The Best Dry Shampoo

Best for...

Best for..., Best for frequent use Not Your Mother’s Clean Freak Dry Shampoo (Unscented)

Not Your Mother’s Clean Freak Dry Shampoo (Unscented)

This easy-to-use aerosol formula readily absorbs oil and odor without leaving hair gritty, all at a tough-to-beat price. You may want to avoid the scented versions, though.

Buying options: $12 from Ulta, opens in a new tab

(7 ounces)

The widely available Not Your Mother’s Clean Freak Dry Shampoo (Unscented) has an elegant formula, providing reliable shine reduction at a budget price. This propulsive spray shoots out a near-transparent fine cone mist, and it sprays evenly at every angle, including upside down — ideal for getting at the nape. The result is hair that’s both visibly de-greased and refreshed yet not sticky or stiff.

The ingredients are minimal but effective. Many aerosol dry shampoos are loaded with dozens of ingredients, like propellants, thickeners, and fragrances. Not Your Mother’s has 13, so you’re getting a higher dose of the oil absorbers that get the job done.

A previous formulation included mineral silica, and our testers anointed it as a pick. In 2024, Not Your Mother’s reformulated this dry shampoo, swapping out silica for a new rice and barley blend. Several testers tried the new version and considered it just as good as its silica-including predecessor.

Rice starch was in the majority of dry shampoos we tested, and it’s favored for its small particle size and high absorption level. However, according to cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos, all starches have an irregular shape that can ultimately feel gritty on the scalp. Previously, the rice starch combined with silica (a mineral absorber that can be manufactured to be round), allowed the shampoo to have a silkier feel on the hair shaft. “That technology usually comes at a higher cost,” Dobos added. The other 10 contenders with silica that we tested were nearly all double or triple the cost of the Not Your Mother’s shampoo. And only three combined rice starch and silica, including another of our favorites, Crown Affair The Dry Shampoo. The substitution of barley didn’t affect how our testers experienced — and enjoyed — the product. Dobos explained, “Barley is supposed to offer a softer, less drying feel and leave less residue on hair. It doesn’t really contribute to hair health, it just helps absorb excess oil.”

Hair feels soft and flexible, not stiff or crunchy. This dry shampoo’s powerful aerosol blast leaves the slightest white cast, which readily brushes away on both light and dark hair (there’s a dark-tint formula, too). And because it soaks up the heavy grease weighing down roots, you do get a little lift. Other aerosol formulas we tested (Dove Volume & Fullness Advanced Dry Shampoo, Oribe Gold Lust Dry Shampoo, R+Co Death Valley Dry Shampoo) effectively absorbed shine, but they left hair either tacky or overly volumized.

Though some people may consider a dry shampoo as an added styling element, for people who simply want cleaner-looking strands, the nearly imperceptible Not Your Mother’s was a fave. “I could just style my hair like usual,” one tester wrote.

It’s unscented. Most powder and aerosol dry shampoos contain fragrance. That makes sense because people with “dirty” hair might also aim to freshen stale smells. But some people also avoid synthetic fragrances because of their link to health concerns, like migraines. “Not Your Mother’s unscented is a game changer,” said one tester, a longtime user of Batiste’s Dry Shampoo who’d never been able to stand the scents, which she found cloying and overly synthetic. And even though this dry shampoo is unscented, we found that it still neutralized stale smells.

You can’t beat the price. Not Your Mother’s shampoo is currently about $9 for 7 ounces, and the value doesn’t get much better. So this is a great go-to for someone who relies on dry shampoo as a regular part of their hair-care routine. Supervising editor Hannah Morrill uses Not Your Mother’s once or twice a week, and she said a can lasts at least three months.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• The scented versions don’t smell great. While the original citrus fragrance is inoffensive, our testers found the warm sugar variant to be stomach-turning. We had no trouble sourcing the unscented version in many local chain stores, but it could be easy to pick up the wrong can and be unpleasantly surprised.
• If you use the product more than once between washes, a little residue is inevitable, especially if you run your fingernails along your scalp. We’ve never noticed visual buildup or any lingering issues after using a regular shampoo.
• The particles and chemicals in aerosol products can irritate the lungs; this is of special concern to anyone with asthma or allergies. Not Your Mother’s shampoo contains isobutane and hydrofluorocarbon 152A, which might be irritating to lungs when inhaled in high concentrations. Those with respiratory concerns will want to use caution around any aerosols.

Specs

Colors: clear, dark tint
Variations: volumizing, texturizing, unscented, original, warm sugar, fresh citrus, travel size, powder, 3-in-1

Best for...

Best for..., Best for on-the-go touch-ups I Dew Care Tap Secret Mattifying Dry Shampoo Powder

I Dew Care Tap Secret Mattifying Dry Shampoo Powder

This refillable, palm-sized compact is outfitted with a handy sponge applicator for targeted touch-ups. It comes in a range of tints, but it’s easy to spill.

Buying options: $16 from Amazon, opens in a new tab

At less than a quarter of an ounce, a jar of I Dew Care Tap Secret Mattifying Dry Shampoo Powder effortlessly takes down oil and shine. Yet it’s barely bigger than a golf ball, so it’s perfect to throw in a gym bag, purse, or carry-on. With just a few gentle taps, the macaron-shaped cushion disperses controlled poufs of a microfine powder. This product is ideal for hitting small sections like a hairline or part, and it has the widest color range of any dry shampoos we tried. People with sustainability concerns will also appreciate the non-aerosol, refillable package.

The powder is supremely silky and fine, and a little goes a long way. The mineral blend — silica, mica, and kaolin — is notably fine and absorbent, and this dry shampoo is the only nearly starch-free formula we tried. If you get even a few flecks on your hands, palms feel dry and smooth, like after handling clay. On the scalp, the fine powder soaks up even heavy, streaky grease: One tester was amazed how the tiniest dab erased a two-workout buildup of sweat.

It’s relatively easy to apply, even when you’re on the go. If you pat too vigorously, the powder scatters. But when you use a light, delicate touch — almost a bounce — this product is a precise spot treatment for shiny patches and oil-laden zones. Testers even said it reminded them of mattifying their face with translucent powder. None of the other dry shampoos we tried were small enough to toss in a purse or dopp kit. If your hair gets greasy throughout the day, or you don’t want to wash it when you’re traveling, this one is a great option.

It comes in a range of colors. The I Dew Care powder comes in five shades, more than any dry shampoo we tried. Testers with blonde, red, brown, and black strands found the original powder to be imperceptible, especially after a comb-through. But some still appreciated the believable and nuanced tinted options. One panelist noted how the dark brown version masked gray at her temples, an unintended upside.

It’s refillable. Just be careful how you open it. The top and the bottom of the I Dew Care jar twist off (the top to reveal the sponge, the bottom to refill the powder). A few distracted panelists unwittingly unscrewed the bottom, spilling powder everywhere. Anyone paying attention likely won’t have this problem, but it’s worth watching out for, and the learning curve is worth it since this jar is refillable and recyclable (the entire jar assembly is #7 plastic, which some municipalities recycle). Our other jarred pick, Crown Affair The Dry Shampoo, has a fussier, more foolproof, more expensive jar.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• Refills are currently about $12, only a few dollars less than the original product, so they don’t offer a significant savings. And they’re only available in translucent, not the colored versions.
• The precise applicator isn’t great for covering large areas, at least not quickly.
• Pigment from the tinted powders can transfer to the hairline and fingertips. But it doesn’t stain, and it brushes away readily.

Specs

Colors: original (translucent), blonde, brown, medium brown, dark brown, black
Variations: refill (translucent)

Best for...

Best for..., Best for a luxe and light refresh Crown Affair The Dry Shampoo

Crown Affair The Dry Shampoo

This elevated formula is perfect for lightly dusting along the hairline. And the refined packaging, light scent, and pretty brush make this dry shampoo a pleasure to use.

Buying options: $48 from Sephora, opens in a new tab

Crown Affair The Dry Shampoo was the second-priciest dry shampoo we tested, and at first glance, the big jar of loose powder looked messy. So we were skeptical. But the twist-open canister, fluffy-yet-firm kabuki brush, very finely milled powder, and dreamy scent won us over. Plus, it works exceptionally well. One tester raved, “I try to only wash my hair twice a week, but I work out every day. This basically eliminates the sweat that can weigh down my roots.” Crown Affair provided the most luxurious and pleasant dry shampoo experience of the bunch, elevating a somewhat drudgery-prone task to a pampering treat.

It’s barely perceptible in the hair, yet it reduces shine and delivers lift. Similar to the Not Your Mother’s aerosol, the Crown Affair shampoo combines rice and silica silylate, a perfectly absorbent, unchalky duo, and even though it’s a creamy tan color in the jar, it disappears into the scalp. One tester with deep brown hair noted, “I got a little powder on my hairline that was easy to brush away. I didn’t notice any grittiness or graininess when I ran my hands through it later.” This dry shampoo doesn’t deliver sky-high volume, but it boosts roots without any unwanted weight or stickiness. Of the options we tested — even our other picks — this one felt the lightest, and it was the least noticeable in our hair.

It feels more like you’re applying makeup than sopping up grease. Crown Affair’s twist-open jar artfully dispenses (and contains) powder. But it’s somewhat of a process: Take off the lid, remove the kabuki-style brush, and swivel the sifter. Return the lid, overturn the jar, and shake. The silky nylon bristles pick up just the right amount of powder to target the hairline, part, and roots, and to mattify without dulling your hair.

The scent is transcendent. Lots of dry shampoos we tried and liked — including a variation of Not Your Mother’s — had unpleasant, dealbreaker scents. Crown Affair’s fragrance — bergamot, yuzu, and lemongrass — is transcendent. The scent is light and citrusy, like that of a fancy hotel lobby or an upscale salon. Rather than masking unwanted odors, this dry shampoo infuses a mellow freshness. “I liked the scent so much it made me want to make up reasons to use the dry shampoo,” one tester admitted.

It’s also refillable. The powder’s interior vessel is easy to twist out, and refills sell for 10 bucks less than a new jar. Also, the #5 plastic refills are accepted in many municipal recycling programs. (No plastic product is without an environmental impact, but this is an extra consideration for consumers who prioritize sustainability concerns.)

Flaws but not dealbreakers

• Getting the product out and onto the hair — uncap, twist, recap, shake, uncap, brush on — is a little involved; though some didn’t mind the ritual, others made note of this.
• Even though our testers raved about the coverage, if you have long or thick hair, a lot of grease, and not a lot of time, an aerosol product is more efficient.

Specs

Colors: original
Variations: refill

If you want an aerosol with a lovely scent: Amika Perk Up has a zippy citrus fragrance and performs beautifully, blasting away grease without a hint of residue or grit. You’ll also get a little oomph at the roots, but nothing distracting or overly poofed. If you don’t mind spending a little more for a very pretty canister and an even better scent, it’s a great option.

I’ve worked in various arms of the beauty industry for my entire career. I started at the Clinique counter in Bloomingdale’s, in Beverly Hills, and later worked as a business manager for luxury brands like SK-II and Orlane. I then moved to luxury retailer Violet Grey, where I first worked in-store as a makeup artist and an all-around beauty expert before becoming a writer and editor. A decade in beauty has rendered me tough to impress. A product must be truly effective and well packaged for me to get on board.

Dry shampoo is also a category I’m personally familiar with. I’ve got a lot of fine, straight hair, and I work out (and sweat) a lot. Because my hair is color-treated, I’m always looking to extend the time between wet washes. Through the years I’ve tried a handful of formulas, and I’m well versed in the pitfalls of bad ones.

Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations, and in accordance with Wirecutter standards, I return or donate all products I’ve tested once my assessment of them is complete. Read more about our editorial standards.

The options for dry shampoo are seemingly endless: If you type “dry shampoo” into the search bar of Amazon, you’ll be met with about 830 results. Sephora, meanwhile, carries at least 60 dry shampoos. So, I hunted.

I cross-referenced reviews and awards from other publications — such as Allure, Byrdie, CNN Underscored, and Good Housekeeping — being confident the editors or writers of those articles offered firsthand product experience. I analyzed best-seller lists and reviews on retailers like Amazon, Sephora, and Ulta, keeping an eye out for redundant, AI-generated endorsements. I went deep on Reddit threads. And, mostly, I talked to everyone: beauty-industry friends and colleagues, Wirecutter staffers, hairstylists, a trichologist, and a cosmetic chemist. Everyone had strong opinions.

I narrowed a list of nearly 50 highly reviewed and widely recommended dry shampoos to just over 20 offerings, which I personally sprinkled and spritzed on my own hair. Then I sent my favorite seven formulas to a handful of testers: a Bikram yoga devotee with thick hair she avoids washing to preserve a keratin treatment, a Peloton regular with lots of fine hair, and a busy mom with long, coarse strands.

In my search, I noticed that people often had more than one dry shampoo in rotation — a (sometimes cheaper) option for regular at-home use, one for their gym bag, and perhaps another for quick touch-ups. We took these different categories into consideration, but our criteria remained the same for all that we tried:

• Efficacy: A good dry shampoo must visibly absorb oil and sweat. Otherwise it’s simply not doing its job. We noted whether it left the hair light, clean, and flexible or sticky, gritty, and stiff.
• Value: All price points were considered, but if we thought a product was expensive and would be used up quickly, or that it didn’t offer something above and beyond other, less-expensive products, it lost points.
• Scent: Scent can be exceptionally polarizing. We didn’t eliminate contenders based on fragrance alone, but if two powders were comparable, the one with a more-refined, subtle scent won out.
• Ingredients: Dry shampoos employ starches like rice, tapioca, and corn, minerals like silica, and other absorbers, such as charcoal and kaolin clay. We analyzed labels and favored blends that performed well without unnecessary or costly additives.
• Application: We considered both aerosol and loose powders, and we favored formulas that went on and brushed out easily. We eliminated those that were messy or hard to operate.

Powder

The rather powdery Aveda Shampowder Dry Shampoo paired a lovely herbal scent with okay performance, but the squeezy bottle made it impossible to apply on the nape of the neck. Ditto for the staffer-recommended Billie Floof and the Briogeo Scalp Revival Dry Shampoo, which both contained baking soda, a rarity. Unfortunately, both had inelegant delivery mechanisms. Billie Floof requires you to just dump little heaps of the powder on your head, and Briogeo’s non-aerosol spray is impossible to control. Briogeo absorbed oil well, though.

Bumble and Bumble’s Prêt-à-Powder smells good and soaks up oil, but the tiny squeeze bottle delivers inconsistent poofs and piles of powder.

On the flip side, we really liked the Kitsch Volumizing Rice Protein Dry Shampoo, which deployed with an easy puff and was great for getting into the roots. But the similar-format I Dew Care won out with its extremely absorbent formula, refillable package, and range of shades. (Kitsch just has two.)

The built-in brush-on application of The Rootist was great, dosing out just the right amount of powder without any twisting or turning. And the starch-y, mineral-y powder was a whiz on second-day hair. But it left behind a white-ish cast.

Aerosol

Batiste Dry Shampoo is arguably the most well-known dry shampoo — maybe because of its widespread distribution and sharp price point, or maybe because of the recent lawsuit. And many staffers recommend it, although reluctantly. Though it went on invisibly, we found the strong synthetic scent lingered. Davines This Is An Invisible Dry Shampoo had a powerful invisible spray and worked great, but it left behind a cloying vanilla smell and unwanted stickiness.

Everyone wanted to like Dove Beauty Volume & Fullness Dry Shampoo (previously called Between Washes) since it’s so affordable and widely available. However, it gave hair a stiff coarseness, and we couldn’t get over the synthetic fragrance that clung to hair for days. Drybar Detox Dry Shampoo had similar staying power, yet not in a good way. “I had to work really hard to get this out, and I didn’t like how my hair looked,” one panelist wrote.

We loved Klorane Dry Dry Shampoo Ultra-Gentle with Oat, which isn’t too scented and works beautifully. Unlike other formulas, the powder has to sit on the hair shaft for two minutes before brushing through; this slowed us down but wasn’t a dealbreaker. We simply couldn’t justify the price.

Kristin Ess Style Reviving Dry Shampoo was so light and imperceptible that we almost couldn’t tell if it had done anything. Our hair was left slick and unlifted. Living Proof Perfect Hair Day Dry Shampoo really feels like it washes the hair, but it takes a minute to get the job done. A tester with red hair had to really work to make it disappear into her roots, and other, less-pricey sprays were comparable.

Nothing smells as good as the exorbitantly priced Oribe Gold Lust Dry Shampoo — the company sells its signature scent as an eau de parfum. But the spray works more like a styler, leaving hair grippy. One tester noted a grayish cast. For the cost, we wish it actually contained gold.

R+Co makes six other dry shampoos, but R+Co Death Valley Dry Shampoo is the most-talked-about, best-reviewed one. It was a little too gritty for daily use, though, leaving hair too texturized to wear smooth. Redken Deep Clean Dry Shampoo is a heavy-duty oil absorber — some people thought it was as good as a shower — and it doesn’t leave behind any bulk. But the thick, perfumey scent wasn’t for everyone.

Given Vegamour GRO Dry Shampoo’s slew of scalp-health and volume-boosting claims, those with fine hair might be tempted to try it. At first our bottle wouldn’t spray — a one-off? — and it left a persistent white-ish cast.

Wet

K18 Biomimetic Hairscience AirWash Dry Shampoo was a winner for some testers and a disappointment for others. The pros: A mist revived sweat-wet hair, especially after strands were also hit with a blow-dryer. The cons: Stringy, days-old hair just got stiff and sticky. For protective styles, we liked Taliah Waajid’s Protective Styles Dry Gel Shampoo, which felt nice and cooling on the scalp. But removing this one required a vigorous pat-down with a damp towel.

This article was edited by Patricia Tortolani, Hannah Morrill, and Jennifer Hunter.