The snout is shorter than in Scalopus or Scapanus and has a median longitudinal groove on its anterior half. The nostrils are lateral and directed upward. There are no external ears, and the eyes are nearly hidden in the fur. The palms of the hands are as broad as they are long, and the digits are not webbed. The tail is thick, fleshy, constricted at the base, annulated with scales, and densely covered with long hairs.
Females have four pairs of mammae.
The hairy-tailed mole has an elevational range from about sea level to 900 meters. It frequents light, well-drained soils in forests and open areas. Parascalops, like other moles, pushes up surface ridges of soil from shallow subsurface tunnels, and mounds of earth through a vertical passage from deep tunnels. Whenever a warm period occurs in winter, the moles appear in the surface tunnels. The tunnel systems of this mole are sometimes used for a number of years and become quite extensive, different individuals occasionally constructing an interlocking network of passages that are also used by mice, shrews, and other moles.