You may have forgotten that you were wearing wet nail polish when you may have bumped someone into your hand. Even worse, someone may have intentionally put a little amount of nail polish into your hair, or a kid may have thought it would be amusing to see the results.

Your strands of hair are now having crazy colours stuck on it. It will certainly cause your frustration and anxiety since nail polish is notoriously difficult to remove from any surfaces.

Fortunately, your hair need not suffer from this. There is a rather straightforward technique for getting nail polish out of your hair without having to snip it off.

nail-polish on hair

  1. Act Quickly

If the polish is left to dry, it will be considerably more difficult to remove! If you need a solution right now, go on and skip this section.

Knowing that nail polish dissolves more readily in its liquid state than after it has solidified might be beneficial if you are attempting to be prepared for a mishap of nail polish on your hair. Fortunately, sometimes it may still be possible to remove dry nail polish from your hair.

When you do this, the approach is, nevertheless, will be different. If you have ever polished your nails, you are aware of how simple it is to remove wet nail polish.

Sometimes it occurs even when no intention is present. The same idea holds for hair. If you have the chance, you should be wiping it off instead of peeling it, particularly if you are working on a kid.

  1. Gather Materials

You will need the following items:

  • Other types of acetone or Nail polish removers.
  • Hair pins or clips
  • An ordinary towel or a paper towel that you do not mind getting stained.
  • Cotton wools (optional)
  • Baby oil or essential oils (optional)
  • Conditioner (optional, if dry)

Keep in mind that removing nail polish just thinned it down enough for it to be removed; the polish will not completely vanish throughout the process. Whatever you do to take the nail polish off from the hair might instead be ended up with the nail polish on it.

If the staining of the fabric is important to you, you should not be utilizing it for this and should choose something different. Before you begin, you should know that essential oil or baby oil is often a better option than an acetone solution since it smells less unpleasant and is less likely to harm your hair.

However, compared to nail polish remover, these items are less likely to be found in your home. This is likely based on the idea that if you had nail polish, you most likely also had remover.

  1. Clarifying Shampoo

Having clarifying shampoo on hand is usually a good idea and will come in handy if you ever need to get any foreign objects out of your hair, like nail polish.

These shampoos are excellent at removing oil and grime from your hair, and you can get them at your neighborhood drugstore or hair salon shop. However, they may be damaging to the hair, so only use them only when needed. Your hair may get damaged or dry out from overuse.

Apply a tiny quantity of clarifying shampoo to the area of your hair that has the nail polish after wetting it. Using your fingers, rub the shampoo into a lather in your hair. Let the shampoo stay on the hair for fifteen to twenty minutes, before washing it out with warm water.

There will be no more traces of nail polish. After using the clarifying shampoo, it is advisable to have a deep conditioning on your hair to rehydrate the hair strands. This technique readily removes wet polish and is effective for dealing with dried, hardened particles of nail polish.

  1. Separate the Affected Hair

Make careful to keep the nail polish-coated hair strands apart from the rest of the hair. To prevent the nail polish from spreading, clip the unaffected hair and keep it out of the way to avoid any contamination.

The main thing is to have the section of hair with nail polish on it in a location that is simple to access and work with, without contaminating the rest of the hair. You may do this with a ponytail holder, bobby pins, or normal clips.

The negative consequence that sticky nail polish can cause is really limited. If the nail polish becomes dry, this will be unimportant as it has already performed all of the spreading it is going to do. However, you should still consider doing it. The hairs in question must be accessible to you.

  1. Apply Acetone to the Towel

Put the acetone on the towel you have selected to remove the nail polish; this is an easy one. Make sure it is moist; it does not have to be entirely covered in it, but when you touch it, it should feel a little damp.

You may also be using cotton balls, a dishrag, or a washcloth. Whatever you choose to use, make sure there is enough acetone in it to remove the polish and that it is moist enough to apply to the damaged region.

  1. Clean the Polish With the Towel

Gently massage the moist towel over the nail polished hair while wrapping the affected hairs in it. You do not need to scrub it or pull it out, but be patient since it will take longer to remove nail polish if the nail polish has been in the hair for a long time.

There is a chemical reaction taking place when you have wrapped the towel on nail polish. The nail polish will become more easily removable from the hair with the aid of acetone. What you will want to apply with it makes the largest difference between cleaning wet nail polish and drying nail polish with a towel or cloth, but we will get to that in a minute.

To remove nail polish from hair, work in gentle circular motions with your fingers and thumbs. Do not panic if it does not happen right away; starting to pull it loose sometimes takes a little while.

If you are patient, whatever you are doing to scrub will not need to work harder to remove it. Your hair ought to be clean and free of nail polish after a short while. Aim to be patient, always!

  1. Conditioner

You may get rid of nail polish from your hair with any type of conditioner you have at home. This technique not only works, but it also moisturizes and makes your hair lustrous afterward.

Separate the impacted hair with a clip. Utilizing your fingers and a tiny quantity of conditioner, carefully circularly rub the nail polish.

To carefully scrape away the dried nail polish, move your nails or a detangling comb downward. It ought to be simple to remove from the hair.

Do not forget to wash your hair afterward to get rid of any conditioner or nail polish leftovers.

      7. Hair Spray

A good way to get nail polish out of your hair is using hair spray. To do this, isolate the affected region of hair with nail polish and spritz a little amount of hairspray straight into the nail polish. The polish should stick to the spray and be simple to remove using a paper towel.

      8. Mineral oil or baby oil (or Essential Oils)

Many individuals keep baby oil, mineral oil, and essential oils in their bathroom cupboards, and all of these may be used to effectively remove dried nail polish from hair.

Use a cotton ball and a tiny bit of oil to gently dab the dried nail polish. The oil will assist in moistening the nail polish and make it easier to remove.

Be careful not to spread and distribute the nail polish to other parts of the hair when you are carefully wiping. Wipe away any nail polish traces using a downward motion on the impacted hair stands.

      9. Ice Cube (Cold Water or Ice Park)

It may be quite simple to chip off nail polish after it has dried and cooled, particularly if it gets on your hair. Apply a few ice cubes to the nail polished area of the hair after removing them from the freezer.

For it to become as cold as possible, let the ice rest on the afflicted region for five to ten minutes.

After the polish has cooled, gently chip the polish off by scraping it off with your nail or a detangling comb. This should remove the bulk of the polish quite quickly, and the remainder should be washable.

      10. Vinegar

Most kitchens are equipped with vinegar, which is a wonderful thing if you are attempting to get nail polish out of your hair.

Apple cider vinegar works best for this method, although simple white vinegar also functions well. Split the hair in question, then tie the remainder of it back. Apply the vinegar on a cotton ball, tissue, or paper towel before dabbing it over the nail polish.

Make sure the area is well wet and allow the vinegar to sink in. The nail polish on the hair should be readily removed after ten to fifteen minutes.

The hair strands should be wiped down with fresh tissue. There should be no signs of nail polish remaining.

Questions and Answers

The most common queries on how to remove nail polish from hair are listed here.

What can I use to remove dried nail polish from my hair?

It is more difficult to remove dry nail polish. You understand how that is if you have ever polished your nails. If you are careful and quick, you can remove wet nail polish off your nails effectively without adding anything, however, there may be some little smearing left behind.

If you have used a nail polish remover, it is effortless and will not take much work to get perfectly clean nails. It takes some effort to get dry nail polish around the nail cuticle. The only real difference is that the hair is now thinner and in strands. Therefore, you can anticipate that this approach will take longer if the nail polish is dried.

In this instance, the nail polish will peel and flake off rather than rub off as it would if it were still wet, removing more like dry nail polish from your nails than wet.

However, if the nail polish is already dried, the conditioner ought to work just as well to remove it. The polish should begin to naturally peel off after it has been conditioned. To remove the polish, use the same conditioner you use in the shower or a spray-on detangling conditioner.

Can I remove the nail polish with oil?

Acetone smells awful and may not be the greatest choice for your hair. Oils have a more pleasant smell and might be beneficial for your hair. This has the same effect as a conditioner in which using more oils in the hair tends to make the nail polish peel off more effectively.

If you want to be picky about what essential oil you use to remove nail polish, lemongrass oil is a surprisingly effective option.

It has a beautiful scent and makes removing nail polish from your hands as simple as removing it from your hair. Another thing to consider is that coconut oil, which works well to remove nail polish, is more likely to be a household staple than lemongrass.

If you currently use coconut oil in your hair, it could be the right answer to your nail polish problem since it is also beneficial for your hair in the same way as conditioners often are.

Is there anything you can use besides paper towels?

The nail polish residual may be removed with cotton balls. You may dab at the mess with cotton balls if you do not have any paper towels and do not want to waste an actual towel trying to get the nail polish out of your hair. Though it may take a little longer, it will still succeed.

A dishrag or washcloth may also be used. For removing nail polish, use anything that may be considered a cloth and wrapped around the hair.

The most crucial factors are that they are strong enough to be held together as you scrub with them and that you are okay with the dirty stains that will inevitably result from the procedure.

How Can You Remove Nail Polish From Your Hair?

The nail polish can be broken up by using acetone. Using alcohol or nail polish remover will work just well. Try adding conditioner to the afflicted region and gently scrubbing it if the nail polish is dried. Try a different remover if the first one does not work. You may choose from the possibilities mentioned above. The nail polish will not have to be cut, and you will not have to put up with it clumping your hair in place forever. You can manage this just well if you have a little patience. Good luck!