The Best Dry Shampoos of 2022

Lots of dry shampoos give your hair texture, consistency and extra volume. It’s much more difficult to find a dry shampoo that really gives you the feeling you've recently washed your hair.

Unite 7seconds Refresher does exactly what you'd expect – immediately refreshes your hair. Within just a few seconds, oily overactive hair will feel considerably cleaner. And the best thing is that it doesn’t create that weird rough feeling that most dry shampoos produce. Admittedly the rough structure can be an advantage as it gives you good consistency when you're styling your hair. But sometimes you just want hair that feels clean and smooth, and that’s exactly what Unite 7seconds Refresher delivers.

A major advantage with this dry shampoo from Unite is that it doesn’t leave any visible powder in the hair. This means you don’t have to spend time working the product in, making 7seconds Refresher dry shampoo both easy and efficient to use. The scent is mild but fresh, and the result is soft and flexible. Your roots get a discreet volume boost, but if you want really big hair it’s best to complement the dry shampoo with a volumising product.

For fresher hair in just a few seconds, Unite 7seconds Refresher feels almost unbeatable.

Unlike other dry shampoos on the market, Maria Nila Invisidry Shampoo isn’t a combined styling product. Instead, this product focuses entirely on creating fresh feeling hair, and it’s very successful at that task.

The scent is fresh and slightly sweet, and fades quite quickly after application. According to the bottle, this is a powder spray, but you can’t tell that when you’re using it, because unlike most other dry shampoos in our test, the product doesn’t become a visible coating of powder in the hair. Instead it’s completely invisible, and consequently it works in all hair colours, from lightest blonde to deepest black. This makes Maria Nila Invisidry Shampoo really easy to use. Your hair quickly looks cleaner and gains a little texture – but as we've already mentioned, consistency isn’t the point of this dry shampoo.

The product is available in two sizes of bottle, and the packaging is climate compensated. The contents are vegan, cruelty free and also free of both sulphates and parabens. In other words, a real winner for both greasy hair and the environment. And it's a nice bonus that with Maria Nila Invisidry Shampoo you don’t have to go around looking like you've rubbed dust into your hair.

Our test winner is the aluminium free Perk Up Dry Shampoo from Amika, which contains rice starch and sea buckthorn. The Perk Up Dry Shampoo worked equally well on both dark and light hair and left absolutely no residue, even on black hair. The product can be easily applied without a hairbrush, which is a big positive. While the Perk Up Dry Shampoo did give the hair some volume, it primarily provided the sensation of clean and freshly washed hair. This was a pleasant sensation compared to the rough feeling often associated with volume products. The scent is inspired by sea buckthorn and felt fresh and quirky without being overpowering.

Kevin Murphy Fresh Hair is an unusually fine spray with a clear scent of sweet citrus. The spray is pretty much invisible even on the darkest hair, which is perfect for a quick application. Kevin Murphy Fresh Hair gives a really freshly washed feeling, which lasts well throughout the day. The result is completely matte and it gives some volume in thin hair, but for thicker hair the feeling of cleanness is the product's strength.

If you want a dry shampoo that helps to create light and airy hair, the Moroccanoil Dry Shampoo is an option really worth considering. While the product doesn't add any structure to the hair, it really helps you get that newly washed feeling. Since the grains of shampoo that you spray into your hair are so small that you can't even see them, this also means that you need to use quite a lot of the product. However, once you've applied a sufficient amount of the dry shampoo, the results are good and last all day. The scent, which although is quite strong, dissipates quickly.

One positive characteristic of this product is that it’s very easy to apply to exactly the places where you want it. Light and a dark variants of the dry shampoo are available for different hair colours. Its ability to help preserve lustrous hair while making it feel nice and fresh makes the Moroccanoil Dry Shampoo suitable for anyone who doesn't need extra volume from their dry shampoo.

Lernberger Stafsing Dryclean Spray is a dry shampoo that provides lots of volume and structure, and worked really well for our testers with thin, fine hair strands who wanted loads of volume. It has a moderate oil absorbing capacity and works well for a day or so after washing, but it’s not the best choice if it’s been a few days since you washed your hair. The formula requires a lot of working into the hair, but it gives a nice matte finish without visible traces of powder.

You get a pleasant newly washed feeling each time you spray the Sebastian Drynamic Shampoo onto your hair. The spray is so finely grained that it's practically invisible. What you can see is the clear shine it leaves your hair with, as this dry shampoo succeeds in removing grease without making your hair look drab. The scent of the shampoo is fresh but rather strong, and unfortunately lasts for a fairly long time after application.

The Sebastian Drynamic Shampoo can be used on the roots of the hair like a normal dry shampoo but can also be used on the upper lengths of the hair as a styling product. When doing the latter you spray the product into your hair and activate it with the heat of a hairdryer. We would recommend doing this step, as otherwise the product doesn't create an enormous amount of volume. Unfortunately, despite this process succeeding in adding structure to your hair, it can also make your hair feel a bit rough. As such, while we can’t call the Sebastian Drynamic Shampoo a great styling product, it's a fantastic dry shampoo.

Forget the dusty look you get from so many dry shampoos. Oribe Gold Lust won’t be visible in your hair at all. It doesn’t give your hair any structure, but it doesn’t promise to either. Instead it creates a freshly washed, light and airy feeling. Your hair retains its shine and lustre and just feels fresh. However, the fact that the grains are so small means you need to use quite a lot to achieve a good result. And unfortunately it doesn’t last as long as you’d like. By the afternoon, your hair starts to feel a bit greasy even if it still looks fresh. The consistency is good and it’s easy to get the product in the right place without the surplus spreading all around the entire bathroom. The scent is relatively mild and you don’t notice it once applied. If you just want that freshly washed feeling and don't need extra structure, Gold Lust Dry Shampoo is a good option.

The Maria Nila Dry Shampoo is a dry shampoo that can also be used as a styling product. It's great for creating volume and giving structure to even newly washed hair. It's effective as a dry shampoo, easily reducing excess grease with grains that are so small you can barely see them. However, since the product adds so much structure it can also make your hair feel a little heavy after you have applied it.

The spray is just damp enough to be easily spread throughout the hair. Thankfully it is not too dry, which would normally be a problem for a dry shampoo, so you can still easily get it into the right places. Before you've got used to using it, you can easily end up using too much of this dry shampoo as you only need to use a very small amount to achieve good results. This makes it an extremely economical dry shampoo if you can learn to use the right amount. It also has a mild scent, which is clear positive characteristic for this kind of hair product. Overall, the Maria Nila Dry Shampoo is a good dry shampoo which succeeds in giving the hair structure and achieving fresh results.

The Batiste Dry Shampoo Original was the cheapest product in our test, which unfortunately was also clear when it came to the quality of the product. This dry shampoo has average freshening properties but doesn't manage to create volume in the hair to any great extent. On light hair, the Batiste Dry Shampoo Original works very well in terms of colour, but in darker hair it has a tendency to produce a bit of a shadow. However, the powder does give hair an attractive matte finish and so would therefore be extremely suitable for bleached hair if you want to avoid giving it shine.