Dry shampoo has gone from dressing table afterthought to bona fide beauty essential. These days, it’s less about masking third-day roots and more about extending a blow-dry, adding texture to clean hair or simply buying back time on busy mornings. Whether you’ve overslept, squeezed in a reformer class at lunch or simply can’t face wash day, a good dry shampoo formula is the ultimate reset button.
What’s more, brands have come a long way since a dusting of Johnson’s baby powder. That’s right, the latest dry shampoo innovations boast skincare-inspired ingredients, biotech odour neutralisers, pollution shields and fine-fragrance-level scents, all while avoiding the dreaded chalky cast. Unlike traditional shampoos, which rely on surfactants and water to rinse away oil, dry shampoos use starches and absorbent powders to soak up excess sebum at the root. The result? Instantly revived volume and movement.
Application is simple: target the roots, let it sit briefly, then massage or brush through. The result should be fresher-looking hair with zero residue. With prices ranging from under £5 to well over £40, we tested the lot to find the formulas truly worth your money.
Read more: 35 best shampoos and conditioners for good hair days
The best dry shampoos for 2026 are:
- Best overall – Arkive the reset: £14, Boots.com
- Best budget buy – Batiste sensitive scalp: £2.87, Boots.com
- Best for coloured hair – K18 airwash: £48, Cultbeauty.co.uk
- Best for volume – Sam McKnight lazy girl: £19.20, Spacenk.com
How we tested
We put myriad dry shampoos through their paces, using them on hair that needed all the help it could get, after not being washed for three days. We tested a mix of light and heavy-duty formulas for use on up-dos and when wearing our hair down. We considered scent, finish, added volume, how discreet or visible each dry shampoo was, and, of course, value for money. For more details of everything we factored into our review, scroll down for our full testing criteria.
Read more: 7 best hair masks to revive dry and damaged locks, tested for every budget
Arkive the reset
Best: dry shampoo overall
Size: 200ml
Cruelty-free and vegan-friendly: Yes
Why we love it
- Smells like a fine fragrance
- Invisible finish
Take note
- Very strongly scented
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.
Buy now £14, Boots.com
Batiste sensitive scalp
Best: budget dry shampoo
Size: 200ml
Cruelty-free and vegan friendly: No
Why we love it
- Cheap
- Widely available
- Fuss-free
- Good for sensitive skin
Take note
- Has the distinctive dry shampoo scent
- Stiff texture
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.
Buy now £2.87, Boots.com
K18 airwash
Best: dry shampoo for coloured hair
Size: 118ml
Cruelty-free and vegan-friendly: Yes
Why we love it
- Leaves hair feeling and looking clean
- Leaves no white powdery cast
- Lasts ages
Take note
- Very expensive
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.
Buy now £48, Cultbeauty.co.uk
Davines more inside invisible dry shampoo
Best: lightweight dry shampoo
Size: 250ml
Cruelty-free and vegan-friendly: Yes
Why we love it
- Sustainable produced
- Lightweight with no white residue
Take note
- Full-size bottle is not budget-friendly, but it does come in more affordable travel sizes
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.
Buy now £28, Sephora.co.uk
Klorane detox dry shampoo
Best: dry shampoo for cities
Size: 150ml
Cruelty-free and vegan-friendly: Yes
Why we love it
- Improves even the greasiest of hair
- Adds volume and texture
Take note
- Strong mint scent
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.
Buy now £7.71, Lookfantastic.com
Sam McKnight lazy girl
Best: dry shampoo for volume
Size: 250ml
Cruelty-free and vegan-friendly: Yes
Why we love it
- Looks and smells luxurious
- Comes in handy mini sizes
- Leaves no white residue
Take note
- Pricey
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.
Buy now £19.2, Spacenk.com
Oribe gold lust dry shampoo
Best: luxury dry shampoo
Size: 286ml
Cruelty-free and vegan-friendly: Yes
Why we love it
- No sticky/crunchy finish
- Leaves hair soft to style
- Smells luxurious
Take note
- Very expensive
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.
Buy now £46, Cultbeauty.co.uk
Amika perk up ultra oil-control dry shampoo
Best: dry shampoo for oily hair
Size: 250ml
Cruelty-free and vegan-friendly: Yes
Why we love it
- Smells fresh
- Adds an extra day to very greasy hair before washing
- Lightweight
Take note
- Quite expensive
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.
Buy now £28, Cultbeauty.co.uk
Ouai super dry shampoo melrose place
Best: dry shampoo scent
Size: 127g (56g travel size also available)
Cruelty-free and vegan-friendly: Yes
Why we love it
- Wonderful floral scent – lasts longer than the eau de parfum
- Non-chalky and feels soft in hair
- A little goes a long way
As big fans of the melrose place eau de parfum (£43.20, Spacenk.com), we were eager to try Ouai’s dry shampoo iteration. The scent is a young, fresh and summery floral, with notes of rose, lychee, cedarwood and white musk. The fragrance is arguably the standout feature of this formula and, hours after application, we were still catching generous whiffs of it.
In terms of texture, just a few short bursts from the aerosol effectively absorbed excess oil without leaving behind a powdery residue. It disperses evenly between strands, leaving hair with no trace of lingering grease.
Buy now £20.8, Spacenk.com
Living Proof perfect hair day (PhD) advanced clean dry shampoo
Best: everyday dry shampoo
Size: 184ml (335ml and 83ml sizes also available)
Cruelty-free and vegan-friendly: Yes
Why we love it
- Smells ultra clean, like a crisp apple
- No ashy residue, unless spraying super close
- Leaves hair looking and feeling clean
- Can be used on clean hair for extra volume
Take note
- Don't forget to secure the lid – it will spray/leak in a tightly packed bag or suitcase
This dry shampoo features everything from a killer scent to a talc- and silicone-free formula and, if you’ve not tried it, take this as your sign to add it to your basket. It takes a 360 approach to hair health, with scalp-soothing red algae (furcellaria lumbricalis), glycerin to hydrate, and strengthening antioxidants and amino acids (tetraselmis suecica and hydroxypropyl arginine lauryl). The result? A dry shampoo that leaves hair looking and feeling good.
For those unfamiliar with the product, the brand’s advanced clean aerosol has a bright scent somewhere between apple and lemon, and gets to work on greasy, unkempt hair in seconds. We generally find three to five spritzes across the crown of the head will take our hair from limp to luscious with minimal effort. The formula is non-chalky (unless you go to town with it), suitable for all hair colours (IndyBest’s darker-haired team members can attest to this) and it is often on offer around the £20 mark.
We’re probably on our fifth or sixth bottle in the past two years, and we often use it daily on clean hair, just for a little texture zhuzh.
Buy now £27, Sephora.co.uk
Your questions about dry shampoo answered
What is the best dry shampoo?
We can’t fault Arkive’s the reset. It has everything you want from a luxury product, including sleek packaging; a beautiful, long-lasting scent; a lightweight, fast-acting formula that leaves hair feeling and looking cleaner with every use; and a reasonable price tag. The K18 airwash also deserves a special mention for its transformative capabilities – it revived even the greasiest of strands during testing, making hair look as though it’s been freshly blow dried.
How we tested dry shampoos
To separate the genuinely grease-busting formulas from the powdery pretenders, we put the industry’s leading dry shampoos through rigorous, real-life testing. Each one was tried at home and on the go, across different hair types and woven into our everyday styling routines to see how it truly performed. We assessed each dry shampoo against the following criteria:
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
Louise Whitbread is a writer specialising in beauty. Having used and carefully assessed a plethora of skincare, make-up and haircare buys, she does the leg work when it comes to researching the products on test, and frequently gleans helpful insights from relevant experts in the know. Louise has given her verdict on everything from hairsprays to bond-building treatments and more, offering her honest opinions to help you find the products worth buying.
Lucy Smith is The Independent’s beauty writer and has covered everything from Olaplex launches to the best hair dryers. She’s spoken to various trichologists and hair stylists and is well-versed on the ingredients to seek out (and avoid) for healthy, glossy locks.
Furthermore, the wider IndyBest team also put together guides on other hair products that could be useful on different kinds of hair. From the best shampoos for oily hair and the best purple shampoos for blonde and coloured hair to even the best shampoos for men and the best sulphate-free shampoos for delicate scalps.
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