Is the New OUAI Dry Shampoo Foam Really Worth It?

Unless you've been without a wifi connection for the last month, you'll know that the hottest product in beauty right now is the OUAI Dry Shampoo Foam. I've used about half of the OUAI collection before, and I have to admit that creator Jen Atkin really did that. The hair guru's products are so good that they don't even need the endorsements from all of our favorite celebrities that keep pouring in left and right. The best part? They don't break the bank, either.

But, with all of the products promising to cleanse your hair without actually having to wash it, I had to wonder, is the OUAI Dry Shampoo Foam really worth it? I decided to put it to the test. Since my hair is bleached within an inch of its life and dyed lavender, I tend to only wash it twice (fine, once) a week. The natural oils are good for the hair and I don't want to fade the color. IMO, washing your hair is overrated anyway.

OUAI Dry Shampoo Foam, $43, Amazon

I wanted to try it on hair that was longer than mine, too, preferably hair that hadn't been touched by the veritable chemistry lab of chemicals that my hair has endured.

This is my friend AJ.

And this is his hair.

AJ and I have had a very exhausting week of not washing our hair, so we were both at the perfect place to give this new product a try. AJ is actually the one that first put me onto dry shampoo years ago, so we've really come full circle here.

OUAI Dry Shampoo Foam, $43, Amazon

With hair like ours, dry shampoo is more than just a product, it's a way of life. We all know, though, that with dry shampoo, there can be too much of a good thing.

Most dry shampoo comes with a bit of grit, which can be a blessing and a curse. It absorbs oil and gives hair texture and volume, but too much, and your hair will feel tangled, look dry and dull, and you won't be able to run your fingers through it. I wanted to see if the foam would be any different than the typical dry shampoo, or if it was just the same game in a different formula.

So I started on AJ and his mane. Per my request, he had gone a couple days without washing his hair, so it looked a little oily, thin, and lank.

No judgement, though, because mine was looking pretty gross, too. It was piecey, but not cute piecey. Dirty piecey.

In order to make sure we got the product evenly distributed throughout his hair and not just all in one place, I sectioned his hair into three parts, with the hair parted from his forehead running back to the crown of his head.

From there, I took small lumps of the Dry Shampoo Foam into my hands and worked them into the root, back to about one-third to halfway down the strand.

The foam feels exactly like a mousse, which made me a bit nervous. It worked into the hair without any trouble though, the only thing I had to be careful of was just making sure all of it had been absorbed. The foam has a lot of body to it, but it's very light and fluffy, so sometimes little bits of it would migrate to different parts of the hair.

To my surprise, there was no weird residue on my hands after I applied, it didn't leave my hands feeling sticky, like, at all. You probably need to wash your hands after use just to be safe, but you could totally apply this on the go without your hands sticking to everything.

On both my head and his, hair felt a little damp for a minute or two after we got the foam worked in. It's best to apply and fluff your hair up for a second so it can breathe.

So then I applied it to my grody hair.

As I said, it had been...a few days since I last washed, and there was already some Kerastase hair oil and Bumble Spray Balm hanging out in there, so on top of my natural oils, I was in need of some help.

Kerastase Hair Oil, $37, Amazon

Bumble Spray Balm, $30

I applied a little to my hairline at the root, and a little about halfway back in the middle of my hair, parting my hair horizontally from ear to ear and then pushing the foam through.

Once I felt I had applied enough evenly throughout, I shook my hair out and then took a look at AJ's and was really surprised by just how refreshed his hair looked. Check it out:

He was feeling it, too, clearly.

But I mean, so was I.

Once I had worked the foam through our hair, fluffed it, and styled it, we were both loving how our hair looked, and how it felt.

For starters, the foam makes hair look freshly washed without making it look dry. It adds a bit of texture, but not in the form of grit like a spray dry shampoo does. In fact, we were both pleased by how soft and malleable how hair was. We could both run our hands through our hair, throw it around and restyle it as we wanted, without any dryness, tangles, or breakage.

Also, hair looked healthy and shiny. Normally, too much dry shampoo leads to matte strands that look piecey in their own way. The Dry Shampoo Foam cleansed my hair without making the strands cling to each other without any powdery, matte finish. No ashy powder, no white cast, just hair that looks luminous (yes hair can look luminous) and fresh from the shower.

If this was just a foam that did everything that a normal dry shampoo does, good and bad, it would be fun, but probably not worth getting excited over. The OUAI Dry Shampoo Foam not only makes hair look clean, but feel clean! With OUAI's track record, maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Dry Shampoo Foam is a knock-out — try to get your hands (and strands) on it immediately.