Thursday, April 7, 2011

Greasy Locks

What strikes fear into most female hearts regarding yontif is the battle of the hair grease. 

Two days shower-free does not leave me coated in oil, but the three day holidays can become tricky. 

Enter dry shampoo. When waiting online by Sephora, I actually picked up one of those products they leave by checkout to reel unsuspecting customers in. It was Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Shampoo to Go (it is also highly rated on the website), but to be honest, I have only used it once or twice. 

Because cornstarch will work just as well, if not better. I scrabbled around the pantry at home and unearthed a decade-old box of the stuff, poured some over into an empty spice jar (although a sugar shaker makes more sense), and have had bouncy haired moadim. I recommend applying the powder at night; that way it will have time to absorb the oil and so avoids the "Marie Antoinette" look. Also, sprinkle sparingly - don't dump handfuls of it on; then the powder won't be able to be easily brushed out.

I'm really curious if potato starch will work just as well - that I have yet to try. But I think the chemical principle is the same, so it should be as successful as the cornstarch.

I would use the Oscar Blandi instead on Pesach, but revisiting Sephora, as well as CVS and drugstore.com, there appears to be now many options. Such as: 



Batiste Dry Shampoo Blush  (It's made in England, and seems to be available in drugstores. I'll buy anything made in England).

I made a point to list only products that consumers have given good reviews for; I'm not suggesting anything lower than 4/5 stars.

There is also Got 2B Fat-tastic Fresh & Full Dry Shampoo, but it seems to be a new product because I cannot find any reviews whatsoever. Try at your own peril . . .

4 comments:

Sunshine Dreamer said...

I'm curious though...wouldn't hair that's a little less clean hold those beautiful side buns Princess Lea is so fond of wearing better than clean hair? :-P all kidding aside....I guess that's one definite plus to covering one's hair...not worrying about it getting greasy over yom tov! When I was single I had my hair trained. I washed it only every other day, and then leading up to Yom Tov only every three days. By Yom Tov my hair stayed unwashed for three days beautifully. (and i have pretty fine/oily hair) The more I washed my hair- the more it needed to be washed. My sister swears by dry shampoos. ::Shrug:: whatever lets a girl get a little air without oil drillers chasing after her is good in my book! :-)

PL said...

I definitely concur that for serious updoes (I'm not exactly sure how she kept those buns defying gravity like that; maybe that's the side benefits of being in space) hair that's a little dirtier is necessary.

I wash my hair every two or three days. I very much agree that too much shampooing is not good for hair, and the "experts" say that instead of shampooing every day, rinse with water and condition instead.

But these sort of "not clean" statements can get a person shunned nowadays. It can only be said in the darkness, in the shadows, for fear of persecution.

Sefardi Gal said...

Someone told me baby power works wonders.

PL said...

Same logic. I like the cornstarch because it's unscented, and doesn't make me sneeze. But it must be applied sparingly, allowed to absorb, then repeat.