Six of my top hairstyling picks for 2014

As I mentioned in my last post about hair products (Osmo Grooming Gift Set 2014), in my first year of blogging my hair has taken a pounding with new products as I search out the best fit for my hair and my limited styling abilities.

Today I will be counting down my five favourites from 2014 based upon the five criteria below:

• HOLD
• EASE OF APPLICATION
• STYLING 
• FRAGRANCE
• LACK OF RESIDUE

Over the months I’ve posted about fifteen different hair styling products, the first being one of my first ever posts - Fishshape Hair but alas this beauty doesn’t manage to hit the top six and the competition if you’ll pardon the pun has been stiff, in fact it’s been tricky to select my favourites from the year so ranking them was impossible. 

While Fish Soho have become a massive favourite of mine, over the last month or so I have tested and fallen for a few newbies to my collection.

SuperFish Fishpaste Hardcore Hold Matte Effect Putty

How could I leave out the first product that I took with me as part of my #hairontour trip to Amsterdam? I was drowned by torrential rain, blown about like a rag doll in the wind and still it kept my long (much longer than usual) spikes up. In addition, once wet it didn’t run off down my face, which was a massive bonus at the time as I styled the drowned rat look.

Easy to style with, no residue at all and cracking hold. You can do a lot worse than this.

Structure Paste Flexible Adhesive

Now this has the hold, look and texture of cement. I’ve never used a product that could, if left, probably hold a style for well over five days! It is tremendous in terms of hold but it was like applying a thick clay to my hair.

Styling took longer but boy, it did the business for me. The only flaw was actually washing it out - it is that strong it clings to the hair shaft. 

SuperFish Stiffish Cream

I didn’t write about this one until recently, and I don’t know why. Why the hold isn’t solid the cream is so pliable it makes styling of short to medium lengths so easy it literally takes me two minutes in the morning. The cream isn’t that thick meaning that fingertips can be used to style rather than palms.

While it isn’t a solid hold this works wonders for holding my spikes in place for hour after hour.

Closed on Monday  Deluxe Pomade

 

The first pomade I have ever tried. I had low expectations and was blown away by the level of hold, how little was needed to spike my hair and the lack of residue. The hold was so strong it lasted for well over a day in the end. Top notch stuff

Osmo Matte Clay Extreme

If you had said to me three months ago that I would be including any clay into a top five list I would have called for the men in white coats. It has always been a natural enemy of my hair and I have always found styling with it a nightmare. With excellent hold, a beautiful fragrance and styling ability that is a breeze this is now a firm favourite. 

The Legends London Maximum Hold Hair Gel

Last but not least we have this offering from The Legends London and wow, it is quite possibly the best gel ever to grace my hair. Both unique in the fact that you can apply to wet and dry hair for different finishes, if the style droops in any way a dab of water and its ready to style again. Get in!

The luminous pink gel is really strong, and sticky. Styling is easy to damp hair and it is perfect for medium to longer lengths as once set this holds hair brilliantly although hair becomes concrete like in texture.

With an amazing hold, really affordable price and the fact that you can just wet and go in the morning means this finishes off my list for 2014.

All of the above get my seal of approval. 

Have you made any hair styling discoveries in 2014?

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Closed on Monday Deluxe Pomade

My Limited Edition Birchbox for Men came with lots of goodies for me to try - everything contained in it was new to me and I’m yet to find something in there that I don’t like. The Mazorin Wash Trade Face Scrub left me speechless while earlier in the week I took the plunge and for the first time used a pomade to style my hair. The pomade in question? Closed on Monday Deluxe Pomade.

Before I started blogging about beauty products and general things that I like I had never heard of pomade, in fact it wasn’t until around April this year that someone stumbled across my site after using Google to search for the phrase ‘cool grease z ultra hard hair pomade’. After my WTF moment I went to take a peek at what they could have been looking for. 

After reading about pomade I have to say it didn’t really strike me as something I really needed to try and thus until this arrived it was pushed to the back of my head with all the other unimportant stuff in my brain like how to cook, pick up clothes after myself and iron. 

I realise I’m waffling, so, what do Closed on Monday say about themselves and their Deluxe Pomade (lifted directly from their website - their capitals, not mine)?

‘CLOSED ON MONDAY, A GROOMING RANGE DESIGNED AND MANUFACTURED IN BRITAIN.  OUR PASSION AND COMMITMENT TO THE CRAFT OF BARBERING CULMINATES IN A DELUXE POMADE, BEARD BALM, MATTE MOISTURISER AND DELUXE WAX THAT EMBODIES THE DISCERNING MODERN GENTLEMAN.

CLOSED ON MONDAY — PURVEYORS OF GOOD TASTE.

HAND MADE THIS TRADITIONAL POMADE HAS A MILD SANDALWOOD AND VETIVER FRAGRANCE AND LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE A LIGHT GEL WAX.

DIRECTIONS FOR USE:

RUB AN AMPLE AMOUNT OF CLOSED ON MONDAY DELUXE POMADE INTO THE PALMS OF YOUR HANDS UNTIL IT SOFTENS, THEN RUB THE FIRM BUT PLIABLE WAX ON YOUR FINGER TIPS AND WORK FROM ROOT TO TIPS AND STYLE TO ACHIEVE YOUR DESIRED LOOK.’

The first thing I did when I pulled this from the box was unscrew the lid and take a long deep sniff of the contents - boy, you really can detect the Sandalwood and Vetiver (two of my favourite smells). If anything, the Vetiver really comes through as the dominant fragrance. For those who haven’t come across it in the past you probably have, you just don’t know it. Vetiver is within around 90% of all perfumes and aftershaves! It is an earthy, grassy essential oil that is added as a base note.

Personally, I love the fragrance but was a little confused as to how a product that looks a bit like and has the consistency of Vicks Vaporub was going to keep my spikes up for a sustained period of time. My hair was cut down to about two inches in length and I was ready to try the pomade. 

I took a healthy blob of the pomade (as instructed) and rubbed it between my palms until it took on a nice silky consistency before rubbing it from root to tip. It was fairly easy to apply actually, as it warmed it became much more pliable and really easy to style with. As a first time user I posted this picture to my Instagram account to show off my attempt.

Ignore the crows feet and focus on the spikes!

Since then I’ve found the right amount to use (see picture below) for my hair and have mastered how to style the spikes properly (should I do a vlog?!?) to the point that one application is good enough to keep my hair styled for well over ten hours, and actually resembling the style from the day before when I get out of bed the following morning.

Just a tiny amount is needed - yes, just enough to cover a fingertip

When looking at whether I would recommend a hair styling product I always look at the residue that is left on the shaft of the hair and how easy it is to wash out. I‘m pleased to report that there was no sight of white flakes coming from or on my hair, no sticky residue when touching my hair and it washed out really easily. Result! 

Onto the bits that surprised me - well unlike a gel, cream or wax it doesn’t leave your hands and fingertips feeling sticky after applying it, in fact, when I first used it I didn’t have the instant urge to wash my hands, I didn’t need to. In addition to this, the finish on my hair was incredibly matte in nature and looked as though I wasn’t actually using a hair styling product. 

While £14.50 for 100ml may seem like a lot for a hairstyling product as you can see from the pictures, after 4 days of use I have hardly made a dent in it. A 100ml jar of the Deluxe Pomade is available as part of the Limited Edition Birchbox for Men here or direct from the Closed on Monday site here. 

It won’t replace my favoured brands completely but it is a great addition to my hair styling collection (which is growing like you wouldn’t believe) and I’m immensely impressed with the hold, the finish on my hair and the fragrance. 

Top notch stuff - having never heard of Closed on Monday I will be keeping an eye on their products. In my opinion they can add purveyors of quality British goods to their website to go alongside purveyors of good taste.  

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by this pomade convert

Have you made a beauty product discovery recently that made you go "wow"?

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