If you’ve been considering trying this viral hack, then take your hair porosity into serious consideration…
Viral beauty hacks are my favourite genre of online trends. Because at their best, they can help us out in a sticky situation and at their worst, they can be extremely entertaining (remember the time everyone was beating their faces with an egg in lieu of a beauty blender?). From the rosemary water trend that took over the internet to the micellar water as a dry shampoo hack that has helped us live out our lazy girl dreams, the Internet is like a wonderland of girls just helping each other by spilling their beauty secrets online! One of the most recent hair hacks that have caught our attention is the dry shampoo and water one that’s all the rage right now among beauty and skincare enthusiasts on the internet.
The hack asks people to spray water on your hair after using dry shampoo. It requires you to let it dry like that, preferably overnight. The trend originated with TikTok influencers such as Jaci Marie Smith and Alex James who shared the technique on their platforms. And it wasn’t long before others began trying it too. This little trick claims to keep your hair clean and grease-free for longer! Since the festive and wedding season is around the corner, meaning back-to-back parties and a wish for perpetual good hair days, I figured I’d give this hack a go to see if it works.
I wondered if this trend would be effective for me, as my hair has never taken well to product use. I have fine hair strands, and my hair porosity is quite high (which means that it’s prone to absorbing and losing moisture easily and quickly, due to there being gaps in my hair strands’ cuticle layer). So I gave it a go. Because, apart from being on a never-ending search for a serum that’ll keep my frizz in check and a post-shampoo treatment that’ll reverse the damage that’s been caused by spontaneous hair-dying episodes, I also don’t mind trying out a hack that’ll cut down the time I spend cribbing over the hair-wash day.
So, there are two different instances during my hair wash cycle that I tried the hack on. The first was right in the middle of my wash cycle, which is 2.5 days after shampoo day. The second was at the end of my hair wash cycle, which was 4 days post my shampoo day (and when I desperately needed a hair cleanse). And here is what I discovered.
I used Epitight Dry Shampoo because it is benzene-free, and consists of natural ingredients such as rice starch, corn starch, wheat starch, cassava starch, tapioca starch, and potato starch. I wanted to use the most natural (but efficient) product possible. As the hack suggests, I sprayed my roots with the product, an hour or so before bedtime. I used it sparingly, still, because I didn’t want to risk drying out my hair. Five to seven minutes later, I spritzed the selected sections of my hair with a fine-mist spray bottle of water. I waited for about 15 minutes, doom-scrolled a little and then went off to bed.
I’ll be honest, it felt a little dry, but not dreadful. I underapplied the product for this very reason, I knew it might have a stronger effect on my hair type. But I must admit, I also felt fresh like a flower. It was almost as good as a hair-wash day.
If you have fine hair strands like mine I suggest you also use a frizz control spray the next morning. I wish I would have, since this was a mid-cycle refresh I know my hair would be able to handle two products without getting greasy too quickly.
Like the first time, I sprayed my hair, ever-so-sparingly with the same dry shampoo. I waited for five to seven minutes before spritzing with water and went to sleep in the next 15 minutes.
Refreshed yes, but it just didn’t feel as good as a wash. So, while the dry shampoo left my hair smelling fresh, it still felt dry and I could feel the product building up a little. But it appeared as shiny as it usually is, so I couldn’t complain, at least not for the next couple of hours when I had to step out for a trip to the mall.
This time around, I used a smoothening serum. Specifically the L’Oréal Paris Extraordinary Oil Serum. Because the ends of my hair were starting to feel a little straw-like. It helped keep the hair looking shiny, smooth and tamed.
I would definitely use this hack again, but only while I am in the middle of a wash cycle. It’s reliable as a casual refreshing trick. But, I wouldn’t use it when I’m in dire need of a hair wash. The hack didn’t flatter my hair at all at the end of a wash cycle because the product build-up was evident after a couple of hours. And I would prefer to blow dry my hair a little instead of leaving it to air dry overnight, to have more control over the texture, if and when I do try this again.
I also wanted to gain a better understanding of this technique and why it managed to work for someone like me who has fine hair strands (I was surprised after the first trial). So I spoke to Anita Ajit Shil, a Mumbai-based celebrity hairstylist about how it almost seemed counterproductive to spray water on the hair after applying a product. But according to Anita, this additional step may be to remove the extra product from the hair, so that it does not weigh down or excessively dry out the hair.
As someone who doesn’t usually enjoy using dry shampoo, it was interesting to give this hack a go and be open to the possibility that it may impact my hair differently than usual. While I will still fall back on the good old shampoo for those ‘Gram ready looks this wedding and festive season, I won’t hesitate to reach out for my dry shampoo and water spray once a while!
Harshita Singh is a Digital Writer at Manifest and besides obsessing over aesthetic ‘IT Girl’ Sunday reset reels on Instagram, she finds joy in going down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, exploring new wellness practices and being mildly addicted to oat-milk coffees. View Profile
