- OWA Haircare has launched a powdered hair wash that activates with water and friction from your hands.
- The shampoo is free of sulfates and other chemicals found in traditional liquid shampoo that can be damaging to hair.
- The brand is trying to reduce waste in the beauty industry by eliminating water from the production process, which typically makes up 80% of liquid shampoos.
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The following is a transcript
Narrator:
This is waterless shampoo, and it could actually be healthier for your hair and the environment. It was invented by 26-year-old Kailey Bradt, who created OWA Haircare, a bottle of shampoo that's only powder. You squeeze out a bit of that powder onto your hand, add a little water, then lather up. Shampoo production has traditionally been a pretty wasteful process. Typically, shampoo is made by heating and cooling a water-based formulation in giant vats to create an emulsion. Once the shampoo is ready, those liquid bottles are transported to their final destination on boats, planes, and trucks. By shipping only the powdered ingredients needed in shampoo without the water, the weight of the product is lighter, ultimately reducing plastic packaging and fuel during shipping. And take a regular bottle of shampoo. You only need about 20% of the ingredients in the bottle to get your hair clean. So that means most of your money is spent on water. Child: Mommy?
Narrator: Kailey says that with OWA, you get the same benefits of shampoo without all the waste.
Kailey Bradt: Our shampoo is actually only 4 fluid ounces in size, it's 2 ounces in weight, and it's about 60 washes in this one bottle. That's the equivalent to three and a half bottles of 8-ounce shampoo.
Narrator: The hair wash is vegan and cruelty-free. The first ingredient is coconut-oil based, and that's what cleans the hair. The powder is made using 10 ingredients, 11 if you want a scent, and it can be healthier for your hair because it's free of sulfates, parabens, silicons, and synthetic colors and fragrances. So, we decided to put the shampoo to the test.
A. C. Fowler: So, I'm excited and interested to see if this hair wash, this powder shampoo, really works for my type of hair. I just think that if you're gonna market yourself as an alternative, it should be an alternative for everybody, so. All right, so it says, "To use, wet hair and hands." So I use my little, I think I have a spray bottle in here somewhere. Yeah, I did repurpose a Febreze bottle and just put some water in it to spray my hair, so. You know. I thought I that was pretty handy of me. Rubbing together. Ooh, OK, wow! That's a nice little lather already. It feels so good. Ooh, it's like a cloud. Yes, all right. This is day two, and I still really like this powder shampoo. It did a really, really good job. I love the way it lathers up in my hands, and then, it just does a good job of cleaning my hair. My hair feels fresh. It feels clean, and maybe just slightly softer than it would feel if I were using a traditional shampoo.
Caroline Aghajanian: I think the shampoo did a good job doing, like, what shampoo does, like getting the grease out, really cleaning up the scalp. The powder lathers really well, so you have kind of, like, a very silky, smooth wash on your hair. OK, so I've been using the shampoo for about three washes, and my hair kind of feels the same as it did with my shampoo that I really like. So, that's a good thing. It smells nice. It's easy to use. The only thing is that I just need conditioner, but other than that, my scalp feels clean.
Nico Reyes: I shampoo maybe twice a week. My hair just dries out so easily and gets so frizzy if I wash it too much. So, I kind of just, like, avoid it till it's absolutely necessary. So, this is what my hair looks like after using the powder shampoo, and I gotta say it does look a lot softer. It feels softer, and it looks less frizzy than when I got into the shower. If you have thicker hair, you're gonna have to use more of this powder.
Mikala Jones-Fielder: I used a palmful of the product, and then I mixed it with water, and I did my scalp, and then I found I needed more, so I shook out more, added water, did the middle, shook out more, did water, mixed it together, and did the ends. So, I used about three palmsful. I don't know if that's because my hair's thicker, but that's what I needed. I tested this out for two weeks, and in those two weeks, my hair just feels very stripped. You definitely need a conditioner. I used a conditioner today. I cheated. I'm sorry. I had to. I needed to. I will say that it was very silky. When it matted up and started to foam in your hands, it was very silky and very, felt luxurious and soft. So, I wouldn't use this in my regular routine, but I would maybe use it every six months, every three months when I really wanted to just really clean my hair. Also, I feel like this would be a safer alternative since it is on the right path to sustainable beauty, to clean beauty.
Joe Avella: I was surprised by how well it lathered up in my hands and in my hair. I guess I figured 'cause it was powder, it would've been chalky and kinda, like, harsh, but actually it felt really smooth in my hair. It felt creamy. It felt like it was easy to really lather it in there, and it was also easy to rinse it out, which I like. OK, it's been about a week since I started using the dry shampoo, and I have definitely noticed that my hair is softer, a lot more bounce. This is about a week with no product in it. Overall, yeah, I'm very happy with it. I think it's made my hair a lot easier to manage. It's given it that height that I like on it. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how this is turning out.
Narrator: While it might take some time to completely let go of your liquid shampoos, it's still a step forward to switching to clean and sustainable beauty products.
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