Why it's worth it
Batiste Original is the can most people picture when they hear dry shampoo, and it still absorbs grease reliably while adding real body. It's rice-starch based, sold everywhere, and cheap enough that you won't ration it.
It does the main job well. Batiste pulls oil and grease off your roots quickly, and the brand's own lab testing claims it beats formulas costing twice as much on absorption. The formula is rice starch, refined over decades, with no sulfates, parabens, or ammonia. For light-to-medium hair, you're not giving up much versus the salon cans.
You get texture along with the oil control. Starch leaves a bit of grit behind, and on fine, limp hair that grit is a feature. Your roots stand up. A ponytail holds instead of sliding. If your hair goes flat and slick by day two, this fixes both problems at once in a way the polymer formulas don't.
From our review of 12 dry shampoo for oily hair, by Sarah Wright, Editorial Associate