How to Hide Facial Hair for Cosplay

Hiding facial hair is one of the most popular things to do in cosplay. By hiding your facial hair properly, you can create the illusion of smooth skin, create extra space on your face for other cosplay pieces and transform yourself into the character that you want to be.

Hiding facial hair for cosplay is pretty straightforward if you have the right tools and makeup skills. Luckily, the process is not very hard to do even for beginners.

In this post, I connected with Mackenzie Cronce, a seasoned cosplay YouTuber who goes by the name Costume Kenz and asked her to provide for me her best tips to hide facial hair for cosplay.

Costume Kenz suggests that covering facial hair for cosplay can be intimidating, but it’s much easier than it seems! Take eyebrows, for example, reconstructing your face with contour and highlight tricks can help get you closer to the likeness of a character – but transforming your eyebrows will take your look to the next level. And the great news is – you probably already have everything you’ll need.

How to Hide Facial Hair for Cosplay in 5 Easy Steps:

With this easy, 5-step process, you can achieve the cosplay look of your dreams! We’ll be using eyebrows as an example, but this technique will work for any type of short facial hair. This method works for dark facial hairs and it’s one of the best ways to hide facial hair with makeup and without bleach or shaving.

What You Need:

• glue stick
• plastic knife
• concealer and powder to match your skin tone
• a makeup brush

Here are the Steps To Follow:

Our model below shows doing these steps on her eyebrows. You can follow the same steps for any other facial hair.

Step 1: Wash and dry your face and eyebrows.

Step 2: Using a plastic knife, scrape a bit of glue from the glue stick. You can also apply the glue stick directly on your hairs

Step 3: Starting from the outer edge of your eyebrow, closest to the ear, wipe the glue over your eyebrow in an upward motion. Continue the same process moving inward until your eyebrow hairs are secured in an upward position. Let the glue dry completely.

Step 4: Apply concealer over the glue. Let dry.

Step 5: Apply powder with a makeup brush. Done!

If you follow these steps, you’ll be left with a blank canvas ready for wherever your look takes it next. Check out the video below if you want to see this step-by-step process in action:

How to Remove the Glue:

After you’re done with the look, you can easily un-hide your facial hairs with the following process:

Step 1: Use makeup wipes or makeup gauze soaked with makeup remover to gently wipe away the makeup and glue.

Step 2: Use a cloth and warm water to wipe away any reminder glue once you got the bulk of it removed.

Step 3: Cleanse your face using your regular facial cleansing routine.

How to Hide Facial Hair Without Glue

If you don’t want to use glue, you can try to use a combination of spirit gum and makeup wax (a.k.a scar wax). Spirit gum is an adhesive that is made mostly of SD Alcohol 35-A and resin. It’s commonly used for affixing wigs and fake facial hair.  Due to its superior adhesive properties, spirit gum is perfect for sticking makeup wax where you need them.

Here’s How to Hide Facial Hair Without Glue:

What You Need:

• makeup wax
• spirit gum
• petroleum jelly (Vaseline)
• plastic knife
• concealer and powder to match your skin tone
• a makeup brush

Here are the Steps To Follow:

Step 1: Apply spirit gum on the hair you want to cover. Sprit gum usually comes in a bottle with a brush applicator. Use the applicator to spread the spirit gum evenly. Brush your facial hair to 1 direction if possible. This will make it easier to smooth your wax later.

Step 2: Spirit gum works best when it begins to dry. Gently touch the spirit gum slightly with your fingers. You will notice that it gets tacky as it dries.

Step 3: Cover your fingertips with a bit of petroleum jelly. The makeup wax tends to melt a bit due to the heat of your body and by covering your fingertips with petroleum jelly, you are making it easier to mold the wax into the shape you want.

Step 4: Apply wax on top of the facial hair you want to hide. use the plastic knife to help smooth the application. You can use your fingers to help blend the edges.

Step 5: Scrap off any excess wax with the plastic knife. You only need a thin layer of wax to give your skin a smooth appearance without the wax bulging.

Step 6: Apply concealer and blend with your makeup brush.

Step 7: Set everything with a powder and you’re good to go.

How to Remove the Spirit Gum and Makeup Wax:

After you’re done with the look, you can easily remove the spirit gum and makeup wax using the following steps:

Step 1: Scrape off the wax using a small spatula.

Step 2: Use baby oil or spirit gum remover to remove the spirit gum.

Step 3: Cleanse your face using your regular facial cleansing routine.