These quick and easy DIY dry shampoo recipes are super easy and contain only natural ingredients, and not too many of them so they’re super simple. In fact, you can make it with just one, baking soda! And you can make it for dark hair or light hair.
While using a liquid homemade shampoo is always the best option, having some dry shampoo on hand is an absolute must. If you’re traveling it’s a lifesaver. Or if you’re trying to cut down on washing your hair, it can also be quite helpful. However, I just don’t like all of the ingredients you find in store-bought alternatives. So that’s why I decided to formulate my own recipes.
I was surprised how easy it was to actually make. There’s really no reason not to make your own, and it’s likely you already have the ingredients in your kitchen.
Watch How To Make A Dry Shampoo
Why Use This Dry Shampoo
Constantly washing your hair to remove the grease can give you a dry sore scalp, it can also encourage your hair to produce even more grease to compensate.
A dry shampoo can be used in between washes to absorb grease without stripping the scalp. However you don’t want to be using dry shampoo every day, maybe no more than two or three times a week.
I will also take this on extended camping trips or if I’m traveling long distances. Just as a little refresher for my hair between showers.
Scenting Dry Shampoo Recipes
I’m using a mix of dried lavender flowers and fresh mint leaves to fragrance this homemade dry shampoo. These can be substituted for any botanicals of your choice, as long as they hold a fairly robust scent.
This dry shampoo can also be fragranced with essential or fragrance oil. Essential oils can bring some wonderful therapeutic and skin-loving qualities to this shampoo. Fragrance oils are not natural and they don’t bring any therapeutic benefit.
However, there are so many wonderful smelling fragrance oils to choose from that I don’t want to completely discard them. It’s also worth noting that some scents are only available in the form of fragrance oil. Ultimately it’s up to you. You can decide what to use!
If you choose to use an essential or fragrance oil, you only need to add around 10 to 12 drops. Sprinkle them into the core white powders; eg; Baking soda, arrowroot, cornstarch and oatmeal. Mix in any colors or clays, then transfer straight to a suitable container.
4 Dry Shampoo Recipes
Here are a few of my favorite dry shampoo recipes. The method is pretty much the same in all the recipes, so just pick one for its ingredients, your hair color, or just what appeals to you.
Lavender & Mint Dry Shampoo
The ingredients below do not need to be exact amounts and can be adapted to suit your own personal needs. It’s also the same recipe in my video above, although that method can be applied to all of the recipes on this page.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp (72g) of Baking Soda
- 2 tbsp (10g) Arrowroot Powder
- ½ a tablespoon each of Lavender Flowers and Mint Leaves
- Brown Oxide for brown hair (optional)
- Mason Clip Jar or Application bottle
Method
- Weigh and sift the baking soda and arrowroot into a bowl.
- Add the flowers, leaves, and oxide (If using) then give the whole thing a good stir. Transfer to a zip lock bag.
- Set the bag aside for 24 hours so that the powders can absorb all the lovely aroma from the lavender flowers and mint leaves.
- Sift the flowers and leaves from the powder and then transfer them to a mason jar to store.
A Variation
If you do not have arrowroot powder, you can still make this baking soda shampoo recipe. Just substitute the arrowroot for cornstarch.
Light Hair Dry Shampoo
This one smells fresh and fruity. The grapefruit and bergamot are wonderful when blended, and both have similar properties. They are great stress relievers and contain some good antibacterial properties.
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp of (22.5g) Cornstarch
- 3 tbsp (30.5g) of Baking Soda
- 6 drops of Grapefruit Essential oil
- 6 drops of Bergamot Essential oil
Method
Combine the cornstarch and baking soda. Sprinkle in the essential oils and give the dry shampoo a good mix before transferring to a suitable container.
Dark Hair Dry Shampoo
This is by far the quickest and simplest of all the DIY dry shampoos. It only has two ingredients, both of which you will probably already have in your pantry or store cupboard. As this recipe already has a lovely chocolate scent, we do not need to add any fragrance.
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp (22.5g) of Cornstarch
- 3 tbsp (22g) of Dark Cocoa Powder
Method
Mix the two ingredients together and pop them into a container ready for use.
Oatmeal Dry Shampoo
If you suffer from an itchy scalp then oatmeal is the way to go. Oatmeal is gentle on the skin, yet particularly good at absorbing oils. The oatmeal in this recipe needs to be super fine, almost like flour. I usually just make my own by throwing regular oatmeal in a blender.
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp (16.8g) of Finely Ground Oatmeal
- 3 tbsp (22.5g) of Cornstarch
- For dark hair add a pinch of brown oxide
Method
Mix ingredients together. To fragrance add 12 drops of essential oil or flowers.
For Extra Greasy Hair
There are stages in your life when it feels like your hair is impossible to keep clean. It’s particularly hard for teenagers when you can wash your hair one day and it’s greasy the next!
Adding a tablespoon of clay will give your homemade dry shampoo extra absorbency. I would go for a simple mix of 6 tablespoons of cornstarch to 1 tablespoon of cosmetic clay.
Try to choose a clay that suits your hair color. For light hair use bentonite or kaolin clay, and French red clay for dark hair. The red clay won’t quite match dark brown hair, so you will need to add chocolate powder or some brown oxide to create a decent shade.
How To Use A Dry Shampoo
If I am keeping the dry shampoo in a mason jar or something similar, I use a large makeup brush to deposit the shampoo through the greasy bits of my hair, although you can also use a fine toothed hairbrush.
A quick dusting usually does the trick, with little mess. After dusting, give the hair a brush though just to remove any excess powder.
I’ve used other various containers to keep and deposit the dry shampoo. Little talc pots are ok, but they are not exactly accurate, so I usually end up with a coating on my shoulders.
The pots that look similar to sauce or hair dye containers (see pictures) are great and much more accurate than the talc pots, and you can buy these empty sauce bottles on Amazon. Shake or squeeze the shampoo onto the greasy roots and then give the hair a good massage to blend it all in. Brush though to remove any excess powder.
Final Thoughts
Many of use will go out and buy a dry shampoo. But you really can cut back on unnecessary synthetic ingredients and save money by making your own at home. As you can see, it’s really not that difficult to do. If you can mix a few ingredients together, then you can totally make on of these gorgeous shampoo recipes.
Combining the use of a homemade dry shampoo with a liquid shampoo is a great combo that I would recommend to everyone. You’ll get the best results from a traditional liquid shampoo recipe. However, there are plenty of natural, gentle surfactants available to save time when making your own shampoo. You could even use a shampoo bar for some deep hydration and moisturization.
Get creative and experiment with different ingredients for your dry shampoo. Unlike a lot of beauty and skincare recipes, this one is more forgiving than most when it comes to substitutions. Let me know how you get on in the comments below, and don’t forget to check out our YouTube for more videos and our Facebook page to keep up to date with our latest recipes!
