Batiste Gets A Make Over (Batiste Tropical Dry Shampoo)

Member Name: blonde_girl774

Product:	Batiste Tropical Dry Shampoo
Date:	01/09/08 (250 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap & Gives that "Just Washed Look"... without the washing!

Disadvantages: Can make you look slightly greay.

If there's one thing that I can't stand it's having greasy hair. I can cope with the odd spot or two, I can deal with any dry skin and I can even handle some split ends. However when it comes to greasy hair I just can't even leave the house without feeling completely ashamed! Unfortunately I don't always find myself with enough time to wash and dry my hair whenever I need to and as such I've come to rely rather heavily on one product... Batiste.

I've been using the original Batiste for about five years now and when I sense my can running low I do feel general panic coming on. It's saved me on so many occasions that I'd easily put it within my top ten beauty products, and would even go so far as to call it one of my close friends - I mean who else has the ability to make you look half decent within about thirty seconds? Certainly none of my current friends can work such a miracle!

So what is Batiste?

Batiste is quite a simple product really - it's a hair spray that cleanses your hair of grease. Sounds quite straightforward really and to be honest it is, there's no great scientific claims or promises behind this product. It's what is known as a dry shampoo as it has the effect of a typical shampoo but works on dry hair so avoids all the washing and drying that you normally go through when you clean your hair of grease.

When my mum was younger she used to use talcum powder on her hair between washes and as she was blond this worked out really well for her. However as I'm currently brunette the talcum powder had a tendency to make my hair look grey, and that's an even worse look than having greasy hair at my age! I came across batiste about five years ago and have always been loyal to the brand, it can actually work miracles!

Batiste actually works in a similar way to talcum powder, apart from being a spray rather than a powder it's very similar indeed. It removes the grease from your hair not by washing it out as normal shampoo does, but by absorbing the grease from your hair. Therefore it's probably not as thorough as normal shampoo as it does work in a slightly different way but the effects are very similar, especially in the short term.

The original Batiste spray came in a somewhat old fashioned looking green canister with a matching green lid. It had a somewhat synthetic smell to it that wasn't a horrendous smell by any means but at the same time it really wasn't very appealing to be honest but I managed to overlook this small disadvantage due to it working miracles! However when I heard that there was a new Tropical version coming out I couldn't wait to try it!

Batiste Tropical

The tropical version of Batiste is relatively new onto the market and has only been appearing in my local Boots for the past couple of months. It's situated near the shampoos and hair sprays although is very often quite hard to find if you don't know where to look as dry shampoos create a very small category of their very own it would seem. It comes in a bright green and yellow canister which is certainly quite eye grabbing and it does look a little more modern than the original version. However it can also hurt your eyes quite a lot if you happen to have a hangover so please bare that in mind! The lid is a simple pull off style lid and is bright green which matches the bottle.

To dispense the spray it's recommended that you hold the bottle at arm's length (30cm approximately) which is a good idea as you'll find if you hold it too close then the spray will be far too concentrated and will result in a lovely white blob on your head. It's best to spray is all over fairly quickly and not spend too long on anyone area as you don't want to overload your hair. After you've applied the spray to your hair don't be alarmed if you notice white or grey looking patches as this is quite easy to rectify. The first thing I noticed was the rather intoxicating tropical smell that was quite overpowering! It did however smell much nicer than the original version and reminded me of being on holiday. It was a mixture of tropical fruit juice, coconut and fruit salad flavoured chewits to be more precise. The smell did fade after a short while so don't worry you won't be walking around stinking of chewits!

It's best to rub the dry shampoo through your hair with your fingers, similar to how you would if you were washing your hair normally in the shower. After you've run the dry shampoo through your fingers and given it about twenty seconds to work it's recommended that you brush it out using a natural bristle brush. Now as I didn't own one of them I went for my normal hair brush which worked just fine. You will find that you need to brush your hair quite thoroughly to remove all of the residue but it didn't take me more than about thirty seconds. You'll also find that your brush retains the white residue so I've now set aside an old brush to use with batiste as I don't want to be carrying around a stained white brush with me as I'm worried people will think I suffer from very bad dandruff!

After using this spray I'm always amazed at just how clean my hair looks, almost as if it's been freshly washed. There was no hint of grease on my head anywhere and my hair looked one hundred times better than it had before using the spray. Since then I've used the Batiste Tropical about ten times and each time the result has been exactly the same. If I use Batiste in the morning the effects last all day but by evening time my hair does start to show signs of grease again so although it does shampoo your hair the effects are quite short lived, however if you just need to get through a day at work or a night out it'll do just fine!

What I would also say is that you can't keep repeating using the dry shampoo; you'll find that if you use it more than once it doesn't work quite as well so unfortunately it doesn't mean you can stop washing your hair forever - yuck! After I used the spray I went onto style my hair as normal and it looked just fine, do be careful that you fully brush out all the white residue or this will be transferred onto GHDs! I'm lucky that I've got quite thick hair so it never looks too flat but when my mum's used it she has commented that although it completely removed the grease from her hair, it didn't restore any of the volume that she gets when she's just washed it.

My Opinion

I loved the original Batiste and due to the fragrance I love the new Batiste Tropical even more. I've had my can for over a month now and have used it about ten times; I'll probably need to replace it after about another five or six applications as well. Obviously your hair length and thickness will determine how long the product lasts. A 150ml can in Boots will set you back £2.09 and at that price I think it's worth every single penny!

Thanks for reading.

Summary: A dry shampoo to use on your hair to save washing it.