I have a confession to make: one of the “un-Clean” products that I still use on occasion is dry shampoo.  The aerosol kind.  I know.  It’s really bad.  I hate using it, but sometimes there just isn’t time in the day to wash my hair and I don’t prefer to look like a greasy street urchin, soooo…..

Just why is aerosol dry shampoo so bad for you?  I knew you would ask me that.  For one, it always contains synthetic fragrance, which contains phthalates, which are known endocrine-disruptors and suspected carcinogens.  (They are especially dangerous to fetuses.)  Remember, everything that contains “perfume”, “parfum” or “fragrance” that is not 100% naturally derived most likely contains phthalates.  Conventional dry shampoo spray contains Aluminum Starch Octenylsuccinate, which is essentially an Aluminum Salt.  This is also found in antiperspirants.  While it soaks up oil, sweat and odor very efficiently, this nonessential metal is terrible for you.  Aluminum is a neurotoxin and our scalp is some of  the most porous skin on our entire body.  Do the math there.  Aerosol dry shampoos also contain butane, propane – yes, what lights your grill in the backyard – and isobutane.  And, lastly, when we spray this junk, we are inhaling it, even if we kid ourselves by holding our breath.

So now what do we do?  Luckily, I finally found an awesome Green alternative that works. (!!!!!)

One Love Organics Healthy Locks Dry Shampoo Powder is the best thing that’s happened to dry shampoo since dry shampoo happened.  First of all, I know this sounds weird, but it is not as messy as many other dry shampoo powders and a little goes a long way.  OLO’s unique kaoline clay-hyalaronic acid-bamboo formula absorbs excess moisture without drying out my hair or making it feel brittle or chalky.  Every time I’ve used it, my hair feels clean and soft and it smells great.  (Full disclosure: the girls from OLO gave me a canister of Healthy Locks to try at A Night for Green Beauty and it’s a damn good thing they did.  I boarded my plane with unwashed hair the next day and I didn’t get home until almost 24 hours later.  If it weren’t for this magical powder, I could have fried a chicken in my hair that night.)  Cost: about $12 for 0.8 oz.  Purchase it here.

Ingredients: oryza sativa (rice) starch, organic zea mays (corn) starch, kaolin, sodium bicarbonate, tapioca starch, bambusa (bamboo) arundinacea stem extract, silica (and) sodium hyaluronate, proprietary natural and organic fragrance compounds

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