Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette! Today's video is all about hair styling
products, how to choose them so you get the right hold, look, and texture that you
want. The difficulty in finding a hair product that is best for your hair is the
sheer flood products on the market. You can find anything from one dollar
products to others that cost several hundred dollars but just because one thing
is more expensive doesn't mean it is automatically better for you.
Secondly, just because a hair product works well for your friend doesn't mean
it's gonna work for you simply because you may have very thick greasy hair
versus he has thin and dry hair. So how do you find and choose the right
products for your hair? First of all, you have to analyze your
hair type. So hair type can be straight, wavy, curly, or kinky, all of which can be
thin or thick. For example, I have coarse, thick, and voluminous hair that is quite
dry so I need a product that tames my hair without drying it out. As a kid, I
had curls and if I let my hair grow, it definitely becomes more wavy. For
me, I always use hair products with an extreme hold, otherwise, my hair just does
whatever it wants. On the other hand, if you have thin, sparse, or straight hair,
you do not want a product without a hold, otherwise, it's weighing your hair
down. So how do you figure out what hair type you have? Frankly, it's best to talk
to your barber or to your hairstylist because they have more experience and
they can tell you what kind of hair you got. Second, once you know your hair type,
decide on what style you want. Basically, that means what do you want your hair to look
like. Do you want to have beach hair that is wavy and stands up? Do you want something
that I have that is relatively stiff and very neat and gentlemanly? Do you want your hair to
be flexible or loose or just very much in place? do you want a matte and
textured look? or do you want a smooth and shiny look? Should be obvious or
should be subtle? These are all questions that you have to
answer for yourself. Again, it pays to talk to your stylist and look at
different photos and see what you like and dislike. Three, I know I said ask your
stylist but always take their advice with a grain of salt. As I mentioned
before, a stylist knows your hair, they have a good comparison, they've tried
different things, and they know what works for a certain type of hair and
what doesn't. On the flip side, they have a serious
conflict of interest simply because if you think about your haircut right, doing
your haircut takes them 30, 40, or 50 minutes. Now, by selling you a product,
they can make twice as much or maybe even more money just by selling that
product in an additional two minutes. Therefore, stylists aren't really
objective about what they're selling you. Chances are they want to sell you
something that is ideal for your hair that they have right there at the store.
In some salons and barber shop, they are trying to tell you that the products
they have from a certain brand are different than if you buy them at Costco
for example, however, there is no evidence that suggests that the J.crew product
you buy at your barber shop is any different than the one you buy at your
drugstore. In general, anything related to hair is a very high margin product
so always keep it in mind when you buy something. Also, don't be afraid to
question and ask your stylist about specifics. The sales pitch may go like
this, "This product has much higher quality ingredients that are much more
concentrated without any filler materials, also it only uses essential
oils and leaves out all the bad chemicals". In that case, just ask them why?
Why is this product the better quality? Why is this one ingredient better than the
others? Which chemicals exactly are left out? What is the exact concentration in
this product? If they can't answer those questions or if they are not willing to
tell you to answer them later and do some research, it's nothing more but an
empty sales pitch. Four, let us talk about the different types of hair products out
there. Pomade, gel, wax, styling cream, putty, clay,
sea salt spray, paste, and last but not least, hair spray. So the big question is
what do they do and what are they best for? Here is
where the problem begins. These are not trademarked or defined terms and every
brand may use them slightly differently. So for one brand,
pomade is kind of a wax based product with fat that you smear in your hair; for
others, it's completely waxless, water soluble, and just different altogether.
Because of that, it's very difficult for you, as a consumer, to do an
apples-to-apples comparison simply based on the type of product you have. Yes,
a spray is a spray but some may be aerosol sprays, others may be a pump spray which
can be hugely different in their effect on your hair. So what should you do
instead? I suggest you look at the characteristics of each hair product
which is hold, body, and shine. Every hair product will have different strengths in
different areas and this is what matters most to your hair. With hold, I
mean, how long does a specific product hold that hair style throughout the day
no matter it's really sunny, windy, or rainy? With body, I mean how much volume
does a hair product add to your hair? For example, with my hair, without product, it
just stands up and so I don't need more body, I need less. By shine, I mean how
reflective is your hair gonna be in terms of light? Do you want it to sparkle
or do you want it to be very matte? Now, even though I just said every hair
product type is slightly different, we still try to create an infographic that
fits 95% of the hair products out there and
you can find it on our website here. Five, one of the most important things you can
do as a consumer is to evaluate the ingredients of your hair products. As with
pretty much anything, as a consumer, you have to be educated so you can cut
through the marketing speech and make sure you get the best value product for
your hair. Now you may wonder how do I do that? I have no clue about hair, where do
I start making an informed decision? Honestly, the best place for information
on hair products that I found is the Environmental Working Group Skin Deep
Cosmetics Database. Yes, that is a mouthful but guess what? This wasn't made
by marketers but by scientists hence the tongue breaker name. Even
though the name suggests, it just covers cosmetics,
it covers hair products as well and has overall more than 70,000 products that
were analyzed in detail. All you have to do is type in your product brand and the
product name and then it will show you if it contains any hazardous materials,
what the composition is, and also if there are other products that are may be
related but better. Personally to me, it was reveling even just typing in big
brands like Jack Black, or J Crew, Paul Mitchell, or Redken and realizing that
these brands that are always praised as something really special are maybe not
quite as good as you thought they were. Overall, it gave me a much better idea of
what kind of stuff I put in my hair whether it makes sense for the hair type
I have and the style I'm going for and what other products are out there that
are much better. Now last but not least, I really urge you to experiment with
different hair products. Yes, the database can really help you to narrow things
down to a certain group of products but and ultimately, you still have to wear it
in your hair and decide if it's something you want or if the look is
just not right. No matter if you buy online or the retail store, chances are
you'll just have to invest some money to get some of the products. Very rarely are
you allowed to return products that you've already used but it may make
sense to ask beforehand what the return policy is with specific retailers. Of
course, if they allow you to return things, chances are their prices are
gonna be a little higher because they have to beat that cost. Now, if you buy a
product from your stylist, you have the chance to just try it out in your hair
maybe after a haircut without having to buy it so that's a great opportunity to
test things out without having to spend extra money. So in conclusion, what's the
right product for you and how can you find the right one? Honestly,
check out the environmental working groups skin deep cosmetics database and
that is the really first step and if you go down that path, you'll
have to invest a few hours but you'll be armed with more information and you know
exactly what's good for your hair and what is not. So in today's video, my hair
product is Got2B which is quite stiff so there's a strong hold
it also straightens out my hair when I use it with a hairdryer and it's a more
shiny product personally I'd like to find a product that is a little more
Matte and I went through the database and I'm trying out a few different ones if I
decide to choose a different one I'll share with you in the comments below. My
outfot today consists of a medium gray fresco jacket I paired with a green and
white striped shirt which is rather bold therefore I chose a tie which is green
so it's not too overloaded it's a vintage Hermes tie and to figure out
whether an Hermes tie is worth it or not please check out this video and to
identify a knockoff please watch this one my pocket square is from Fort
Belvedere it picks up the green tones of the shirt as well as the Blues of my
pants and it adds a strong contrast color with that sunflower yellow you can
find it in a shop here my shirt is double cuffs and so I'm wearing a pair of
malachite and silver eagle claw cufflinks fromFort Belvedere which
you can find in our shop here my pants are classic Navy chinos from Polo Ralph
Lauren I combined them with blue and gray blue Fort Belvedere socks and with a
belt in brown that matches my penny loafers