Product Review: Herbal Essences Naked Dry Shampoo

Edit: After two more days of use, I had to downgrade the rating. Click through for more info

I'm a huge fan of dry shampoo.  I have fine hair and in the summertime I often need to refresh my hair at the end of the day if I'm headed out for dinner.  I also try to wash my hair every other day when I can because my scalp gets so dry (I usually only wind up skipping twice a week though, because I can hardly stand it to have dirty hair).  Since my hair is so fine, I can only get away with this because of dry shampoo which came onto the market a few years ago.

You can spend a lot of moo-lah on a good dry shampoo, which I have done in the past, but I'm always interested in trying to find a cheaper version at the drugstore.  Briana has experimented with a homemade version using corn starch, but found it didn't hold up during Florida's rainy season so I've still been looking for a cheaper brand.  When running through the Target a few weeks ago, I spotted this Herbal Essences Naked Dry shampoo and snapped it up to try.

Herbal Essences Naked Dry Shampoo
$4.99
Image Source: Target

I've used it off and on for the past few weeks, but I have mixed feelings about the product.  While I like that the Herbal Essences brand is paraben and colorant free, I'm not sure about the formula.  I skipped washing my hair yesterday and I needed to take care of a few oily bits on my part, around my face, and underneath my the back of my hair (it's important to get this area if you plan to put your hair up at any point in the day).  

Here's my part after I had brushed out my "bed head" and sprayed the dry shampoo on the oily parts of my hair.  It definitely makes my hair worse before it looks better.  The dry shampoo actually dampened my hair and also leaves tiny clumps of product that are much more visible in front of the mirror than this photo.

It also requires SIGNIFICANTLY more brushing to work it through once my hair dried and get rid of the white streaks (forget about trying to brush when your hair still feels damp..it just gets sticky and clumpy). Luckily, I'm blonde, so the white streaking is less noticeable, but I definitely would not recommend this product to anyone with dark hair.  You have to really get the underneath part of your hair brushed well as this was the area that has the most leftover white streaking.

This dry shampoo also has a bit of light fragrance.  The smell is described as "white grapefruit and mint essences," which is definitely true, but the scent quickly fades and leaves behind a different odor which I can't really explain or identify.  I'm not saying it's bad, just that the scent advertised doesn't stick around.  

Here's how my hair turned out after I brushed the dry shampoo through, styled it, and finished it off with some hair spray. 

Although I think the formula is a bit difficult to work with, the end result is pretty good (as an FYI, this photo was taken at about 7:30 AM before I went to work).  My hair has volume and doesn't look like "second day hair."  I'm not sure if I will purchase this product again or not.  The issues I've mentioned seem to be pretty consistent with each time I've used the product.  I love the price and the end result is good, but, in the past, I've used dry shampoos with a much better formula.

Posh Purpose Rating: B