Hair

A rare photo of SJ gleefully jumping (the shutter speed was slow enough to capture this)

You might be wondering why I'm bouncing around in this picture. It's because, when this was taken, that was my fourth day hair! And, yes, I still had waves from Sunday night's Asian Student Union's Heritage Celebration Dinner featuring the Youtube famous Wesley Chan as the keynote speaker!

(Let's be real here: I'm probably bouncing because I still can't believe that I met someone that I never thought I would since WHO COMES TO INDIANA IN THE FIRST PLACE? And because I've watched Wong Fu since I started my channel back in middle school and look up to them.)

So why is this such a big deal?

(The hair. Why is the hair such a big deal?)

To all of my fellow ladies and gents who have straight hair, we all know or are familiar with how greasy our hair gets within a day or less after washing. Some of us end up looking like Snape within a few hours, and that's not flattering at all no matter how good of a man he was.

Oh, Snape... If only you knew about dry shampoo...

We've sought help from Google for remedies. Many of the posts told us to cut back on washing our hair multiple times a week or to switch to the no-poo shampoo method. Eeek. Been there, done that in my hormonal teenage years! That was not fun or comfortable or fashionable or... (list goes on).

Cutting back on shampooing my hair felt like I had greasier hair after a week, so I quit the routine despite being told that it takes weeks before my scalp would learn how to produce a normal amount of oil by itself. I couldn't wait, and I'm sure many of you felt the same. So then I tried the no-poo shampoo method using apple cider vinegar. It was the oddest feeling knowing that I was willingly pouring this pungent liquid on my scalp to cleanse it and restore its pH. (I still shudder knowing how disgusting I smelled post shower.) To keep it short, the results were the same as cutting back on shampooing and I quit early on in the trial.

Fast forward a few years past high school and into university. Yes, it took me this long to figure out how to work with my hair, but it took me a couple of months ago to finally get it to the point we're at now.

Anyway, I learned that if I curl my hair with second day hair, I can go another day without greasy hair. Why is this? It's because curly hair doesn't get greasy as fast as straight hair since the curls keep oil towards the roots. This means that hair oil won't travel as quickly through your hair when you have a little wave or curl in it.

After figuring this out, I started curling my hair more often so that I could make it to third day hair. But then this presented another problem: heat damage. I didn't like how rough my hair was becoming, so I learned how to do heatless curls. The problem was, though, it sometimes took more effort than it was worth with my silky hair that everyone around me tells me they envy.

Please don't envy it. It is a pain in the arse to deal with when you want to braid it or put it into buns.

In the end, at least early in my undergrad (say sophomore year?), I learned that I could curl my day two hair and have decent hair on day three by using dry shampoo. Doing this would typically carry me throughout the third day but wouldn't last to see a fourth day.

SJ circa 2014 with greasy second day hair. Wow, my brows were thin.

I began to wonder if it was my hair being resilient to the dry shampoo or if I wasn't using the right one. And so began my journey through homemade and drugstore brand dry shampoos (because when you're in college, it's unrealistic to be dropping money on dry shampoo instead of your books). Baby powder or a mixture of cocoa and cornstarch worked for a bit, but I didn't want to smell like either of those all the time. Then I found Batiste and settled with it, but I didn't enjoy it because it made my hair clumpy and unnatural looking; it worked for the time being.

It wasn't until a couple of months ago, last year, when one of Tati's videos was recommended to me. I watched it when I was getting ready for school, and in the video she went on and on about Hask's dry shampoo. Which one, I don't remember, but she talked about it enough to leave an impression on me.

So the next day I grabbed a bottle at Walgreens.

I may have bought this one because it looked pretty...

And, honestly, I've never looked back. I can't wait to purchase another bottle (or is it can?) for when I finish mine. I love that it has a fine mist that disperses the product evenly. The scent, chia seed, is light and far from being overpowering. It's fresh without smelling like the typical cotton fresh, if you know what I mean. It's just a wonderful product that's made without any parabens, sulfates, phthalates, and artificial colors; just all around pure goodness that refreshes your hair when you don't feel like washing or have a grease problem because your hair is so freaking straight.

Ingredients List on the back of the bottle

I learned that if I curl my second day hair, and spray my third day hair with this the next morning, my hair can go up to day four or even five without needing to be washed. Does it give me volume like the name, Chia Seed Volumizing Dry Shampoo, suggests? That's debatable, but it does the job at keeping the oil at bay.

Now, you may be asking, "But, SamiJoie, what about straight hair? Does it work for your straight hair?"

The answer to that is, "Yes, yes, it does. It does the exact same for my straight hair as it does for my curly."

Color me impressed. 😍

Did you know that the charcoal version of this dry shampoo has Allure's seal of approval? I think that's the next one I'll try when I finish with the chia seed.

Have you tried any Hask dry shampoos? What are your thoughts? Have you tried any of their other products? If you want to read about another product I tried from them, check out these posts:

The Smell of Kalahari Melons in Georgia | Hask Beauty Shampoo Review, First Wash
Days 2 and 3 with Hask's Kalahari Melon Shampoo, Conditioner, and Hair Oil | Review


-s.j.