Hair styling products for thick, cowlick-y quiff
June 25, 2020 2:04 PM Subscribe
I’m looking for hair styling products for my thick, cowlick-ridden, straight hair. Its texture is somewhere between fine and coarse (but closer to coarse). After going without a haircut for three months due to Covid, it's medium length (maybe 6” or so on top?).
I'd like to style it into something like a quiff—swept backwards loosely, maybe with a little volume in the front, but not slick and combed like a pompadour.
I blow-dry it into roughly the right shape and apply product. I’ve tried applying it in different ways (sweeping it though with fingertips, starting at front, starting at back, using lots of product, using not a lot of product, combing it in, going for roots). The style tends to hold for maybe half an hour before giving up and becoming gross.
The Layrite pomades don’t work anymore. Nothing from Living Proof or Hairstory worked. I’m trying out some Hanz de Fuko products now (Quicksand and Claymation didn’t work).
What styling products are out there that could work for my hair? Are there application techniques that could help?
I blow-dry it into roughly the right shape and apply product. I’ve tried applying it in different ways (sweeping it though with fingertips, starting at front, starting at back, using lots of product, using not a lot of product, combing it in, going for roots). The style tends to hold for maybe half an hour before giving up and becoming gross.
The Layrite pomades don’t work anymore. Nothing from Living Proof or Hairstory worked. I’m trying out some Hanz de Fuko products now (Quicksand and Claymation didn’t work).
What styling products are out there that could work for my hair? Are there application techniques that could help?
I have super coarse, straight hair, so I have to go to some pretty extreme lengths to have anything other than a hair helmet.
To get lift I use got2b spiking glue on my roots when wet and blow dry with my head upside down. That stuff seriously holds. Get the yellow tube that really does look like glue - I've found that the gel or hairspray doesn't work as well. Blow dry to roughly the shape you want (but lift-ier, if that makes sense) and then calm the whole thing down with some sort of styling paste. I use pink gatsby wax, but I don't think this one matters as much - just get something you can stand the texture/smell of in your hair and that will weigh things down just a little bit.
posted by btfreek at 4:46 PM on June 25, 2020
To get lift I use got2b spiking glue on my roots when wet and blow dry with my head upside down. That stuff seriously holds. Get the yellow tube that really does look like glue - I've found that the gel or hairspray doesn't work as well. Blow dry to roughly the shape you want (but lift-ier, if that makes sense) and then calm the whole thing down with some sort of styling paste. I use pink gatsby wax, but I don't think this one matters as much - just get something you can stand the texture/smell of in your hair and that will weigh things down just a little bit.
posted by btfreek at 4:46 PM on June 25, 2020
You'll need to get a hairbrush - I like the round kind - and some mousse, the weight of which depends on how stiff your hair is.
After getting out of the shower, towel dry and work a ... chunk ... of mousse into your hair. Using the brush, curl* the hair in the direction you want it to fall then blowdry that portion. Move the brush and curl the next portion.
Apply your regular product (my hair is very stiff hair and use Alberto re-work fibre putty).
*pull a portion of hair in the opposite direction and roll the brush so it sweeps the hair in your desired direction
posted by porpoise at 4:47 PM on June 25, 2020
After getting out of the shower, towel dry and work a ... chunk ... of mousse into your hair. Using the brush, curl* the hair in the direction you want it to fall then blowdry that portion. Move the brush and curl the next portion.
Apply your regular product (my hair is very stiff hair and use Alberto re-work fibre putty).
*pull a portion of hair in the opposite direction and roll the brush so it sweeps the hair in your desired direction
posted by porpoise at 4:47 PM on June 25, 2020
I have similar-ish hair at a similar length and I'm pretty happy for now with the Aircraft pomade mousse. I usually don't blow dry but put it in damp, usually sweeping through with fingertips from front to back.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:12 AM on June 26, 2020
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:12 AM on June 26, 2020
I really like Tancho High Grade Tique Vegetable Pomade. It smells amazing and sticks everything where it should stay.
posted by answergrape at 3:49 PM on June 26, 2020
posted by answergrape at 3:49 PM on June 26, 2020
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That said, it's all I've ever known, apart from appalling, 1980's high school drama dressing room product. Caveat emptor.
posted by biersquirrel at 2:49 PM on June 25, 2020