Best dry shampoos to keep your locks looking fresh – tried and tested

Arkive is the brainchild of hairstylist Adam Reed, who has spent decades working with hair in salons and across runway shows. In 2023, he launched his Arkive line, filled with reasonably priced, luxurious hair-maintenance essentials and styling products that smell incredible, too. This reset formula is a superstar dry shampoo that costs less than £15. It’s an ultra-fine mist that utilises rice starch to absorb excess oil, and baobab to simultaneously care for your scalp, all while giving a deep clean. The scent is inspired by Reed’s grandmother’s greenhouse, with delicious notes of tomato leaf, rhubarb, honeysuckle and redcurrant – it follows you round all day, like a luxury perfume. This product gives hair a boost in all the right ways, adding volume to our perpetually flat strands, with no white cast to worry about.

Batiste is arguably king of the dry shampoo market, with its many different scents, uses and sizes widely available everywhere from corner shops and supermarkets to beauty retailers such as Boots and Superdrug. This sensitive scalp formula is a huge improvement on previous iterations from the brand, and we can’t fault the price, either – £3 for 200ml is significantly more affordable than all the other dry shampoos on our list. There’s still the distinctive dry shampoo scent, which is a bit of a giveaway if you’re trying to hide hair that hasn’t been washed, but less of the harsh white tinge we’ve seen with other Batiste products. This formula has been designed specifically to sooth scalps prone to itchiness and sensitivity, so, if that’s you, this is a decent product at a decent price. It gets a thumbs up from us.

This is one of the most transformative hair products we’ve ever tried. It’s a wet mist that, at first, feels like it’s just dampening already greasy roots but, after brushing it through your tresses, it revives even the most limp hair, making it look like it’s been freshly washed. It’s a fascinating formula, too, as it’s made with K18’s odorBIND complex, which uses biotechnology to replace greasy scents with a subtle, light fragrance, along with microbeads to soak up the excess oil, and hydrolysed hyaluronic acid to stop your hair from losing hydration. The formula is completely clear – you won’t find any powdery white tinges left behind, making it perfect for all colour-treated hair. We used it before bed, brushed it through and saw an immediate, dramatic improvement. The next morning, that clean look was still there. Even after a very sweaty run, our hair was still fresh. Three sprays was enough for our long, fine hair, and despite using it since November 2024, we’ve barely made a dent in the 118ml bottle. The only downside is the price – it’s a big ask to spend almost £50 on a product we use most mornings but, if you have the budget, it’s worth it.

Italian haircare brand Davines is pioneering sustainability through its family-run business. This ranges from investing in regenerative, biodynamic farming methods; reducing waste across its packaging; running a transparent supply chain, and focusing on the welfare of farmers who grow the ingredients found in the brand’s products.

This dry shampoo is incredibly lightweight, disappearing into the hair in seconds but leaving behind the volumised, clean look of a fresh blow dry. It also adds texture, helping to ensure our loosely curled strands stay that way all day. We think this one is perfect for perfecting a beachy wave look.

We tried this on hair that hadn’t been washed for four days and was, quite frankly, gross. Miraculously, however, this dry shampoo brought our hair back to life and left it with volume, texture and a fresh feeling. There’s no white powdery mist that lingers, and the formula brushes out within seconds. It’s particularly good to freshen up a fringe if you’re planning a slicked-back style but don’t want a limp-looking front section. Spray liberally over roots, wait a couple minutes and brush through, for best results. Scented with herbal aquatic mint, lemon and tea, the formula is designed not only to temporarily ‘clean’ hair but protect it from pollution, so, it’s a great two-in-one treatment.

Hairstylist Sam McKnight has spent 40 years in the beauty industry, with celebrity clientele including Kate Moss, Gigi Hadid, Jodie Comer and the late Princess Diane, to name a few. A long-standing icon, McKnight put his expertise into his eponymous line of haircare products in 2022, partnering with British perfumer Lyn Harris to create some of the best scented shampoos, masks and styling sprays on the market.

‘Lazy girl’ is McKnight’s modern take on dry shampoo that gives volume, body and clean hair all in one. It’s ideal for making a salon blowdry last a few more days, and we love that there’s no white residue, the nozzle distributes a powerful spray, so, you don’t need to use much, and it adds a much-needed volume boost to lifeless, greasy hair.

Oribe is the epitome of luxury haircare, with glamorous packaging, beautiful scents in every product and celebrity fans including Meghan Markle, Jennifer Lopez and Miley Cyrus. The brand’s dry shampoo is well worth a try if you’re shopping with a big budget. Despite its very lightweight finish, it packs a punch when adding life back into lacklustre locks, absorbing excess oil and product build-up in between hair washes. It has a subtle scent of watermelon and lychee, and, best of all, it leaves hair feeling soft to the touch, without any crunchy or sticky textures. It’s a reliable tool for ensuring a good hair day.

If you have an oily scalp, this lightweight dry shampoo is a lifesaver when you need to extend your hair-wash schedule. It’s a fine mist (with no visible droplets) that can be sprayed liberally onto roots, providing an instant refresh for hair. Although, we would recommend leaving it on the hair for a minute before brushing it out, for the best results. It easily absorbs natural oils produced by your scalp, without irritating any sensitivity, and its formula contains a UV filter and vitamin E, to protect it from the sun and environmental damage. While it’s expensive, it’s a lovely dry shampoo that delivers on everything its promises.