How to darken a reddish-colored moustache?

March 2, 2014 4:12 PM

My husband has recently grown a beautiful reddish-colored mustache. I think it looks awesome. He, however, is unhappy with the color and would like it to be less red (he has dark-blonde hair).

He wants it to look "natural", just to be a little darker. He already tried the gel mascara I use to darken my eyebrows but was unhappy with the result (too makeup-y). Anyone have any experience with dyeing facial hair or any other suggestion that I can pass along to my fella? Thanks!

posted by ezrainch to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (10 answers total)

Maybe something like this beard dye? Normally used for covering grey I'd assume but don't see why you couldn't darken a natural colour. But maybe he could talk to a barber/men's hairdresser first.
posted by billiebee at 4:23 PM on March 2, 2014

One of my close friends in college grew a blond beard which looked pretty bad with his brown hair. He successfully used Just For Men beard dye for years. However, he was going from a color closer to grey than your husband's hair.

If he's wary of doing it himself, a good salon should have dye products for sensitive areas and should be able to match his hair tone much more closely than any off the shelf product.
posted by muddgirl at 4:28 PM on March 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

I don't have any dye suggestions, but you can pass on reassurance that this is totally normal, particularly if he has Scot heritage. All the men in my family are dark blond haired and red-bearded, and embrace it.
posted by goo at 4:29 PM on March 2, 2014 [5 favorites]

I think the trouble is going to be that facial hair grows so quickly. I once, for a halloween costume, dyed my blonde mustache black, using regular over-the-counter women's hair dye. It looked great for about a week but was increasingly ridiculous as it grew out. I ended up shaving it off and starting over.
posted by verysleeping at 5:04 PM on March 2, 2014

Off-the-shelf beard dye is semi-permanent or less, meaning that it will slowly fade as you wash it vs. growing out and showing undyed roots.
posted by muddgirl at 5:11 PM on March 2, 2014

Best answer: I recently investigated moustache wax for my husband (who finally waxed his tips for me, swoon!) and along the way discovered that some kinds have a little color tint too. That may be a less drastic option than dye.
posted by Sublimity at 5:38 PM on March 2, 2014 [2 favorites]

Try the tinted wax first.

The problem is the red undertones to his base color. - it is nigh IMPOSSIBLE to tone down without professional guidance, plus, beards grow quickly.

Source: I'm of Scottish heritage, dye my hair regularly, and have turned up as a "color correction emergency appointment" at the salon more times than I can count due to home hair dye gone wrong.

I could suggest he try an ash blonde dye, but odds are it will go awry.

Try the tinted wax or see a professional!
posted by jbenben at 9:23 PM on March 2, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks for the advice all! We're ordering the tinted wax (didn't even know such a thing existed), and hopefully it will do the trick.
posted by ezrainch at 5:43 AM on March 3, 2014

Response by poster: The tinted wax arrived and he loves it. Thanks everyone!
posted by ezrainch at 9:11 AM on March 9, 2014

Hey Ezrainch. Glad the wax worked! Can you share the name of the tinted wax and where you got it from? I have the same problem!
posted by wozboz at 5:23 PM on November 26, 2014