There are plenty of beauty products in my collection that I love, but there’s only one I truly can’t live without: my dry shampoo.
It helps me avoid washes — and the painstaking blowouts that come with them — for at least three days at a time, shaving minutes off my morning routine, and somehow makes me feel confident on even my greasiest, grossest hair days. If I had a time machine, one of my first stops (after the 2001 VMAs) would be to go back to the early 1900s and thank the guy who invented it.
As much as the stuff saves my life on a regular basis, though, every formula I’ve tried comes with the same setback: in the process of sopping up the oil from my scalp, it leaves my lengths and ends dry as hell.
Over the years, I’ve tried dry conditioners, which just don’t work for me, and leave-in conditioning sprays, which weigh down my strands and make them look even worse. But finally — finally! — I’ve found the solution in the form of Messy’s “I Am Transformed” Instant Silk Revival Treatment.
Fast Facts
- Price: $32
- Best for: Refreshing dirty hair that’s greasy on the scalp but dry on the ends
- Rating: 5/5
- What I like: It works in under a minute, immediately makes hair look like it was freshly done, adds shine and smoothness while reducing frizz, doubles as a heat protectant, and smells like a luxury fragrance.
Messy Instant Silk Revival Treatment
Alli Webb, the founder of DryBar, launched Messy in June to give people the tools to feel their best in their natural hair. Unlike her previous brand, which was dedicated to making the perfect blowout as accessible as possible, her new venture is all about what happens when you decide to ditch the “perfect” style and work with what you’ve got.
The line includes a shampoo and conditioner, a styling cream, an overnight repair oil, and the Instant Silk Revival Treatment — the latter of which is so unique, it doesn’t quite fit into a traditional product category (more on that in a second). Each of the products is named with a mantra — like the “I Am Enough” cream and the “I Can Begin Again” shampoo — and scented with the most deliciously uplifting fragrances to up the feel-good factor even further.
The “I Am Transformed” Instant Silk Revival Treatment — which Webb calls “magic in a bottle” — is designed to take dirty, day-three hair from merely acceptable to actually amazing. Think of it as the dream partner to your dry shampoo: while the latter soaks up grease at the roots, this mist revives the rest of your strands. A few spritzes on your lengths and ends help reduce frizz, boost moisture and shine, and add touchable texture — without the dryness or crunchiness that usually comes with stretching a blowout.
Its hero ingredient is vegan silk, which forms a weightless, invisible coating around each strand to lock in moisture, smooth frizz, and shield against heat and pollution damage. The formula also includes Soft Touch Memory Technology, which gives a flexible hold that enhances texture and keeps your style looking intentional — even if you haven’t washed in days.
My Review
Three days (and three very sweaty workouts) into a salon blowout, and my hair was greasy, stringy, and definitely smelly — which meant it was dry shampoo time.
After my morning shower, I spritzed my favorite Batiste formula onto my roots, massaged it in with my fingers, and brushed it through. Within seconds, the grease was gone and my hair looked, felt, and (most importantly) smelled clean again. The trade-off, though, was that it looked dull and felt dry — like all the life and shine had been zapped out of my strands.
That’s where the Messy Instant Silk Revival Treatment came in. I sprayed it generously onto my lengths, then used my fingers and a wide-toothed comb to work it in. Almost immediately, my hair looked shiny, bouncy, and soft. I had planned to refresh the style with my Shark FlexStyle, but was shocked to discover that I didn’t need to — it was as if the product had turned back time on my blowout and made it look just as good (dare I say better?) than it had when I stepped out of the salon.
I repeat: I didn’t touch a single hot tool in the making of that hairstyle.
Needless to say, it delivers on its promise to transform hair. More than that, though, it’s an absolute joy to use. It works in under a minute, and the woodsy-vanilla scent is so chic and long-lasting that I actually look forward to spritzing it on. As a bonus, it doubles as perfume — any time I sniff it throughout the day makes me feel instantly put together.
The Verdict
Messy’s whole philosophy is about helping you feel good about the hair you already have, and the Silk Revival Treatment nails that. It gets my day-three (and four, and five) hair out the door without the stress of re-styling or the guilt of another wasted hour with hot tools. That alone makes it a major win in my book.
Now, there are officially two beauty products I can’t live without — and unlike the early-1900s dry shampoo inventor, Alli Webb is very much alive for me to thank for this one.
