Tuesday 26 August 2014

Tabitha James Kraan dry shampoo review



The state of my hair can dictate my mood for the day. Is this shallow? Probably, but I am sure most of you can relate to what I am talking about. You wake up: hair tangled, no matter what you do flyaways don't stay in place and you are supposed to be out of the door in the next five minutes... Does not make a beginning of a wonderful morning. However when hair looks really good, all of a sudden you find yourself using less make up yet looking and feeling fabulous. A good shampoo and conditioner combo should do the ground work, but as every lady with long hair knows, washing your hair everyday is a no no. I tend to wash my hair every 3-4 days depending on how dirty/oily it gets and what I am doing (if I am staying at home it can wait an extra day... best friends wedding, it is getting a wash).

The thing is after the second day (and occasionally even the first) my hair does not look all that great. While the lengths are fine the roots (especially in the summer) are getting somewhat oily, the look reminds me of boys from Grease. While it may work for some, I am most definitely not pulling it off. The obvious solution to this problem is dry shampoo, but finding one that works proved to be a much more difficult task then previously undissipated.

My luck changed when Tabitha kindly sent me a dry shampoo* from her capsule collection. Tabitha James Kraan runs an organic hairdressing salon and an online shop of natural beauty products, as well as her own capsule collection of hair treats. The dry shampoo in particular took 18 months to formulate and comes in two versions one for fair and one for dark hair.

The ingredient list is pretty impressive:

Tapioca (manihot utilissima)*, Rice (oryza sativa)*, Chestnut (castanea sativa)*, sodium bicarbonate Chick pea (cicer arietinum)*, Maize powder (zea mais)*, Burdock Root (arctium lappa)*, Chamomile (anthemis nobilis)*, Lemon (citrus limon)*, Comfrey (symphytum officinale)*, white tea (camellia sinensis)*, Potato (solanum tuberosum)*, Nettle (urtica dioica)*, Lemongrass (cymbopogon citratus)*, Rose Geranium (pelargonium graveolens)*, Rose Otto (rosa damascena), Myrrh (commiphora myrrha)*, (citral geraniol citronellol farnesol limonene linalool – all naturally occurring components of essential oils)

* Denotes Certified Organic Ingredients

I mean I was expecting baking soda and corn flour, and maybe even rice powder and tapioca are no great surprise, but chestnut? burdock root? rose otto in a dry shampoo?  That is pretty special. Of course the main point does it work? Yes it really does. What makes it stand out head and shoulders above its counter parts is that it does not cause my head to itch like a family of fire ants has made my scalp their home, it provides volume that lasts all day, and it doesn't make the lenghts of my hair dry.



The sleek golden packaging doesn't only look good it is actually very practical. The bottle is slightly narrower than other powders I have used and somehow this means I don't make a mess while applying it ( I still do this before getting dressed just in case, but my bathroom floor and sink don't end up covered in powder so this is a big step up). The application process that works best for me is as follows:

-Sprinkle a bit of powder on top of the head, quickly massage in to the roots to ensure even distribution
-Flip my head and hair to the side, sprinkle powder on the roots and a quick massage
-Flip my head to the other side and repeat
-Look down and distribute some powder to the lower part at the back of the head
- Get dressed and then brush my hair upside down

On the instructions it suggests that for more volume you should blow dry your hair on cold setting while brushing out your hair, sadly my hairdryer is a prehistoric thing with no such setting so I was not able to test this out. If you don't want the extra volume and your aim is just to get your roots looking a bit fresher, go ahead and brush your hair like normal and this dry shampoo will give you an apperance of a clean mane. The powder has a light floral scent that is very pleasant, not at all overpowering yet strong enough to mask that not so fresh hair smell.

The beauty of this dry shampoo is that it also doubles up as a texturising powder. When I use it this way I normally sprinkle some on my hands and then apply to my roots, scrunching up my  hair as I go along with my fingers. This gives fantastic volume that can be incorporated into an updo or left as is. You can tell that this dry shampoo was created by someone who knows hair, I have never had a pleasure to use a powder that was this fabulous and worked so well with my hair.


*This product was sent to me to try out, every word of this review is my own honest opinion as always

5 comments:

  1. Now this is looking really good! I've only tried one dry shampoo so far from Lulu organics, which is fine but nothing exceptional. Like you said the ingredient list is incredible. I'll have to check this one out, thank you for this review :) xx

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    1. Yes I have to agree about Lulu. Honestly TJK has made a natural dry shampoo believer out of me :) xx

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  2. Great review! In my pre-Green days, a dry shampoo was a must and I used it a couple of times a week but over the last couple of years, I've used it less and less until the last six months where I've stopped using it altogether. I've embraced the Grease-look haha! I do still pine away after a good dry shampoo but I'm not sure I could stretch to the cost of this one, even though it looks brilliant :)

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    1. Thank you. I admire you for embracing the look but I'm a little too vain :) Yes it is pricey but there is a lot of product in the bottle I have been using it for nearly two months now and there is more than 2/3 left! xx

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  3. This looks AMAZING! I am missing a dry shampoo in my routine, like you everything used to make my head itch like crazy. After beauty challenge 10 (20) I am going to get this product, her haircare sounds fab Xx

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