The French-Girl Secret to Refreshing Your Bangs

Since cutting curly bangs (and never looking back), I’ve had to adjust to the realities of maintaining them. I’m not just talking about visits to the salon for trims but keeping my fringe robust—soft, spiraled, and voluminous—day-to-day, especially between washes. It’s something that becomes a real to-do in summer as the humidity gives way to the ever-unpleasant phenomenon of bangs sweat. Within a day of washing my hair, my bangs are already sopping up excess perspiration, makeup, and skin care on my face, making them appear limp and greasy looking. A natural solution for this quandary is, of course, dry shampoo. Unfortunately, though, not many offerings fit the unique needs of both my curls and on-the-go lifestyle, and I am often left disappointed. But leave it to makeup artist Violette, with her coveted French-girl fringe, to create the best dry shampoo for bangs in both form and function.

“I wanted something that I could use to touch up my hair quickly during the day because the minute it gets too hot or I put too much skin care on my face, my hair becomes flat,” says Violette of the inspiration behind her innovative Frange Puff. An intuitive reimagination of traditional dry-shampoo aerosol spray, it’s a small, refillable tube of powder with a built-in brush that’s as portable as it is effective in refreshing hair. “I’m always running around and wanted something easy and elegant that I could use while on the go, something that was effortless to use,” she says. Another lovely thing about the brush is that, unlike an aerosol, it allows for precision, which is key especially if, like me, you’re keen on a less-is-more approach. “Usually, the roots of your hair are clean but the length of the bangs are greasy, so when it’s a spray, how do you bring it down the lengths of the bangs?” poses Violette. “What’s different with Frange Puff is that you can paint the lengths of the bangs.” And while honing the design was revelatory in and of itself, creating a pitch-perfect formula that would instantly bring back oomph was equally essential.

“A fresh, healthy hair look is very much our aesthetic in France,” insists Violette. Accordingly, she sought to formulate a dry-shampoo powder that was lightweight and practically imperceptible in the hair, ensuring natural texture wouldn’t be compromised nor would the product leave a white cast. She also wanted the ingredients to be natural and nourishing for the hair, laying a fruitful foundation with oil-absorbing tapioca starch, scalp-soothing oat-kernel flour, and moisturizing aloe-leaf juice. The first time I put it to the test on my days-old, lived-in fringe, the silky, lightly scented powder instantly helped coax my curls back to life—with no grittiness or unwanted residue—to fuller, fluffier effect. And from the subway platform to my desk at the office, being able to reapply it easily and swiftly has been the true clincher.

“We French women are very much on the go,” says Violette. “We’ll apply our lipstick on the go, fix our hair on the go. But there was no dry shampoo [designed] for on the go. None! It was like this missing piece for French women. Now, the people who know, know. It’s such a game changer.”