But is that OK to do? We reached out to experts to confirm.
We love when celebrities post their beauty regimens on social media, and Instagram's new answer to TikTok, Reels, gives them a fun new way to share those steps. Kat Dennings has taken to the new multi-clip, audio-enhanced video feature quite quickly, posting several Reels in just the last couple of weeks, and one gives us a fun little peek at her morning routine — including a rather interesting cross-over step.
As Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" plays, we see Dennings taking a sip of coffee from a mug, the words "congratulate yourself on another day" written over the video. "Poke yourself in the eye," the next clip reads, as she dangles a contact lens from her finger. She then moves on to "assorted creams," and she's seen pumping a lotion into her palm, followed by scooping moisturizer out of a jar. Naturally, those end up being applied to her face — but not only her face.
"I put the excess on my hair," she writes as we see her smushing moisturizer into the ends of her long, wavy hair. It's awesome that she's not being wasteful of her products — especially expensive ones from iS Clinical, Eve Lom, and Keihl's, the brands tagged in the caption — but is it actually OK to use face cream on your hair?
Cosmetic formulator Stephen Alain Ko says yes. "There's no reason not to, especially if it's just the excess," he tells Allure, nothing that the Eve Lom Moisture Cream she appears to be putting on her hair contains many of the same ingredients you'd find in hair-care products. "Hair is 'dead' and doesn't need 'nutrients' at the ends. We can apply emollients and coating ingredients that help provide slip, smoothness, and shine."
Ultimately, he tells Allure, the worst that could happen is that your hair could end up feeling too coated, in which case, you could just wash it off.
Kaveri Karhade, a board-certified dermatologist in the San Francisco Bay Area, also says it's OK to put face cream on your hair; in fact, it may even provide a few benefits, like fighting frizz.
"There are some ingredients found in face creams that can be beneficial for your hair," she tells Allure, citing hyaluronic acid from a face cream could help lock water into the hair shaft, helping with hydration.
That said, many ingredients don't penetrate the hair shaft and instead just sit atop the hair until it's washed out. "For example, silicones found in face creams may give the illusion of shine when applied to the hair but may weigh down your strands and make them appear limp."
Karhade recommends applying a minimal amount of face cream to your hair — ideally on the ends to avoid greasy-looking roots. That seems to be exactly what Dennings is doing, and considering how healthy and beautiful her hair looks, this little trick is definitely working for her.
The actor finishes up her Reels video and routine by misting her face generously — "Water yourself like the succulent you are" — dabbing on a little eye cream, giving us a look inside the jar of a tinted lip balm, and posing in an adorably patterned tie-top headband.
If you love this 15-second look into Dennings's morning routine, there's more where that came from. She also posted "How I do eyeliner" and "How to look less like a corpse" Reels that definitely deserve your views.
This article originally appeared on allure.
