Another day, another TikTok trend. This time, it’s all about dry shampoo because apparently, most of us have been using it wrong. Well, at least I have, as I discovered while writing this article.

In the past, I would spritz some dry shampoo into my roots, give it a quick rub and off I went. Except, I was often left with white patches in my hair – which my colleagues have had to discreetly point out to me on more than one occasion. I also used to find that sometimes the ‘fresh’ effect wouldn’t really last that long and my greasy roots would reappear come 4pm.

According to TikTok user Cora (@corascamera), there’s a slightly different method which is a lot more effective.

In a TikTok video, that has currently amassed a casual 5.3 million views, Cora explains: “So you’ve probably been using dry shampoo wrong, and I’m going to show you how to use it right.

“So you take your favourite dry shampoo and spray it very generously at your roots all over. VERY generously.

“And then you’re going to leave it in, for like five or 10 minutes.”

“After you’ve let it sit you’re going to do this: rub it in like this [she says as she uses her fingertips right at the roots], make sure it gets spread out all evenly and then you’re going to brush it through all the way.”

She then follows up with a dry conditioner but seeing as I’m attempting this hack during lockdown, I think I’ll skip that part.

In the video, Cora uses Kevin.Murphy’s Fresh.Hair Dry Cleaning Spray. Unfortunately, her option seems to be completely sold out across the internet, so I reached for my favourite option: Living Proof’s Dry Shampoo, £18.

Of course, to give this a full test, I used it on three-day-old hair. At this point, my hair gets fairly greasy in the roots and with longer breaks between hair washes during lockdown, it was the perfect time to try it.

I sprayed the dry shampoo directly onto my roots all over my head, making sure I lifted sections that were hidden underneath. 

Once that was in, I let my hair sit for 10 minutes – and yes, it turns out spraying dry shampoo all over your head does leave your hair looking rather big…

Once time was up, I noticed that a lot of the white cast had disappeared on its own, most likely because the formula had worked at absorbing any oil at the roots. Great news for my dark hair. I then rubbed the remnants of dry shampoo into my hair, using my finger pads, rather than nails. This helps to ensure even distribution.

Cora recommends brushing the dry shampoo through your hair too, but if you have a curly or wavy hair pattern, you can forego this step like I did.

Once it was all rubbed in, I was really impressed at the difference. My hair looked as fresh as when I’ve just washed it, except it had extra volume in the roots, which is always a plus in my books.

Turns out taking that little bit of extra time makes a huge difference. Who knew? Maybe I will add on some extra time to my hair routine when we go back to normality…

Main image: Hanna Ibraheem

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