Buying Makeup: Hair Mascara


MOCHI > The Workshop > Makeup, Etc. > Buying Makeup > Hair Mascara

Hair mascara? Hair mascara? Yes, it's basically like regular eye mascara: you brush on a thin coating of mascara onto your hair, let dry, and comb out. Unlike eye mascara (where you are usually looking to lengthen or plump up the eyelashes), hair mascara is a great way to apply some color to your hair.

It looks best when 1) applied to a relatively small area and 2) does not try to significantly lighten or darken the color of the hair. The mascara does not completely coat your hair, so some of the normal color of your hair will come through. (You might be able to get away with it, though, if your normal hair color + the color of the mascara = the color you are aiming for. For example: dark brown + light blue = dusty blue.) Some costumes incorporate hats, helms, or other head gear that means that only a tuft or so of hair sticks out. A wig would be too bulky to wear and the hair mascara is much easier than dying your hair to match.

Hair mascara is typically sold in containers that look like bigger versions of eye mascara. The bottle is either clear (so you can see the color inside) and/or has a colored cap or colored dot (to indicate what color it is). The brush for applying the mascara is built into the cap. For a while, you could find quite a selection of hair mascara in "teeny-bopper" stores; as they fall out of vogue, MOCHI has been finding them in some theater supply shops. It's a shame really, because some of the brighter colors (like fushia and royal purple) that are perfect for some anime characters were quite popular in the teen stores, but are less popular for regular theater use.

For an example of a costume whose makeup includes hair mascara, see Chocolat Missu.