Fab or flub? Scünci introduces metallic hair tattoos

In just three short days, Christmas will finally be here. As I thought of all those frantic shoppers who might be looking for last-minute stocking stuffers, I decided to check out a fun-looking item I’ve been eyeing since November.

Available for $5 at Ulta and Target, Scunci’s Body and Hair Tattoos seem like a fun way to add a little pizzazz to your arms or hairdo. Applied like a temporary tattoo with water, Scünci’s tattoos reportedly go on as easily as they come off.

After reviewing Hot Jewel metallic tattoos last year (FYI: I loved them), I was intrigued by the idea of a similar product you might use on your hair. Though I normally try to avoid most things Kardashian-related, I had recently seen a photo of Kylie Jenner sporting one of these metallic tattoos in her hair and thought it looked pretty.

Of course, Jenner has an army of beauty experts to apply her hair tattoos. I have my boyfriend and a corgi. So, I was eager to see how easy these tattoos were to apply and discern whether they looked as good in “real life” as they did in the photograph.

First impression

Like the metallic body tattoos I tried out last year, Scunci’s Body and Hair Tattoos come in a variety of trendy motifs ranging from dainty stars to whimsical paisley.

Because these look and work so similarly to the metallic temporary body tattoos, I thought someone might have gotten the brilliant idea that they could sell more of the body tattoos by simply repackaging them for hair, too.

Placing a tattoo face-down on my hair, I took a wet washcloth and held it over the tattoo for 30 seconds. After the time was up, I peeled the tattoo back — only to realize that it hadn’t transferred.

Disappointed and thinking I hadn’t applied enough moisture, I wet the washcloth again and pressed it down over the tattoo for another 30 seconds. Again, nothing. Clearly I was going to have call for backup. Yelling for help, I wet the washcloth once again and had my boyfriend hold it over the tattoo once more. Turns out, third time was the charm.

Though the tattoo didn’t adhere cleanly (it was a bit frayed looking), I was still left with a beautiful gold chain pattern that ran down from my center part to my ear.

I was determined to see if I could get a tattoo to adhere on my own and made a second attempt. I decided to go small and chose a cute little star, and this time, the application process proved much easier.

I was able to get the tattoo to adhere cleanly on the first try.

Fab or flub?

Flab. In theory, Scunci’s Body and Hair Tattoos sound like a really cool way to add some glitz to a holiday hairdo. In reality, the tattoos turned out to be a hit-or-miss product that required more effort than I had expected.

I came to the conclusion that the larger motifs didn’t transfer to my hair as well as the smaller ones. While the instructions didn’t state that your hair needs to be clean or freshly washed, I think that having hair product (i.e. hairspray, pomade, etc.) in my hair probably affected on how well they adhered.

When I was able to get one cleanly transferred onto my hair, it looked great. If you have dark hair, the metallic gold tattoos pop really nicely.

Depending on the placement of your hair tattoo, you can conveniently create the illusion that you’re wearing an ornate headband or hair comb. If you are expecting your tattoo to be long lasting, however, you should know upfront that results vary.

I found that spritzing the tattoo with hair spray did help to keep it from peeling, but if you are the kind of person who constantly plays with or touches your hair, it probably won’t stay through the end of the day.

For those wondering about the removal process, the instructions say you can remove the tattoos by rubbing them with oil, but I found that a shower did the trick.

Since my results varied widely, I’m not sure that I would recommend these hair tattoos unless you are simply interested in experimenting with the trend and willing to spend $5 to give it a try.

Also, there’s the good news that the tattoos do work well on skin, so I would highly recommend them for use as temporary metallic body tattoos.

They are a chic-looking and fun alternative to jewelry.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 2:37 PM with the headline "Fab or flub? Scünci introduces metallic hair tattoos."