Review: Salon Grafix Invisible Dry Shampoo

Finally! With this review, I have officially covered every dry shampoo available to most of us at the drugstore! This was the last drugstore dry shampoo that I had yet to get my hands on, so I was super excited when Rite Aid posted a $3 Salon Grafix coupon recently on their Video Values site. I snatched this one up quickly because I've been curious about it for months!

If you missed my previous dry shampoo reviews, you can click here for my review of Batiste (available at Sally Beauty) and here for my review of TREsemme Fresh Start and here for my review of Psssssst! dry shampoo.

Before trying Salon Grafix, my reigning champ for affordable dry shampoos was Batiste. For me, Batiste just seems to work better than all the others.  I have oily hair (at the roots), oily skin, and side-swept bangs. As those of you who share these traits know, this can be a yucky combination if I want to skip a day between washings. My bangs get greasy and separate after a day, so I loooove using dry shampoos if I'm too busy to wash my hair. And Batiste just seems to be the most effective because it doesn't leave a white cast to my hair, it doesn't have a sticky or weird feel to it when it's in my hair, the scent is pleasant and it also gives my hair an added bonus: lots of volume! 

In fact, I want to thank the lovely reader who shared with me that she was recently an extra on the set of Mad Men (OK, how lucky is she??) and when the stylist was doing her hair (in a beehive!) they used dry shampoo to create extra body in her hair. If the person who told me that is reading this, could you PLEASE let me know which brand of dry shampoo they used? I would just be so thrilled if it was Batiste! 

So let's see how Salon Grafix measures up:

Salon Grafix Invisible Dry Shampoo (retail: $7.99 at Rite Aid, 4 oz)

I like that this product contains several plant extracts, which might be one of the reasons it smells so nice. To me, Salon Grafix Invisible Dry Shampoo has a nice, soft, clean and floral scent to it, and I actually prefer this fragrance to any of the other dry shampoos I've reviewed, including Batiste.

The thing that made me the most curious, after looking at the ingredients, is that this product does not contain rice starch (which is in Batiste) or aluminum starch (which is in TRESemme Fresh Start and Psssssst!). I immediately thought: how is this going to absorb the oils in my hair without starch??

Just like all the others, Salon Grafix has a standard aerosol spray nozzle. No surprises there.

So let's see how it worked:

 My bangs, about 24 hours after my last shampoo.

Why do I always decide to review dry shampoos BEFORE I color my hair? Please excuse my roots and my visible gray. Yikes! Anyway, as you can see, I've pulled back the top layer of my bangs to reveal the oily hair underneath. This is really my problem area as this is the layer of hair that rests upon my oily forehead. Oily hair + oily skin = YUCK.

(Man, last week I show you my puffy crying eyes and this week it's my oily disgusting hair. What's next? Wait. Don't answer that.)

 My bangs, a few seconds after applying four quick bursts of Salon Grafix Invisible Dry Shampoo

In the above photo, I have not combed the product through or worked it through with my hands. I sprayed it into my hair and immediately took the picture.

As you can see, there is NO white or gray cast to my hair (any gray that you see is my actual gray hair). Let me tell you that the title of this product does not lie! It is TRULY INVISIBLE. In fact, after I applied it, I had to double-check the nozzle to make sure the actual product was coming out, and not just air. I could not believe that there was no white residue whatsoever! I guess that's what happens when you don't put starch in your dry shampoo, huh?

My bangs a few minutes after using Salon Grafix Invisible Dry Shampoo and combing my hair into place

Pleasant scent? Check. Easy to use? Check. No white or gray cast left behind? Check. Elimination of oil in my hair? Uh...that would be a big NO.

I tried so hard to capture this in my photos, but what you can't see here is that my hair still looks and feels a bit greasy. Sure, some of the visible oil that I had before is gone. I'll give it that much. But I actually had to reapply this product several times after I took these photos to get rid of most the oil in my bangs. And even then, it didn't leave my hair feeling less oily, like it does when I use Batiste. Also, it didn't seem to give my hair any extra volume (not that it claims to) but it's nice bonus when I use Batiste. 

One thing I do love about Salon Grafix is that it doesn't leave that powdery coating behind (which I do get from Batiste and Psssssst!). Nor does it leave that sticky, gummy, heavy feeling that TREsemme leaves behind on my hair. It's almost as if I sprayed hairspray on my hair when I use Salon Grafix, but a very soft-hold hairspray that you can barely detect.

All in all, I think that the absence of any type of starch is what fails me when it comes to Salon Grafix. Because there is no starch in this product, I don't have a powdery feel to my hair when I use it, but that powdery feel is what helps absorb the oils in my hair. Yes, the starch is what can leave a white cast to your hair, so Salon Grafix wins in that department.  BUT, if your hair is very oily, I don't recommend this product. I just don't think it has the power to absorb a lot of oil.

To whom would I recommend this product then, right? Well, if you have dark hair, and every other dry shampoo you've ever used leaves an annoying white cast to your hair, then I think you'll enjoy the fact that this is truly invisible. BUT, if you have a lot of oil to be absorbed, I wouldn't go into this thinking that this product will absorb it all. I'm afraid you might need a more heavy-duty product such as Psssssst! or Batiste.

I hope this review helps any of you who were thinking of trying Salon Grafix. As always, your results may vary and this is just my opinion.  Have you already tried Salon Grafix Invisible Dry Shampoo? What do you think of it?