What Is Hair Mascara? Can It Amp Up Your Hair Style?

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Hair mascara is a comprehensive tool that temporarily changes the color of small sections in your hair. When you purchase it, it usually comes with a narrow tube, just like the eyelash mascara. It also features a wand-like applicator. 

What is hair mascara, and why would you want to use it?

  • It’s a quick fix to cover up grey roots
  • It can tame flyaways and organize your locks
  • It can add funky streaks, bright colors, or highlights to the hair.
  • It’s not permanent and will rinse away when washed

Is hair mascara the solution you’ve been looking for? Let’s discuss it below!


Contents

What Is Hair Mascara, and Why Would You Use It?

You might want to try out something new and refreshing for a change, maybe a new streak or highlight for the night. However, you may not want it to last that long! Maybe you want the look gone by your work day tomorrow morning.

Hair mascara is the solution for you. It gives all the fun without the “next day” effect. It easily washes out when cleaned with shampoo, and they cause no damage to your hair.

Here’s an example of a standard hair mascara:

Boyd's Brush It Away Grey Hair Mascara and Root Touch Up (Medium Brown)
  • COVERAGE: Our touch-up brush can provide...
  • TEXTURE: Our Brush Away is perfect for...
  • ON-THE-GO: Our Brush It Away is compact...
  • FOR ALL: Easy to build, easy to remove,...
  • UNIQUE: Boyd's Brush Away boasts a slim...

Hair mascara helps you achieve all this without the hassle of getting an appointment at the salon. As an added advantage, they do not harm the hair shaft, as it doesn’t have developers like peroxides or ammonia.

It is perfect for both long hair and short hair, and it’s great for covering up those grey roots.

So if you want to try something new with your hair, we recommend giving hair mascara a shot.


How Do You Use Hair Mascara?

Before applying mascara to hair, you should decide whether you are going for a natural effect or if you want to amp things up.

Ensure your hair is dry before applying it, and depending on the look you are going for, apply mascara just at the root of your hair to go for a frosty look.

It is important to note that just as eyelash mascaras do not dye the hair, hair mascara does not dye anything either.

The product does not have active ingredients to penetrate the cuticle and change your natural hair color. It temporarily coats your strands with color until you decide to wash them out.

Just as eyelash mascaras do not dye the hair, hair mascara does not dye anything either.

You can easily apply something like blended colors or subtle highlights from your hair’s root tips to get natural effects. The grey will fade away!

Then, just before your mascara dries, comb your hair gently where the product was applied. Doing this will help to blend the colors into your hair evenly. 

You can also do striking streaks, although they are a bit different. You will need to apply mascara shades that contrast your hair. Unlike the other processes, you do not brush. Instead, allow it to dry in place.

By doing it this way, you’ll end up with bolder streaks. If you want a more distinct effect, use different shades such as green, blue or pink.

Adofect 10 Colors Temporary Hair Mascara Instantly Hair Color Dye Great Gift for Girls, Women, Temporary Hair Color Chalk
  • Herbal Natural Extracts: Made of natural...
  • Easy to Use: Apply inner comb to dye...
  • Multiple Choices: There are 10 color...
  • Application: Salon Diy Hair...
  • Dye Touchup Mascara. There is a mascara...

There are tons of ways you can use colored mascara for creative results. You could streak the hair, then braid the colored strands. Or part the hair at the center, then apply bold streaks in parallel on either side.

There are many styles and options to go for. It all depends on your personal sense of style and preference.

And you can make it disappear with a simple rinse!

And you can make it disappear with a simple rinse!


Ways You Can Use Hair Mascara To Impact Your Hairstyle

The following are some of the other ways different people use hair mascara:

  • To highlight or blend with gray hair
  • Covering up roots with blonde hair
  • Seamlessly cover gray hair at the temples
  • To cover roots with highlighted hairs
  • You can add lowlights to gray hair
  • Covering gray hair with brunette hair
  • Applying on dark roots and covering with blonde hair
  • Covering gray eyebrows
  • They can also be used for flyaways
  • Darkening red hair without dye
  • Mixing up with fun colors temporarily
  • Removing gray hair from beards

Similarities and Differences Between Eyelash and Hair Mascara

The hair mascara is almost similar to the eyelash mascara. In fact, both of them are indistinguishable at first glance, with identical packaging.

They are applied in the same way. Both use a round-bristly-ended thin wand to distribute the product evenly. 

Even though they share these similarities, they are different products. In most cases, you should not use hair mascara and eyelash mascara interchangeably. But for certain adventurous looks, anything goes!

Hair mascaras come in different types for different uses. Some are useful for adding temporary highlights to your hair when streaked with a light hue.

The small applicator allows for a very precise application of the product to make easy highlights appear as real as possible.

Hair mascaras can also be used for touch-ups. 

When you dye your hair and new hair grows, you notice the difference between the dyed and colored parts, particularly if you’re not using balayage techniques. You can use hair mascara to blend those areas and keep your highlights for longer.

In the same fashion, if you’ve got grey roots showing, you can easily cover them up with a quick application of hair mascara.

Some hair mascaras come with a range of shades that matches multiple hair types.


Finding the Right Hair Mascara

Hair mascara was super hyped once, but its popularity faded in the early 2000s. It’s since become more of a niche product, though it has many very enthusiastic users. But it’s not a staple in the beauty kit like eyelash mascara is.

You can call up your nearest beauty shops or go on an extensive search on Google to find a couple. The following are some of the hair mascara options you might be able to find online:

These can be found on Amazon. However, if we were to recommend you one, it would be the Lilla Rose Hair Mascara.

It is our top pick because it comes with numerous advantages. These include:

  • It is easy to apply to your hair
  • Water-resistant
  • Adds highlights and touches up gray hair instantly
  • No stain or flake when applied
  • It remains on your hair until you shampoo it off
  • Once applied, drying happens very fast

Conclusion

Hair mascara has so many interesting uses, but it’s much less popular than bleaches, dyes, semi-permanent color, etc. Perhaps that’s because there’s no push from salons and high-end beauty companies.

Hair mascara is the perfect temporary fix, and is a great way to test out styles before you commit. It can cover your roots, give you smooth frizz-free hair, tame flyaways, and so much more.

Experiment with hair mascara and see how it can amp up your style!

Written by Kayla Young

Kayla is the founder of LuxeLuminous. She has worked professionally in the tanning industry for years. She has been interested in esthetics since childhood, and has tried every hair, skin, and makeup product ever produced (more or less).