I am a person who relies on dry shampoo pretty regularly. I don’t have to wash my hair too often – usually twice a week is plenty – but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to push this back as far as possible and get an extra day or two longer out of my hair. I feel this way particularly when I know I'll be working from home, because why waste the first day of fresh hair on the postman?
All this is to say that I am something of an expert in the best dry shampoo buys. I know which ones add lots of texture and which focus on making strands feel cleaner and nothing more. Needless to say, K18, the brand famous for its leave-in molecular repair treatment, launching its own answer to dry shampoo got my attention—all the more because it’s actually a liquid formula. How does liquid dry shampoo work, you’re probably wondering? After finally making its way to the UK following sell-out success in the States, luckily enough, the Airwash Dry Shampoo dropped into my hallway a few short weeks ago. Here’s what I make of it…
The bottle is similar to a body spray, with a non-aerosol nozzle that sprays the product out and onto your hair and scalp. It does so with a fairly fine mist and smells like what I’d describe as fancy baby powder with the slightest hint of lemon. Formula wise, the hero ingredients doing the heavy lifting are translucent microbeads (meaning no visible white starchy look) and odorBIND™ technology that works to trap and replace any funky smells with a fresher scent for up to three whole days. Other than that, all you need to know is that it’s super easy to use—all you have to do is distribute it through your hair a little and you’re good to go.
While I can only speak to the results on my own slightly fine, naturally 3a curly hair, the brand made efforts to test the product on different hair types and textures to ensure it would work for all consumers. A spokesperson from the brand told me: “Results were observed on 72 subjects in a 28-day in-home use consumer study. Recruits had a mix of all hair patterns including curly + coily and 92% agreed that ‘using this product on dry hair did not disturb/revert my hairstyle’."
I admit that I was sceptical that using something “wet” wouldn’t cause my natural hair pattern to come through at least slightly, but it feels surprisingly dry—not unlike the slightly textured feel of a traditional dry shampoo. “The concentration of water in the formula is not enough to disturb style and the formula is designed to be quick-drying. It is a highly concentrated product so less is more,” the brand added.
All in all, this is a brilliant product. I did wince upon learning that it costs almost £50 per bottle, but that is in part down to the brand’s own investment in research and innovation; this is a very clever formula. And, the good news is that you need only use a couple of sprays at a time—the brand notes that if your hair feels a bit chalky or gritty, you’ve used too much, so do take the aforementioned “less is more” approach if and when you get your hands on it.
