Tres Emme Fresh Start Dry Shampoo for Oily Hair: A Review of Betrayal and Poetry

It’s not often a product comes along that is so terrible that I can’t do a thing with it. I almost always think of a back up use for a product that has failed as it’s primary intention. Awful shampoo gets to do my hand washed garments. Perfume that doesn’t work with my body chemistry gets relegated to room or linen freshener or a few sprays goes on an unscented drier sheet for some lightly fragranced clean clothes. Even those fancy facial moisturizer samples in little jars get used up as hand cream within a few applications (I hate jar packaging for things that go on my face, I find them unsanitary). Which brings me to this disappointment…

Tres Emme Fresh Start Dry Shampoo for Oily Hair

(Hair type: fine, blonde, crazy long)

Now I want to be clear in that I adore most Tres Emme products. I have used their shampoos and conditioners almost to the exclusion of anything else for the past 5 years or more, which is probably why I feel so betrayed by this one. I was so offended by this “dry shampoo” performance that I begrudgingly trashed it before I could get a picture. I have included one off Tres Emme’s site. I hope they don’t mind, I truly do love most of their products.

The fragrance is intended to be what I think is a fresh citrus smell, but wow is it overpowering. I usually like citrus scents but this is just suffocating, and it doesn’t fade. Anyone who works in a scent free office wouldn’t be able to use this without getting a reprimand and a couple of weird looks.

Applied as directed (shaken then aimed several inches away from roots) this product left my hair limp, just as greasy, not at all fluffed or volumized, and weird smelling. Testing several times, I would leave it in while doing makeup then try to brush it out and hope I was left with something reasonable to work with, but each time it fell flat. There were times I swore this product left my hair looking oilier than when I started. Each time I used this, I ended up throwing my hair into a messy bun to hide the greasies and hopefully keep the weird fragrance confined. It left a dulled, powdery effect on my hair, you could see the white of the product even though I am blonde.

On clean hair, this did not work as a “volumizer”. Perhaps one could use it as a texturizer if you think gross is a desirable texture. As a hair refresher, I suppose that could work if you like the scent of powdery citrus.

To be fair, it did perform well under one circumstance. If I used the product on still pretty clean looking hair at night, tied it up in a bun as usual, slept on it, then brushed it out in the morning, hair still looked fresh, much more so than if I had not used it. This is nice, however if I have the presence of mind to apply this at night on mostly clean hair so I don’t have to wash it in the morning when too oily, then I have the presence of mind to just shower and let it dry overnight in a sock bun.

Sorry, Tres Emme. I still love your shampoos and conditioners. For dry shampoo needs, I will stay with Batiste for now!

I have a few of these sadder reviews coming up, and hate to be a downer, so I will end all negative reviews with a haiku.

Tres Emme trouble

A bad hair day in a can

Desperation bun