DIY Natural Dry Shampoo

Text by Sarah Poff

Since its launch, the stunningly large-format book “A Wilder Life” has made gardening and plants seem not just beautiful, but cool, with vivid imagery and contemporary graphic design that gets urbanites, including myself, excited by things that grow.

“Our mission is to get people to not get lost in our technology-driven culture, but to understand the world by experiencing it,” explains its author, Abbye Churchill.

The all-inclusive, coffee-table-worthy, DIY project-filled guide is one of the resources that has enabled me to relish each of the seasons by engaging with nature. It features recipes (think foraged elderflower champagne and pumpkin butter), gardening and home-related subjects like planting a night-blooming garden and cultivating butterflies in a backyard, as well as more uncon- ventional topics like sashiko patch embroidery.

The book is also an exceptional resource for those interested in natural beauty. Among the projects encompassed are a guide to crafting personalized fragrances, a formula for making calendula balm to soothe dry winter skin, and a tutorial on preparing herbal tinctures for headache relief.

Here we demonstrate one of the book’s simplest DIY projects — making your own dry shampoo — a natural hair powder that lends texture, volume and a subtle, captivating scent.

DRY SHAMPOO

Ingredients:

3 tsp. Arrowroot powder
2 tsp. Tapioca starch
1 tsp. Montmorillonite clay powder
25 drops of essential oil or oils of your choice

Instructions:

1. Combine the arrow root, tapioca and clay powder in a glass mixing bowl, and whisk them together.
2. Gradually incorporate the essential oil into the powder blend, whisking constantly. Distribute the drops evenly around the bowl, avoiding adding them all in one spot. Continue mixing until the powder has absorbed the oil and achieved a uniform, fine texture.
3. Cover the blend with a tea towel or similar lightweight fabric, allowing the components to meld together overnight.
4. Transfer the resulting powder to a spice shaker or a sealed container, and apply to dry hair as required. The mixture can be stored and used for up to a year.