DRY SHAMPOO DIY and another trick!

So...here is the post you ALL have been waiting for: my go to DIY dry shampoo recipe. Before I share this ingeniousness, let me give you a little background on why a dry shampoo is a necessity in my life. First off, I have two kids. A boy that just barely turned 3 and a girl that is almost 14 months old, so I don't have time to shower everyday, let alone wash, blow dry and straighten my hair. Second of all, I am a pretty active person. Besides running after the two little ones and sitting in the yard with them while they play in the sweat-inducing Arizona sun, I also workout several times a week. Thirdly, I tend to sweat while I sleep, (TMI??) which means I wake up in the morning with greasy, sweaty, oily, curly-ish, ugly hair. So, due to my time constraints and the oiliness of my hair, a dry shampoo has really come in handy the last few months. 

Here is some more background for you, just because I wish to share my entire dry shampoo journey with you. ;) When I first heard of dry shampoo, it sounded great, but I am super cheap and don't like to buy expensive hair/make-up products. So, I have never even tried the commercial dry shampoos. I did hear that baby powder was a good dry shampoo. And since I have had two babies in the last 3 years, I had plenty of baby powder. Baby powder does work. It gets rid of that greasy look and adds a little volume. But, it is WHITE and my hair is definitely BROWN, so I had to be careful about not using too much, otherwise it was pretty obvious I had powder in my hair. And, the other issue I had with baby powder is that it SMELLS like baby powder. I didn't like my hair smelling like that, so I was eager to find something else...

I was browsing pinterest when I stumbled upon someone's blog post all about washing their hair with no shampoo or conditioner and using DIY hair cleaners. (Something I haven't tried yet, but am definitely going to do!!) You can read all about that here: http://livinginanotherlanguage.com/blog/2013/03/17/i-dont-use-shampoo/ 

In her blog post she mentions using plain cornstarch or cocoa powder, depending on your hair color, as a dry shampoo. When I read this, I was like OH MY GOSH, THIS IS AMAZING!! I HAVE THAT STUFF IN MY PANTRY!! Seriously, I was ecstatic to try this, so I got out the ingredients (see picture below).

 My hair is brown, but it isn't a super dark brown (at least in my opinion), so I used 1 part cornstarch and 1 part cocoa powder. 

 I took 1/4 cup of each and mixed them together in a little container. To apply it to my hair, I used a small make up brush. I would dip the brush in my DIY dry shampoo and rub the brush in the areas of my hair that looked greasy. Then, I would give it a good hair brushing and straighten a few sections as needed. I tried ripping the top off of the baby powder bottle, so that I could use it for my dry shampoo, but I could not figure out how to get the top off! 

So, I did the make up brush thing for a few weeks until I ran out of cumin in my kitchen. I was about to throw the spice container into the recycling when I was like, WAIT, this has the perfect top for sprinkling my dry shampoo!! I just needed to figure out a way to get rid of the cumin smell in the container and take off the labels. Getting rid of the smell was easy! I filled it with vinegar and let it sit overnight. Then I rinsed it out and let it dry. The smell was TOTALLY GONE!! Getting the labels off took some trial and error. First, I tried soaking the labels in vinegar. That took off the paper, but left the glue, so I looked online and ehow.com suggested soaking it in oil. I used vegetable oil and rubbed it all over the labels and let it sit for a few hours. Then I rubbed some more oil on and let it sit over night. The next morning the labels slipped right off, taking the glue with them! I gave the bottle a good wash with some soap, let it dry, and it was good to go!

 Here is my finished product! Thank you McCormick for the bottle! Now I can shake, shake, shake dry shampoo all over my hair!

 And here are some pictures to show just how well the dry shampoo works! Here is me just after waking up. My hair is a mess and all curly and greasy.

 I applied some of my dry shampoo, gave my hair a good brushing and re-straightened a few areas.

 No grease showing on the top!

Now I am ready to take my kids to the park!