Touching lives by going beyond hair care
The average Filipino spends hours each day commuting from Point A to Point B and back again. More often than not, the trip isn’t straightforward.
Just recently, a term has emerged to coin this reality: the “hard commute.” It’s shorthand for long, exhausting daily travel that requires hopping from trains to jeeps to buses—sometimes all in one trip. If I were to hard-commute from my home in Las Piñas to my workplace in BGC, it would take one jeep, one long bus ride, and another bus trip just to enter the premises of BGC.
Naturally, my state upon arriving at work would no longer be the same as when I left the house—my hair sweaty and dusted, humbled by the winding roads of Metro Manila. It’s a familiar routine for Filipinos, one that drains not just energy but also leaves an apparent mark on our hair strands.
With Bench’s newest Refresh line, the brand answers this exact commuter woe. B/yond, a leave-in dry shampoo, was created from the vantage point of the Filipino daily commuter—those constantly on the move, or anyone who needs a quick refresh after a long, strenuous day.
“We made B/yond for commuters,” says Denise Co, integrated marketing manager of B/yond. “For many of us, the real problem is our hair. It’s our crowning glory, so we created this product to help protect it from grease.”
Amid our busy lifestyles and with Filipinos getting into more physical activities like running and pickleball, we need hygiene routines that are low-effort yet effective. “We really want to touch lives with B/yond. Filipinos work hard, so we want to offer convenience to them,” Denise adds.
Launched at Bench’s flagship store in BGC High Street, B/yond leave-in dry shampoo positions itself as skincare for the scalp. It promises daily refresh in just three steps: Get one to two pumps in your palm, gently run through your roots, and wait for it to dry down into a powder-matte finish.
With its air-gel type formula, it’s conveniently encapsulated in a pump tube, so there’s no need to worry about spills. It’s lightweight and quick-drying—perfect for our tropical climate.
“B/yond is a brand going beyond the norm. Its core is to introduce products that make things more convenient for everybody,” says Heidi Potenciano, brand manager of Bench.
True to its claims, the leave-in dry shampoo goes beyond oil control and provides either cooling or antibacterial properties, depending on the variant.
Borrowing from skincare, B/yond is formulated with 4D Hyaluronic Acid, an ingredient known for restoring moisture to the face. Applied to the scalp, it helps lock in hydration and keep hair refreshed throughout the day.
“I’m on the go a lot of the time. There are early call times and moments when I don’t want to wash my hair, so it’s really helpful—especially during outdoor shoots. I see it becoming a go-to product for me,” says commercial model Miyuki De Leon.
Meanwhile, content creator and model Kelley Cruz shares how she sees B/yond fitting into her daily routine: “I see myself using it after every Pilates class because that’s what I need—a refresher to bring back the volume in my hair.”
B/yond Antibacterial Dry Shampoo (P299) is ideal after a long day of commuting or sweating it out. It deeply cleanses the scalp without the need to wash your hair after an exhausting day and finishes with a fresh bergamot scent.
With summer approaching, you can never go wrong with the sweet vanilla-scented B/yond Cooling Dry Shampoo (P299), which offers quick relief from heat and sweat. While daily hair washing has become the default due to sweat and grease buildup, Mark Rosales, a guest hairstylist, cautions that washing hair every day can contribute to hair fall—making B/yond dry shampoo an ideal product for spacing out washes.
Made for movement and built for the realities of the Filipino commuter, the intentionality behind the creation of B/yond makes its next releases well worth watching out for.
