Overheard a customer say dry shampoo is fake washing, made me rethink my advice

Last Tuesday I was tidying up my station between appointments and a woman two chairs over was telling her stylist she'd been using dry shampoo for five days straight because she hated wetting her hair. Her stylist laughed and said it's not real washing, just perfume and powder, and that got me thinking about how often I recommend dry shampoo to my own clients with busy schedules. I've been doing hair for about 8 years now, and I admit I've told people it's a good way to stretch a blowout, but rarely do I explain the scalp buildup side of it. That woman left with a dry scalp rash later, I saw her come back that same week, and I wonder if honesty about limits would have saved her the trouble. Does anyone else feel like we push quick fixes without the full story on how they affect the scalp long term, or is that just me? I'm curious how other cosmetologists handle this in their consults.

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jamesc7912d agoTop Commenter

My buddy Marco who does hair over in Austin told me about a client he had last spring. She came in for a color appointment and her scalp was covered in these little red bumps, smelled kinda funky too. He asked what she'd been using and she admitted she'd been hitting the dry shampoo every morning for two weeks straight because she was training for a marathon and hated washing her hair after every run. He had to do a detox treatment with apple cider vinegar and it took her like three visits just to get her scalp back to normal. After that he started telling people dry shampoo was like putting deodorant on a sweaty shirt, you're covering the smell but the dirt is still there. Now he always asks his clients how many days they've actually gone between real washes and he keeps a little card in his station about scalp health. Did you have to change how you talk about dry shampoo after that incident too?