hair grease
- noun
- /hɛr ɡris/
- For a sleek hairstyle, it's important to use the right amount of hair grease without making it feel greasy.
Examples
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Real slick like hair grease, but with less mess.
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After styling, she noticed that the hair grease kept her curls defined and shiny all day.
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Come on, if you ever use any Blue Magic hair grease in your life, the show is dedicated to you.
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What about this podcast is for every nigga in here who thought Vaseline was hair grease until you got grown?
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He applied some hair grease to his hair to make it shine and look well-groomed.
Synonyms
A slippery thick liquid that does not mix with water used for machines, fuel, or cooking
A thick oily material used to make engine parts move smoothly
A thick sticky product that styles and holds hair
A scented hair cream that makes hair smooth and shiny
A liquid you put on your hair to make it soft and shiny
A liquid you put on hair to make it look neat, make it easier to manage, or help the scalp
A cream or oil that makes hair look neat
A light foam you put in hair to make it hold shape and look fuller
How Oily
Surface Forms
Morphology
hair + grease
The meaning is directly and compositionally derivable: 'grease' denotes an oily substance and 'hair' specifies its target, so 'hair grease' clearly means grease for hair. This noun compounding pattern (material/use) is cross-linguistically common and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Hair grease comes from the old practice of rubbing animal fats or heavy oils, the kind of grease, into the hair to make it smooth and shiny. That picture of putting 'grease' on hair explains why the word now means a thick, oily product used 'to add shine and style' hair.