A hair perfume or hair mist isn't the same as just spritzing your mane with your favourite fragrance; instead, it's a product that's specially formulated for your hair. While your usual perfume might still smell nice in your hair, it could also actually be damaging and drying, and result in breakage. But, what is the difference between perfume and hair perfume? The key difference is the percentage of ethyl alcohol contained in the products. As a general rule, hair perfumes will only contain traces of alcohol so as to not dry out hair and scalp on application.