MEN DON’T STINK – Strong – Mandarin Black Pepper

Having a bit of a back log of products to test, I aiming to try a new thing every day until I am on top again.

As part of my Christmas shopping, I bought a little lap cushion-surface thing to hold a tablet and a coffee for my wife from the folks at Well.ca.  This on-line store is more or less like a large scale pharmacy.  They also carry a good number of men’s grooming products.  I had spotted a Canadian pomade brand that I wanted to try, The MEN DON’T STINK line from Walton Wood Farm.  As part of my Christmas order I added a jar of this pomade for $22.  There are 3 options, light, medium and strong hold. Strong hold it is for this chap!

The jar is a proper aluminum can with grip indentations on both the lid and the base.  The labeling is perfectly retro and certainly amusing.  I personally though it is bang on.  The jar is sealed with a clear plastic wrapper around the  base and lid.

The motivations to purchase this product were as follow:

• Canadian product
• Small scale production (artisanal). This is not a product that is readily available in stores to my knowledge.
• Natural ingredient listing.
• Nicely packaged

What’s not to like?!

The ingredient list is as follow:  Apricot Oil, Coconut Oil, Sunflower oil, Beeswax, Shea Butter, Mango Butter, Carnauba Wax, Communis Oil, Castor oil and Fragrance.

To me that ingredient list reads like a perfectly healthy and natural combination.  No parabens and free of pretty much anything that has a bad name these days and obviously not tested on animals.

The Walton Wood Farm states the following on their pomade pages:

• Cruelty Free
• Gluten Free
• SLS Free
• Paraben Free
• Phalate Free
• Dye Free

I clearly realized that this was an “oil” based pomade, what I didn’t realize is how oily it would actually be.  The product is solid in the jar and when scooping a portion out you are still under the impression that the pomade is fairly firm.  But as soon as you start spreading it in your palm it reverts back to its oily state. Depending on dosage of the ingredients, oil based pomade can attain some seriously real “strong” hold.  Although this jar is labelled ‘Strong” hold, it barely compare to a “light” water based pomade. In so many words, my hair was weight down right away while offering no volume or texture and with a limited impact on some of my more resilient curls.  The hair obviously also felt somewhat oily.  There is also the expected shine.

If “hold” is your prime motivator for using pomade, MEN DON’T STINK will disappoint. If you are in it for the shine and the fragrance, this is a good option as it offers some good shine being an oil base pomade.  And what is not to love about mandarin and black pepper?!  As mentioned in previous post, as more and more people are getting into the grooming game we are also being presented with scent combinations that the large perfumers are not adventuring into.  I personally think that our noses are the winners.

Back to the pomade itself.  After having relaxed and spread the pomade in my palm it was onto the application.  This stuff goes in without trouble and is very easy to distribute.  But the product as reverted back to its oily state, it is not all that conducive to finger placement.  You will need to comb and comb again.  The slicked back look is very popular at the moment and if that is a style you are after, the MEN DON’T STINK pomade will get you there.  As I wear an uppercut with long bangs, the slick back look rarely turns out unless we are working with something that has serious hold.  My preferred style is a pomp where the bangs are elevated. The more modern variation of the pomp is the quiff.

Once the pomade is in your hair, the feeling to the touch is OK, but you will feel the oil no matter what.  Being disappointed with the results but having no time to wash it out before taking off for work, I opted to try to salvage my mop by using the Suavecita dry shampoo powder.  The main purpose of this powder dry shampoo is to suck oils out of the hair and give you more volume.  This worked just enough to make things acceptable, but in plain terms I looked like I had oily and flat hair.  Not the look I was going for.

For my thick, long and slightly wave hair, the MEN DON’T STINK pomade is not a winner.  That being said, not everything is bad; the scent is manly, original and old-school, the ingredients are all natural and the jar offers a totally sold presentation.   I very much like the idea of going “natural”, but this is by no mean a “Beast hold”.

Here is the rating on a scale of 1 to 5, where 5 is a perfect score and/or the level of shine.

• Hold: 2
• Shine: 4.5
• Texture: 3
• Feel in hair: 3
• Facility to wash out: 3 (This is a two shampoo job)

Overall Style4Men.ca score:

Further on the “natural” aspects of this product, if you have allergies or skin ailments to commercially produced chemical parties, finding hair products and other grooming solution can be a challenge.  For that the folks at Walton Wood Farm have to be commended.  As part of the Style4men.ca adventure I have come across a number of product makers mainly motivated by the desire to move away from undesirable chemicals and regain control over what they are putting on their faces and hair.

The last test will be the hair washing-pomade removal.  To date commercially made oil-based pomades containing petrolatum have been resilient to regular shampoo.  Experience has shown me that adding a bit of olive oil to the mix acts as a solvent and removes such pomades without putting your precious locks through the ringer.  Since the MEN DON’T STINK pomade does not use petrolatum and went with natural plant oils, I expect the washing to be easy.   In fact, this is the morning after and my hair feels no different than it would with a water based pomade.  I will venture that the remaining oil has been absorbed by my hair and scalp.  I will update the post with these results later today.

In closing, the MEN DON’T STINK pomade is a natural, light hold pomade offering good shine with a manly and original fragrance.

You can find this pomade and other Walton wood Farm products using these links: