The problem, and why benzene is particularly troubling in dry shampoos, is that you spray them at your face and, generally, in enclosed environments like a bathroom. “You would be exposed to higher levels of benzene if you were two feet away from cigarette smoke than 10 feet,” Chris Reddy, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, says. “And then, there’s the overlooked factor: length of exposure.
Does that mean there’s a safe way to use dry shampoos in aerosol form? The jury is still out. When asked if he’d use aerosols, cosmetic chemist Ron Robinson atsays, “I use an antiperspirant deodorant spray that contains butane every day, and I’m not concerned.” Others are not so sure. “I try to eliminate potential carcinogens,” Cappa says. “If I were to use them, I’d use them outside where they can be diluted. But all of these things are a choice.
,” founder of Kaia Naturals, quickly discovered that there were shockingly few ways to shoot powder out of a can . “There’s either a propellant or a bag and valve in the can. But the bag-and-valve method produces a wet spray, and you can’t have that for dry shampoo,” she says. Her solution was to use a new “wing-lift” technology, which contains no propellants and instead relies on two levers inside the package to push powder up from the bottom of the bottle. “You shake it, then when you press down on the nozzle, the wings help disseminate the powder,” Futher says.