The Scary Reason You Shouldn't Leave Dry Shampoo In Your Car

Dry shampoo is an amazing tool that can get you through a day when you don't have enough time to hop in the shower, or have a need to freshen up before a night out. However, there are certain places where you don't want to store your can of dry shampoo, as a Missouri woman just found out in what was almost the worst way possible. A can of dry shampoo that she left in her car actually blew up and destroyed the center console, which then and careened out through her sunroof, littering glass everywhere (via New York Post). 

The 19-year-old had purchased the car recently, and her dad was shocked to come outside to see a huge hole in the sunroof. Initially, they had no idea how it happened. The mystery deepened when they got closer and saw the huge mess inside, which included a wrecked center console and a curious white residue basically everywhere. 

They were eventually able to figure out what the culprit was — they found the can of dry shampoo a solid 50 feet away with its bottom blown out.

If you've ever taken a few minutes and read an aerosol can before, you're probably familiar with the printed-on warnings that mention that they should not be left in a place where the temperature can reach 120 degrees or more (via Mashable). This is because any kind of pressurized container, from your dry shampoo to your cooking spray to your Silly String, has contents that do unexpected things when exposed to high temperatures. When the can gets hot, the pressure inside the can increases, and if it gets hot enough and the pressure gets high enough, well, it's going to blow up. 

This situation could have been far worse — had she been driving when it decided to blow up, she could have wrecked her car or been seriously injured by the flying glass (not to mention whatever motorist that could have been hit by the flying can once it exited through her sunroof). 

The moral of the story is to just leave the dry shampoo at home or keep it in a bag that you always take to and from your vehicle. While it's now fall, temperatures have been unseasonably warm as of late in Missouri as well as the rest of the country, so it's definitely still hot enough for this to be a concern. Don't leave it in your gym bag all day and for sure do not store it in the center console. While it might not happen, it could, and you don't want to have a dry shampoo explosion to deal with.