Dry Shampoo PASTE Is a Thing Now

The number-one product in my beauty arsenal is dry shampoo. I try to wash my hair only a few times a week, but since I work out a lot, sometimes things can get a little funky. I rely on dry shampoo for not only prolonging the time in-between washing, but even on clean hair days for a little bit of added volume and texture.

In the past, the only bad thing about dry shampoo was the powdery white residue left behind on the roots. Since the recent launch of Living Proof Perfect Hair Day Dry Shampoo, I haven’t had any white residue issues. I use a TON of it, so sometimes there is a little white on my roots, but all you do with that formula is wait 30 seconds for it to soak up all the dirt and oil, then rake your fingers through it to make any visible powder disappear, and voila! No residue—just awesome second-day (or third-day) hair. As far as I'm concerned, there's no need to bring another dry shampoo spray or powder into the market.

But obviously, someone had to invent a new formulation.

R+Co is a company I didn’t know much about until I started using their Analog Cleansing Foam Conditioner. I’d had bad luck in the past with cleansing conditioners and no-poo formulas leaving my hair weighed-down, so I was intrigued by the fact that it was a lightweight foam formulation. It’s such an interesting texture—one that you would kind of think won’t do much because it’s so airy, almost like the texture of shaving foam—but it fully cleans my sweaty gym hair, and I usually don’t even have to use any sort of conditioner afterwards.

So, knowing that R+Co does a good job with interesting textures and weirdo formulations, I thought I’d try their new Badlands Dry Shampoo Paste, which recently made a cameo in Danielle's faux side-swept bangs tutorial. It promises to absorb oil but also give me a “cool girl” texture.

It’s actually half dry-shampoo powder, half style paste, so you use it with your fingers, much in the same way as you’d use a wax or a pomade. The texture is matte, because it’s soaking up oil with volcanic ash sourced from Hawaii.

In fact, at first glance, the bubbles actually reminded me of volcanic ash.

You warm it up in your hands for a few seconds. It feels wet at first, and then you can feel the paste take on a more powdery texture.

You’re supposed to rub it into the hair, focusing on the oily bits near the crown, but I liked that it was matte and found myself using it all over the place. I was probably having a little too much fun with it.

Besides the volcanic ash, it has argan oil, coconut oil, a sebum-absorbing powder from Japan called zeolite, and sunflower seed oil.

Long story short? I’m not using this as a dry shampoo. I’m using it all over my hair like a styling paste. I’m kind of in love with the texture, which is certainly not what I expected. I think curly/wavy girls will like it because you can place it where you want without disrupting your curl pattern, since you don’t have to shake out any white residue.

If you’re a messy-hair kind of gal, this is definitely up your alley. Guys and short-haired folk may find this product replacing their current pomades since it gives the same texture, but soaks up a little grease, too.

After yoga today, my hair was a 6 on the greasy scale (with 1 being freshly shampooed, 8 being post Soul Cycle, and 10 being "please wash me immediately"). After using this, I feel less greasy-looking, and more like "I did this on purpose."