REUZEL’s Extreme Hold Matte Pomade
Holland’s Finest Pomade “REUZEL” continuing on their expansion path has launched a new pomade!!! The Extreme Hold Matte Pomade. Every time our favorites Barbers in Rotterdam pump something out, there is reason to get excited – if not at the very least, curious.
Since my spiritual conversion to pomade and shaving like its 1918, I have been consistently impressed with REUZEL products. In fact, the REUZEL blue and REUZEL red water based pomades were some of those contributing products to my hair styling rebirth.
A big shout out goes to Marta at REUZEL for making this review possible and for her continued support and belief in Style4men.ca. We totally appreciate it!
So let’s jump right into that pomade jar! On the outside you will find our beloved and iconic REUZEL pig. The jar is a proper aluminum can with a screwed on lid of the same metal. Sizing is again 113 gr (4 oz).
Upon opening the jar, you might be a little surprised to find a creamy paste or clay like substance. I was! If you have tried a few hair fixative that offer a matte finish, you will have also noticed that they generally tend to be pastes or clays. Moving past the surprise, the product has a very nice mild and discreet scent. I want to say something like tangerine and vanilla. But it’s ever so delicate that I can’t be quite sure. If anything it’s not offensive and just sweet enough to put a smile on your face …and hopefully a smile on the face of that special someone who might be getting close to your hair. 🙂
I will state that up until recently I wasn’t finding the optimal conditions to work with paste. I was invariably working it in to hair that did not have enough moisture to maximize the clay. This matte pomade is a water based product and actually contains a good amount of water so you won’t have to necessarily work it in to damp hair. I would suggest that you keep some moisture just to help things along. To my surprise, this has turned out to be one of the most workable pastes I have tried in a number of months.
Generally speaking, the difficulty with pastes and clay is that you need to work it to damp hair and the water in your hair confuses your senses in thinking you have enough product when you might actually have too little. Yes, everyone is saying to use very little paste which is true, but you ultimately need to cover all of your hair from the roots to the tips. In my case that is some 6-7 inches to go. In layman’s terms, I used a good dime worth of paste.
So now what?! Your hair is damp and things are not totally holding the way you want. Time to pull out the hair dryer to help things along. This is a bit of the magic moment for paste. The heat will help it to bond with your hair. The product will also become nearly weightless while still offering some decent hold.
The result is great volume, decent hold and a very natural matte finish.
Here is the rating on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is a perfect score and/or level of shine:
- Hold: 3.5
- Shine: 0 (This is a matte finish product – so zero is a perfect score)
- Texture: 5
- Feel in hair: 5
- Facility to wash out: 5
Something important to note here: if you are a Greaser and your weapon of choice is the REUZEL pink can, this pomade will be a shock! The same is true for the water based pomade users who love the hold and the shine. This product does not hold as strong. Yes, the words on the jar are “extreme hold”. Don’t get me wrong this is a proper hair fixative by any measure, but in my humble opinion, it is not as strong the rest of the product line. Now this is when working it in to damp’ish hair.
When working it in to dry hair, you get a bit better hold and I am pleased to report that unlike most other pastes out there, the product is workable for more than 10 seconds. Usually a paste will dry and seize very quickly. You end up tugging on your hair and maybe even pulling a few out. This pomade remains workable. So just for being a real “workable” paste, it gets bonus points.
I will also mention that on the 3 test days for this pomade the weather in Ottawa was unreal at well over 30’C along with ridiculous humidity. Not ideal conditions for pomades as a whole, but it did pretty well.
In closing, this new REUZEL matte pomade is filling in the gap for a natural looking hair fixative. You might live the Greaser or Rockabilly spirit, but on those days where you need to present yourself a little differently, this stuff will help you get there without having to give up on who you are. And of course it’s also for everyone else out there who wants to jump on the REUZEL express but who isn’t necessarily wanting to go down to 1950 Greaser Avenue.
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