I’m Not Proud of What This Dry Shampoo Made Me Do

It started innocently enough. I was in New York for five days for a shoot and between our long days on set, a cable-knit hat that serendipitously matched everything I'd packed, and the freezing weather, the idea of washing my hair seemed like a total waste of time. I fully planned on doing it when I got home, but then the last holiday weekend before Christmas happened and, well, I choose much-needed sleep and a boozy brunch over my thrice-weekly hair routine. Then, things snowballed. On Tuesday, I arrived at work and alerted the beauty team: “Guys, I haven’t washed my hair in eight days.” And you know what? It still looked okay. In fact, I got not one, but two “your hair looks great today" compliments later that day (from people I hadn't told my dirty secret). "Thanks — I haven't washed my hair in eight days!" I replied. One was horrified; one wanted to know how I'd done it — so here it is.

I forgot my trusty bottle of Ouai Texturizing Hair Spray at home in L.A., so on my first day in New York, I hit Duane Reade hoping for a stand-in. I'd heard good things about Not Your Mother's dry shampoo and at under $5, it was a no-brainer. Not only did it allow me to go a full eight days without washing, it didn't make my hair feel too heavy or look overly dirty or greasy. Every morning, I brushed my hair and used a wand to add bends and curls, blasted dry shampoo from the roots to mid-shaft, and then shook out the waves with my fingertips. Every night, I brushed my hair with a mixed-bristle boar-and-nylon brush to rake through any lingering product and help my natural oils work their way down to the ends before loosely tying my hair into a bun. (Try this brush.) As the days passed, I got more precise with the application, creating horizontal parts, layering it in slowly, and then massaging my roots. Did this product make my week-old hair feel bouncy, soft, touchable, and full? Dear God, no. My hair looked fine, but it also felt flat and the under layers were stringy and felt kind of gross — but unless you touched it, you would have no idea. In fact, I could have probably gone another day or two. Now, the truth is, I never wash my hair more than three times per week. My hair doesn’t get very greasy and, as a beauty editor, I'm religious about doing all the fussy little things that can help extend time between shampooing. Read: Change my pillowcase often, keep my oily fingertips out of my hair, brush my locks at night with said natural-bristle brush to distribute oil, avoid conditioning the top third of my hair, etc.

One more thing: No, I did not workout. (Aw, thanks for thinking I had!) In fact, I didn’t really get sweaty. (Hello, polar vortex.) My hair is bleached, meaning it's on the dry side, anyway, so I'm not saying that this formula will make an oily scalp suddenly able to skip a week of shampoo. But it did do something no other product ever had — it extended my time without shampooing by days. In fact, this may be the longest I've ever gone without washing. Am I a gross human being? Ehhh, jury's still out. In the meantime, discovering my new favorite dry shampoo makes it all worth it. Oh, and the sleep and boozy brunch I made time for helped, too.

Not Your Mother's Clean Freak Dry Shampoo, $4.79, available at Target.