Spotlight On Dry Shampoo
Dry shampoo is a hair product you use without water. Its job is to soak up the oil and sweat sitting in your hair. This piece looks at what does the soaking, what is worth reading on the label, and why a site about dates has an opinion on the word “dry”.
What does the absorbing
Two of the papers below point to starch. A 2023 open-access perspective article on the polymers used in home, beauty and personal care formulas names one ingredient outright: aluminum starch octenylsuccinate “is used in dry shampoo to absorb oils and sweat”. It comes in a sentence on starch, which the authors call “another heavily used polysaccharide platform”.
The second is a 2024 case report from Brazil. It mentions cornstarch hair masks, known there as touca de gesso, “used as a dry shampoo”, and says the masks are a blend of cornstarch and various other ingredients, which may include talc powder. That paper was written about a beauty salon worker’s exposure at work, not as hair advice, so read it as evidence of the habit and nothing more.
Reading the label before you buy one
Because you never rinse it, whatever is in the product stays on your head until the next proper wash. That makes the back of the pack more useful than the front.
Dermatologists have looked at this question. In 2021 the journal Dermatitis published a short paper by Newell and Liszewski of Northwestern University’s dermatology department, titled “Presence of Contact Allergens in Dry Shampoo Products”. If you already know which ingredients your skin dislikes, the ingredient list is where to check for them. Pick the product on that, not on the scent or the packaging.
Why a dates site cares about “dry”
Date Fruits writes about kurma, and in the date trade “dry” describes the fruit. Rutab (or rotab) is the soft, fresh-ripe stage. Tamr, also written tamar, is the fully ripe and drier stage. Varieties are also described by texture, and several are sold semi-dry.
Here are three semi-dry ones. Mabroom, from the Madinah region of Saudi Arabia, is long and slender, reddish-brown and chewy. Khudri is a brown, semi-dry Saudi date sold as an everyday, value choice. Deglet Noor comes from Tunisia and Algeria, is golden and translucent, and is the date Malaysians call kurma tangkai when it is sold on the stem.
At the soft end you have Ajwa from Madinah: small, roundish, near-black, with finely wrinkled skin. Green Diamond, a Malaysian kurma wholesaler, is where this link for Kurma Ajwa leads. Mazafati, from Bam in Iran’s Kerman province, is dark and very soft. It needs refrigeration and is cold-stored so it is sold all year.
Buying either kind of date in Malaysia
Malaysia has no commercial date-growing trade, and every date sold here is imported. The origin printed on the pack is the detail to check first.
A 1kg Ajwa VVIP Jumbo pack sits on Green Diamond’s shop under Kurma Ajwa sekilo. It showed as out of stock on 17 October 2026, so look before you plan around it.
Demand for dates peaks before and during Ramadan. Hari Raya, weddings, kenduri and umrah gifts are the other busy stretches, and those are the weeks to order early. Date Fruits handles retail and wholesale buyers and delivers across Malaysia. Its About us page says questions, quotes and orders go through WhatsApp, and the contact page has a message form plus a WhatsApp button. For more on single varieties, browse the Date Fruits blog.