It’s 10 pm and I’m so tired my eyes are rolling down my face. If I go to bed now I can snatch my 8 hours of sleep. If nobody wearing diapers wakes up screaming during the night it might even be nice and deep. Just a 5 minute shower and I’m ready for bed sweet pillow, but wait! Crap, my hair… I’ve been blessed and cursed with long straight hair which looks good without much styling, provided I wash it daily. In my case nature decided I should have greasy hair. One quicker fix when I just need to get out of the house is to stick my head under the sink and deal with my long hairs getting stuck in the sewerage hole while being careful not to splash too much water and shampoo everywhere. The longer the hair, the more the neck and back-pain this hack costs. Another hack works mainly during summer and involves skipping the blow-drier, which sometimes results in runny nose and headaches. All in all, there’s no trick to skip shampooing when the grease strikes besides the dry shampoo, which I find icky to use without rinsing. Using dry shampoo in my opinion is the same as spraying deodorant to mask the sweat: you may be able too fool some people but it never feels clean and fresh.

The Pony Dry is a hair condom like pouch that promises a clean scalp without having to wash the whole length of hair. It works for over the shoulder hair and scores good in consumer tests, keeping most ponytails away from water and shampoo. Yes, this quirk actually works just as good as it claims provided you use it properly. I’m not so sure about this hair condom taking only 7 minutes instead of 25 as claimed but I do believe it saves time.

How Pony Dry works: gather hair in a poly-tail, slip the Pony Dry condom over, secure super tight with the cord, shower like usual, dry with the towel, blow dry (optional) and then take it off. I was surprised to discover the scalp gets rinsed properly even in the pony area and there’s no sign of shampoo left when done.

Why is it a good idea to wash just the roots?

• most of the times the root area is the only part of the hair that gets greasy while the outgrown part still looks dry and fresh. Washing it often leads to split ends and hair decay
• clean dry roots give volume and shine to the whole hairdo while minimizing the need for styling
• less to wash, less shampoo needed and you can skip the conditioner since you’re not touching the rest of the hair. Dry roots for longer time between washes
• even for normal to dry scalp, physical exercise and high temperatures makes us sweat, and head skin is no exception. I’d wash my hair daily if it was short
• water and shampoo wear off the hair color (if it’s dyed); by washing only the roots the color stays vivid for longer

What goes less smooth about it is putting it on: you may need to practice a bit, especially if the hair is layered or on the short side. Just putting it on for the first time may take up to 5 minutes all together which contradicts the time saving claim. You also need to close it as tight as possible to prevent the pony getting wet.

For those wanting to save the €18, there are do it yourself versions, all you need is a regular shower cap and a strong elastic 😉