• About Us
  • Bookings
  • Services
  • Webshoppe
  • Rewards
  • Blog
  • Work Here
  • F.A.Q.
  • Contact
  • Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

Beardsgaard Barbers

Welcome Home, Nerds

  • Bookings
  • Services
  • Portfolio
  • Webshoppe
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Blog
  • About
  • Press
  • Rewards
  • The Game

From the Apothecary / Pomade Profile

July 2, 2015 By //  by The Beardsgaards

When it comes to pomade, all men want to know is how strong the hold is. Fellas, we ‘re here to tell you to forget everything you thought you knew about pomade.

tumblr_m9fcorvhbI1rt8i4vo6_r1_500

Prepare to have you mind…BLOWN!

Because “hold” doesn’t mean jack, not by itself. Pomade, and hair product in general can give you so much more, if you really know what you’re looking for.

Daper Dan

We know, George, but just trust us. We’ll steer you straight.

Hold

Hold 1 Edit

You have to admit, Draco Malfoy did have GREAT hair

So let’s talk about hold. Hold, to us, means ability to stay put, through the stick and/or firmness of the product, but that hold doesn’t operate in a vacuum. Hold will vary through wet/dry application, use of pre-styling with a blowdryer, as well as your hair type and style. It’s all in the technique.

Did you know that in water-based pomades, applying to damp hair will cut out 2/3 of the hold of the product? Think about it – water based, add water, watered down, less hold. Dry it out with a blow dryer and style it into place before applying product, and even lighter holds will last all day long.

Weight

Weight 1 Edit

If there’s one thing that Dr. Evil knows all about, it’s hair styling products

Weight, on the other hand, refers to the heaviness of the product. If you want a big tall pompadour or just have finer hair, hold is great, but if you choose a heavy hold, heavy weight product, your hair is not going to operate as intended.

Heavier weight is wonderful for compacting in thick, dense hair, giving you the look and feel you want without needing a ton of hold. Your hair is the hold. Lighter weight lets you build volume, and combined with lighter hold can give you some wonderful texture and movement in your hair. It’s not always supposed to be shellacked.

Shine

Shine 1

When Ned Stark is right, he’s right

The last major consideration in hair products is shine. Pomade, by its nature, has a sheen to it, but they certainly don’t all have a high shine finish. Shine also does not operate in a vacuum. The more emollient ingredients (softening oils and butters) that add shine to a product also decrease the hold.

To demonstrate the point we included Shiner Gold Clay in this roundup. Matte products like this naturally help build volume and make hair behave like thicker hair. More shine, on the other hand, gives texture and reduces the volume in the hair.

With so many pomades out there, how do you know which one is right for you? Well, we can help you with that in the shop, but this primer on our current stock of pomades will help you understand why certain ingredients do what, and you can make more informed product choices across the board.


The Pomades

Oil-Based

Reuzel / Heavy Hold Grease

Print

Made of jelly-like petrolatum and waxes, this pomade contains very little liquid oil. It is an incredibly old fashioned product meant to be worn in the hair for days on end, scrubbed through with water in the shower and simply recombed. Over the days, the pomade combines with your scalp’s natural oils to make your hair buttery and cooperative as hell.

Great for slick, well combed styles on hair where the aim is to rein it in as opposed to getting more volume and height. Especially nice for that super silky medium thickness (individual hair that has a ton of density and feels like a massive uncooperative mop). This will tame it.

Reuzel / Grease

Print

Made much like the Heavy Hold Grease, but with the addition of more soft oils, like supremely nourishing emu oil (especially for the scalp, and often neglected area for dense hair-havers), this is a true medium pomade for buttering up thick/heavy/dense hair. It also works well for thick curly hair. Very Elvis-y.

Prospectors / Crude Oil Pomade

Print

This one contains petrolatum, waxes and hemp oil (full of wonderful nutrients for healthy hair and skin, including loads of fatty acids), making it a bit softer and more nourishing than the Reuzel Heavy Hold Grease. It is also a little on the greasier side compared to the buttery Reuzel Grease or the waxy Heavy Hold Grease.

Water-Based

Reuzel / Pomade

Print

This is an often misunderstood pomade. It doesn’t have the strongest hold, but this stuff is so light in weight it nearly defies gravity. If you want some tall hair, this is the one.

Beware, you will need to thoroughly pre-style with a blow dryer, because this pomade will not shape your hair. It will lock it where it already is. So if you have stuff sticking up on your head uncontrolled, now it’s just going to be glued there.

Prospectors / Gold Rush Pomade

Print

This is one of our favorite pomades on the shelf. Although it is water-based, it is made with hemp oil, so you get the nourishing benefits of oil, but it’s a fast absorbing one, so the pomade rinses out clean with water, and leaves you hair feeling healthier too.

This is a pomade with a higher water content, so it has the ability to shape hair more like an oil-based product. It shows off wavy textures beautifully, and combs through like a dream. We like to think this one would make Elvis proud and groom his loosey goosey pomp in the way to which he was accustomed.

Prospectors / Iron Ore Pomade

Print

Just like the Gold Rush but less water, so a little stronger. That is all.

Shiner Gold / Classic Pomade

Print

A bit heavier than the Reuzel Pomade, this is a great intro product that works well on most hair. And for the price, you can’t beat it.

Shiner Gold / Psycho Hold Pomade

Print

If the standard idea of hold is paramount to you, this one will do the trick. We have seen it comb waves out of brillo pad thick hair, and it holds strong, as long as hair is dry when you apply it. This water-based pomade has comparably little water in it compared to its Classic Shiner counterpart, so you end up with a stronger hold.

It is best used for obscenely thick and hard to control hair. An oil based pomade like the Reuzel Heavy Hold Grease would do the trick as well, but if easy and frequent shampooing is important to you, this is a great choice.

Shiner Gold / Clay

Print

This is the one exception to the pomade rules (not being a pomade at all) that proves the rules. A good part of its hold is due to its low shine, bulking up hair and giving it a bit of stick-to-itselfness. But it is also incredibly light weight, adds texture, and gets cowlicks to behave.

If you use it right. Do not try to comb this one through all side part style, that’s not what this is for. You end up looking a dusty old man. Instead spread it all over your hands, touch your hair lightly all over until you hair picks the product up, instead of rubbing it on, then shake out and style with your fingertips.

Low shine products like this are the best friend of thin, fine, flat, straight, silky hair. If you have a thick head of Lego man hair, a matte product like this going to be like your Kragle (if you haven’t seen the Lego Movie yet, you will not get that reference, and there is no help for you).


Well, there you have it, a definitive, no-muss no fuss guide to not only the pomades we offer in shop, but the application, styling technique and scientific attributes of pomades in general. Think of this as your Hitchiker’s Guide to Better Hair. Remember…

Guide_from_movie

Keep your head clear of any pesky misconceived ideas when it comes to styling. Let us put them there! Plus fix up the hair on your head.

There’s a whole world of hair styling products out there, and it can get confusing, especially if you’re coming from the world of simple gels and pastes. While they may seem intimidating, pomades can help to give you a super-sharp, stylized look with ease.

Hair

And we do, good sir. We certainly do.

Filed Under: Blog, From the Chair, Products & Grooming Tagged With: From the Apothecary, Present, Product Profile, Products

About The Beardsgaards

The Beardsgaards are a pair of mom-and-pop barber nerds with a shared obsession with perfection. We built this old school barbershop to feel like home to everyone who enters beneath the Elvish script above our door. If we and the Gaardian army can give you a better handle on your grooming routine, all the better.

Previous Post: « Ginger SNAP!
Next Post: Cut of the Week / Ginger SNAP! »

Primary Sidebar

greetings, nerds!

welcome home
We built this place for you, to bring you everything you ever dreamed you could find in your friendly neighborhood barbershop, and a stupid amount more. Beardsmith and Blademaiden, the mom and pop founders, invite you to explore the realm.

Our Little Slice of Valhalla

In historic downtown Batavia on Route 31 between 1st and Main

117 S Batavia Ave, Batavia, IL 60510

PHONE: ( 630 ) 454 - 4820

EMAIL: shop@beardsgaardbarbers.com

Parking

Loads of free parking here, both on the street in front of the shop, with an even more substantial parking lot in back.

get at us on instagram

beardsgaardbarbers

Family owned & operated since 2014. There be nerds here. And dragons.
💈Classic Haircuts • Epic Beards • Razor Shaves💈
House brand @riverpeakapothecary

Beardsgaard Barbers
New pins from @thesearethings offer an aesthetic t New pins from @thesearethings offer an aesthetic that says “Kinda spooky, kinda sarcastic.” which is definitely a vibe Shopkeep Lucky Eye imbues. She’s already picked up a pin and is sporting it on her favorite jacket, can you guess which one she went with?
With several recent, very public examples of the c With several recent, very public examples of the continuation of police brutality in America, it's hard not to feel helpless. And frustrated. And tired. But just like actively being anti-racist isn't an option, neither is taking a break. There are countless grassroots organizations that are doing the difficult work of changing legislation, hearts and minds every day. Even when the big stories have faded, and the cameras have left. They don't stop when they're tired, because it's not an option. So what can you do?

First: donate to those tireless organizations that benefit people of color and marginalized individuals.
Second: outwardly show your solidarity.  Did our solidarity with Black Lives Matter lead to us losing clients, and aggression towards us as a business? Yes. Do we care about that? No. Because for every loud person that yelled at us for our BLM fist and pride flag in the window, there were people that saw it as a head nod that said, "We see you. We're with you."

People passed our shop and felt safe, and that feeling of home and safety is why Beardsgaard is the shop that it is. We will continue to show solidarity because at the end of the day, everyone deserves to have basic human rights. People deserve to be able to sleep in their own bed, walk down the street with a sandwich, talk on the phone to their mom, unlock their own front door, hold a bag of skittles, sit on a couch and eat ice cream… 

So while our Wear It For Good section has grown in the past year, all of our designs are still up and all the profits being donated to different charities and organizations. 

Donate and show your solidarity with our Wear It For Good section of our #webshoppe {Link in Bio}.
Fermilab Muon Mews!. We KNEW the groundbreaking mu Fermilab Muon Mews!. We KNEW the groundbreaking muon news out of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory sounded familiar! Back at @fermilab’s 50th, former Beardsgaard barber Joey (now of @foxandstonebarbers ) wastes the time of a scientists doing crazy important work, and makes him make up names for the bison.
While things were getting better for a little bit While things were getting better for a little bit it seems that covid cases are on the rise again. All of our covid protocols are updated on our website so please read those before you book. We don’t like having to turn people away but it is necessary to ensure the safety of our staff and other clients.
When it comes to the potential of new guidelines being implemented we will post on social media as soon as we know what they are and they have been confirmed for our region. Fingers crossed that this spike is temporary and we’ll be back to getting those numbers down for summer!
Time for a little post holiday cleaning. If you ha Time for a little post holiday cleaning. If you had your eye on any of these items, have no fear our sale section is here!
While we still are not doing Face Shaves, if you’re a person who doesn’t have hair on their head we can still give you a nice relaxing straight razor Head Shave.
This kiddo can put “Professional Easter Egg Find This kiddo can put “Professional Easter Egg Finder” on his resume.
Barbershop classic, the straight razor fade. Execu Barbershop classic, the straight razor fade. Executed by the gentle giant, Sean.
Just a reminder our booking schedule runs on a rol Just a reminder our booking schedule runs on a rolling four weeks! Every week we open up that 4th week out. If you’re a human that likes to book every 5-6 weeks make sure to call the shop or hop online the Tuesday or two after your appointment to snag your next cut.
Good luck and may the booking odds be ever in your favor.
Barbers, like deer, must not be startled when work Barbers, like deer, must not be startled when working. We may have spooked Kate with the shutter of the camera, next time we will be quieter...
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Footer

Our Little Slice of Valhalla

In historic downtown Batavia on Route 31 between 1st and Main

117 S Batavia Ave, Batavia, IL 60510

PHONE: ( 630 ) 454 - 4820

EMAIL: shop@beardsgaardbarbers.com

Parking

Loads of free parking here, both on the street in front of the shop, with an even more substantial parking lot in back.

Shop Hours

• Sun - Mon / Closed

• Tue - Wed 10 / 6

• Thu - Fri 12 / 8

• Sat 9 / 3

Closed for Shop Lunch Tue + Wed 2-3 pm / Thu + Fri 3-4 pm

Join the Gaard

* indicates required
How Do We Know Each Other?

Copyright © 2021 Beardsgaard Barbers

4/10/21 • All full for the day! (Closed Sundays & Mondays. Call or book online )
For the safety of our staff and clients, we must refuse service to anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms.
Actually there’s a whole list of questions we’re gonna ask you at the door, brace yourself.
Shop closes for lunch Tues/Wed 2-3 PM and Thurs/Fri 3-4 PM
Shop our entire shop online, for shipping worldwide or curbside pickup! {CLICKY HERE}
Beard trims are back! Book Here!
Wear It For Good shirts designed by shop artist Lucky Eye Ink • Donate and get a shirt here!
While you’re here, peruse our sibling shop right next door or in the Webs of Inter, River Peak Apothecary!