Homemade dry shampoo

The good thing about having longer hair is that I don't have to wash it as often. I have the type of hair that gets really greasy and limp by the second day, no matter what length. I had heard that dry shampoo could help me out, but it is so expensive! Also, I was never sure what was in it and whether there were phthalates. I looked at various brands for a while and noticed one ingredient in common: corn starch.

So I got a box of corn starch, sprinkled some on my hands, and put it into my second-day-dirty hair.
Voila! Dry shampoo!

For the longest time, I used only corn starch as dry shampoo. Then I read that some people use baby powder. So I started mixing baby powder and corn starch. It smells nice and works great!

Here's my super simple recipe:

Homemade dry shampoo
updated 9/2012 from reader comments for brunette hair

corn starch
baby powder
* cocoa powder
travel size squeeze bottle
funnel or piece of paper

1. Put the funnel into the squeeze bottle or roll up a piece of paper to create your own funnel.
2. Fill the container about 1/4 with baby powder. 
3. If your hair is brunette, add the cocoa powder here. Add just enough to achieve a color that will blend. Remember that your hair will absorb the powder, so don't try to make it too dark because that isn't necessary. Just dark enough!
4. Fill the rest of the way with cornstarch. Make sure to leave some room to shake.
5. Shake the bottle to mix the powders. If you're having trouble evenly mixing the cocoa, use a chopstick to manually stir.

That's it! Because the bottle is so small, you can take it pretty much anywhere. It doesn't take a lot, either. I like to shake it onto my hands and then rub my hands into my scalp.

Enjoy!