Some say that men don’t care about their hair, but that’s just not true! In fact, guys care about our hair just as much as women.

Just like women, how we style our hair says a lot about our personalities.

But some men find it harder to style their hair than others, often due to no other reason than their hair type or texture.

Hair waxes or gels don’t work for everyone.

Some guys need moisturizing, strong hair styling products that can whip their hair into shape and keep it looking fantastic throughout the day.

If you’re one of those men, consider getting some pomade.

These hair styling products can hold your hair in place through wind, water, and whatever else the world throws at you.

They’re easy to use and even easier to understand, so long as you check out our guide to the best pomades for men.

We’ll take you through the top picks vetted by serious hair researchers and answer any questions you have about these products.

Ready to get started?

Let’s go!

Use the table of contents below to jump to the sections most important to you.

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1. Suavecito Pomade Original Hold

This pomade, one of the top suavecito hair products, is an excellent middle-of-the-road choice that’s easy to use and easy to wash out.

Specs

Who Is It Best For?

It’s a good option for men who don’t need too much of a hold but still need some strength to reign in their hair’s natural direction.

Key Features

This men’s pomade is an excellent pick for many types of hair.

This is arguably one of the best water-based pomade brands out there because of its versatility.

It has both a middling finish and a medium hold, making it one of the more versatile pomades on the market.

It’s great for general all-day use or for more specific styling without the risk of hardness that comes with pomades of higher strengths.

It’s perfect for within your hair into shape without turning it crunchy or without giving it an excessive shine.

It’s suitable for both touching up your hairstyle and creating an entirely new one right after finishing your shower.

There is a fragrance included with this pomade, but it’s rather generic and fresh, so it shouldn’t clash with your deodorant or any other artificial fragrances on your person.

It’s also not so noticeable as to be overwhelming. Since it’s a water-based pomade, washing this out of your hair is a breeze.

You shouldn’t need to take any extra steps besides using shampoo to get rid of everything.

It’s not super strong, of course, so men looking for more drastic hairstyle changes will want something else.

You get 4 ounces for the purchase, and the canister is affordable, making this an excellent budget pick, as well.

Watch out for using this during a rainy day, as its water solubility can cause it to wash out of your hair unintentionally or ruin your style after only a few droplets.

Check out the thousands of customer reviews here on Amazon.

Pros

Suitable for most hairstyles and types

Very affordable

Lots in the canister

Not an overwhelming fragrance

Cons

Vulnerable to water changing your style

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2. Viking Revolution Pomade for Men

This pomade is a stronghold product that also has castor oil in its formula.

Specs

Who Is It Best For?

This super hold pomade is excellent for men who want to both style and take care of their hair.

Key Features

This high-strength pomade is made with a variety of effective natural ingredients, the most important of which is castor oil.

Not only does this help find the other ingredients together and give the pomade a soothing texture, but it also helps promote hair growth.

That’s right; using this pomade can be healthy for your hair, as well as stylish!

The fact that it’s made with other natural pomade ingredients instead of harsh chemicals means it’s an excellent choice for men who have sensitive scalps or hair.

This makes it one of the best hair pomade for men in this category.

No one likes their scalp skin to become inflamed just from using their hair styling product.

It’s really high strength, so it’s ideal for dramatic hairstyles for men that have hair that frequently fights against them or is tangled easily.

Men with kinky hair will really love this pomade above many others.

It also has a high shine factor, so stay away from this pomade if you have short or naturally greasy hair as it’s likely to make your hair clean a lot more vibrantly than you intend.

There’s a light, fresh smell associated with the mixture, but our testers didn’t think it was off-putting whatsoever.

Besides, you can get 4 ounces of this high-quality pomade for an affordable asking price or purchase two for a slightly reduced price if you want to store up for a rainy day.

We really enjoy this pomade and everything it has to offer.

Check out the hundreds of customer reviews here on Amazon.

Pros

Very strong, suitable for dramatic hairstyles

Made of natural ingredients

Can nourish your hair

Cons

Can make oily hair look greasy

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3. Old Spice Sculpting Pomade for Men

This pomade can eliminate shine and make your hair feel and smell fresher than before.

Specs

Who Is It Best For?

It’s a great choice if you spend a lot of time outdoors or live in a humid climate.

Key Features

This is a bit of an odd pomade in terms of its included ingredients.

It’s mostly water-based, but it also includes a few mineral oils to help tie various ingredients together and improve the texture of the product.

This makes it a little more resistant to coming apart under the rain or if your hair gets wet from some other accident.

But it’s still easy enough to wash out in the shower without having to strain yourself, so that’s a nice plus.

There’s also beeswax, which makes this feel a lot more like a traditional wax than a pomade product.

One downside to this pick is that it’s mostly made from synthetic ingredients.

We’d recommend that you stay away if you have a sensitive scalp or if you prefer all-natural stuff for your hair styling collection.

But this is still an effective pomade if you have a scalp tough enough to handle the chemical ingredients.

It’s well-suited for a variety of different hairstyles, and it has an excellent matte finish that blends in well with every hair color.

It’s particularly well-suited for men with short or naturally spiky hair since it won’t add any extra shine to your hair strand texture.

The beeswax and mineral oil really help the pomade blend in well with all hair colors and textures.

Like most pomade products, this has a fresh generic fragrance that won’t be too noticeable once it’s been absorbed into your hair.

It’s also one of the most affordable pomade products that our testers tried for themselves.

It’s a great budget pick, particularly for guys who are experimenting with pomade and other hair styling efforts and who might not know precisely what works best for their scalps.

Check out the hundreds of customer reviews here on Amazon.

Pros

Water-based but still durable

Affordable

Suitable for many hairstyles and types

Cons

Made of synthetic ingredients

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4. Uppercut Deluxe Pomade 3.5 oz

This pomade is heavy-duty and is tough enough to last all day, even with heavy wind or rain.

Specs

Who Is It Best For?

This pomade is great for men who want to adopt the dramatic style and include a flashy shine at the same time.

Key Features

This pomade is one of the rare few that straddles the line between high shine and medium shine finish.

What exactly you end up with depends on your hair color and how much of the pomade you apply to your scalp.

Adding a little extra can easily take the shining sky high while using as little as possible can keep your shine more towards the middle of the spectrum.

Either way, this pomade offers a firm hold, making it a great choice if you have kinky or rebellious hair that struggles to maintain intricate shapes or styles.

Despite its strength, it doesn’t tend to make your hair stiff or spiky, so we could see some men with short hair managing to get some good use out of this product if they were careful and only used a minimal amount.

Its ideal hair length is more towards the middle of the range. Your hair will also feel great to the touch once the pomade has been fully absorbed.

During testing, our testers found that it was perfect for managing side parts and performing moderate adjustments to the natural forms of their hair.

It’s extremely water-soluble, but its high strength means that your style should remain iconic even if it gets a little wet.

It’ll be no trouble to wash out once you’re ready.

Check out the hundreds of customer reviews here on Amazon.

Pros

Makes the hair feel great without compromising strength

Variable shine intensity

Doesn’t make hair stiff

Cons

Can make hair seem greasy, especially short hair if you apply too much

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5. American Crew Pomade

This pomade has a captivating fragrance and can make your hair shine like nothing else.

Specs

Who Is It Best For?

This is the ideal choice if you want to add a stylish shine to your hair.

Key Features

This pomade comes in a small tin that makes it easy to throw in a bag or a glove compartment for storage.

It has one of the more noticeable fragrances our testers experienced in their hunt for the best pomades.

The fragrance is a neat mix of mint, tea tree, and citrus, marking it as suitably masculine.

It’s far from subtle, so keep this in mind if you frequently wear a scented deodorant or if you want to wear cologne on your next evening out.

The pomade is made from primarily water-based components, although it includes castor oil and coconut oil in its formula.

These make it easy to spread throughout your scalp, and the castor oil, as we mentioned before, helps to rejuvenate your skin and nourish your hair.

It’s one of the best ingredients we like to see in any hair styling product simply because it’s a flat bonus. The medium-strength hold pomade makes it ideal for most hair types.

But it does have a high shine, which can be helpful if you have kinkier or thicker hair but a bit disastrous if you have short hair.

It tends to make certain hair types look really oily or greasy, particularly if you overapply.

We’d recommend using this in small amounts at first while you get used to it.

You have a choice to pick a single canister of the stuff, or you can get a pack of two ahead of time.

Check out the hundreds of customer reviews here on Amazon.

Pros

Feels good on the scalp

Nice fragrance

Includes helpful ingredients to nourish hair

Cons

Can really make hair look oily

A small amount in each tin

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6. Imperial Barber Grade Products

This pomade is as strong as the toughest wax and has a low-shine seriousness to match.

Specs

Who Is It Best For?

It’s one of the best pomades for thick hair or for men with hair that is difficult to style.

Key Features

This pomade’s label says it’s good enough to be used in a barbershop; after some examination, we agree.

Interestingly, the water-based formula allows you to reactivate pomade whenever you want to adjust your hairstyle.

Basically, adding a little extra water in the middle of your day lessens the hold just enough for you to restyle your hair or move things around before the pomade solidifies again.

For this reason, we recommend it for men with longer or thicker hair or for men with kinky hair.

It’s hard enough to get those types of hair to do what you want, but this pomade makes it easy upon initial application and keeps it easy throughout the day.

That’s something you can’t say about most pomade products.

It’s probably the strongest water-based pomade you can find on the market.

It lacks any noticeable fragrance, meaning you should feel free to combine this with any other artificial scent or cologne.

In terms of shine, this pomade doesn’t quite reach all the way to matte, but it’s close enough that we feel safe recommending it for men with short hair.

It isn’t likely to make your hair look greasy.

Instead, it fades in well with hairs of all colors.

It’s just not the “flashiest” pomade we’ve tested so far.

This is high hold low shine pomade for long hair men.

The only downside is its high asking price, although you do get a good 6 ounces of the formula for your purchase.

Overall, this is one of the highlights of our search, and we’d recommend it to most men in a heartbeat.

Check out the hundreds of customer reviews here on Amazon.

Pros

One of the strongest holds we’ve seen

No noticeable fragrance

Allows you to restyle your hair in the middle of the day

Doesn’t make hair greasy

Cons

A bit pricy compared to other pomades

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7. Pacinos Matte Pomade

This pomade straddles the middle ground between offering rigidity and flexibility.

Specs

Who Is It Best For?

This is one of the best hair pastes for men just starting out in their hair experimentation.

Key Features

This pomade (often called a paste) offers a medium-strength hold that tends toward the flexible side of things rather than rigidity.

It’s great for guys who have naturally wavy hair like a little authenticity in their hairstyle.

It’s easy to adjust your look with the comb while still retaining the overall shape of your hairstyle as a result of this strength.

As a water-based formula, it’s easy to wash this out at the end of the day, and it’s made from a mixture of natural and synthetic ingredients.

The matte finish of this pomade is particularly robust and adds a lot of whole-bodied color to hair strands.

Our testers found that it faded into most hair colors without issue and eliminated most shining.

It’s great for men who have naturally greasy hair and who want to style their hair in a way that minimizes this aspect as much as possible.

While it’s good for curly hair, it’s not quite strong enough to handle kinky hair and other more rebellious hair types.

Overall, we think this is an excellent pick for multiple middle-of-the-road hairstyles.

While it’s not super affordable, it’s not super expensive, either.

Feel free to try this out if you are starting to experiment with hairstyles and want to use something that won’t make your hair too rigid, to begin with.

Check out the hundreds of customer reviews here on Amazon.

Pros

Good matte finish

Makes hair look less greasy

Allows for some hairstyle flexibility

Cons

Isn’t strong enough to tackle curly/kinky/thick hair

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8. Deluxe Pomade by Dapper Dan

This pomade has a strong fragrance and is ideal for perhaps the widest variety of hairstyles.

Specs

Who Is It Best For?

It’s great for men who don’t need a pomade for one style or hair type, as it can serve many moderate styles depending on the amount.

Key Features

This is an extremely flexible pomade that lets you swap between hairstyles relatively easily.

It’s water-based, so it’s easy to wash out at the end of the day.

It also has both a medium hold and medium shine, making it an excellent choice for most hairstyles that don’t require some extra string.

It’s a good “Jack of all trades” option.

Since it’s so adaptable, we’d recommend it for men who don’t have mainly dry hair, greasy hair, or tangled hair.

Its versatility also makes a great for men with longer hair, as it’s strong enough to with that hair type into a shape or style without making it too rigid to become uncomfortable.

You can also control the shine, to some extent, by using smaller or larger amounts of the hair pomade each morning.

Less pomade will be more matte, while more will add to the shine.

There’s pretty noticeable citrus and phenol fragrance, which may or may not be your cup of tea.

Also, it’s one of the more expensive pomades on our list, even if it is super adaptable and, therefore, valuable.

Our recommendation is to pick this up if you don’t need a pomade for one hairstyle or purpose.

Check out the hundreds of customer reviews here on Amazon.

Pros

Very adaptable for multiple hairstyles

Fragrance is good

Easy to wash out

Cons

The fragrance may be too strong for your liking

A bit pricey

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While we have a great list of the best pomades for men and all kinds of hair, let’s go through what our testers used to pick out their favorite products amongst all the choices.

1. Type Of Pomade

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There are two major types of pomades that you’ll choose between.

Neither is necessarily better than the other; instead, they both offer different benefits and are better for different hair types.

Water-based pomades are a lot easier to wash out of your hair and allow for restyling throughout the day.

A water-based pomade isn’t quite as strong as oil-based pomades and doesn’t have as much of an iron hold as its counterparts.

Because they don’t use a lot of oil in their formula, they also have a slightly different finish in most cases, looking less shiny and more matte overall.

This finish will be a little “stiffer” looking on some hair types, possibly leading to a crunchy look.

Water-based pomades are excellent for guys who spend a lot of time indoors or who like their hair to subtly shift throughout the day as the wind runs through it.

Water-based pomades are also often a little more expensive than oil-based pomades.

For our guide, we’ve selected the best water-based pomades due to their versatility and ease of use.

On the other hand, oil-based pomades usually have very high-strength holds on your hair.

Because of their strength, they take a lot of work to wash out of your hair and may take several shampoo washes before cleaning is complete.

This is because oil doesn’t mix well with water, so it has to be dissolved slowly throughout several washing cycles.

But they’ll keep your hair in check or right where you like it throughout the most strenuous of physical activities or the harshest winds.

Even if you sweat up a storm, oil-based pomades will keep your hair in place. Oil-based pomades produced a pretty shiny finish, especially compared to water-based ones.

Additionally, oil-based pomades can irritate your scalp if you have sensitive skin since they tend to clog pores and cause acne problems.

We wouldn’t recommend them for men with sensitive scalps already.

They can also sometimes strip your hair of natural, healthy oils.

Because they are a little easier to make, oil-based pomades are usually cheaper than water-based ones, as well.

But they are ideal if you spend a lot of time outdoors and want your hair to look the same no matter what has happened throughout your day.

We’d recommend oil-based pomades for men who need all the strength they can get for their wild hair and who don’t mind having to scrub their scalps vigorously to clean them at the end of the day.

2. Finish

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Even though both types of pomades tend to create certain finishes, there’s always some wiggle room, and you can find all finishes across both types.

These finishes don’t have much of a shine to them and make your hair look more colorful and whole-bodied.

Because they’re naturally understated compared to shinier finishes, matte finishes are usually great if you have short hair.

Men with short hair don’t usually comb it too much and adding a shine can make your hair look greasy anyway.

Matte finishes fade naturally into the deeper color of your hair strands and can give your hair a simple charm that can attract men and women alike.

It’s the equivalent of being styled, but not calling a lot of attention to your hair.

Matte finish hair pomades are suitable for casual occasions or for certain clothing picks.

Shiny finishes are great when you want to call attention to your hair.

They add a bit of a gleam to your hair and reflect natural or artificial light in obvious ways.

It can look particularly nice on longer hair or black hair, especially if you want to draw attention to how deep the color of your strands is.

It’s also good to combine shiny finishes with business suits or work attire, as it lends more weight to the idea that you’re “sharp” and “well-cleaned.”

Shines can make you look polished and collected.

But be careful not to overdo shiny finishes, as it’s easy to make your hair look greasy and unclean if you go overboard.

Finally, you can always try to ride the middle ground between both types of finishes.

Using a pomade that doesn’t make your hair particularly shiny or mainly matte might be perfect for your personal clothing choices or your work environment.

If you want a run-of-the-mill finish, try to find an oil-based pomade that isn’t very shiny or vice versa, a water-based pomade that isn’t too matte.

You won’t find a pomade specifically recommended for “middling” finishes; it’s something you must experiment with and discover on your own.

3. Hold Strength

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The held strength of your pomade is basically describing how well it keeps your hair in its style position.

While you can shape your hair into whatever configuration you desire when you first apply the pomade, pomades with particularly strongholds will quickly solidify and keep your hair in place even if it becomes wet or extremely windy.

This can be ideal if you have a specific hairstyle in mind that you want to keep no matter what.

But pomades with strongholds can also be challenging to restyle without washing all the product out of your hair entirely.

When it comes to men’s hair pomade, one can easily say that stronghold pomades do the job better, but they don’t always make the best pomade for men because of this restyling challenge.

Therefore, strong holding pomades may not be the best hair pomade for men who desire to style their hair daily.

On the flipside, pomades with middling or low holds can keep your hair in place but also allow you to restyle it without having to wash all the product out of your hair and restart.

This can be advantageous if you want to go from work to an after-hours party, for instance.

After all, the same hairstyle that works in your office may not be very attractive in a casual environment.

Lower strength holds are a little more vulnerable to water or wind changing the style of your hair or making it a little sloppy, however.

It’s a clear trade-off with advantages and disadvantages for both ends of the spectrum.

You can find pomades offering hold types both at the far end and towards the middle of the spectrum, so there’s something for everyone.

Different hold strengths will also be more effective for different hair types.

Let’s examine those next.

4. Hair Type

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There are lots of hair types and styles across men all over the globe, but let’s focus on a few common hair types.

In many ways, straight hair is the easiest type to manage.

It offers low resistance to change and can be styled at least somewhat in virtually any configuration you imagine.

It offers low resistance to change and can be styled at least somewhat in virtually any configuration you imagine.

Pretty much any pomade hair products will be usable if you have straight hair, especially if you have longer hair than average.

Picking your type of pomade is an exercise in preference and fragrance above all with straight hair.

Wavy hair can benefit from pomades greatly.

In many ways, it’s a little easier to achieve more dramatic hairstyles with wavy hair by leaning into your strands’ natural directions or inclinations.

Pomades are also beneficial for wavy hair since most of them have moisturizing effects to keep your hair strong and hydrated.

You can use any type of pomade you wish, although stronger holds will allow you to maintain more drastic shapes and styles for longer than pomades with weaker holds.

Men with curly hair frequently find themselves at a loss as to which kinds of hair styling products are right for them.

The good news is that pomades work exceptionally well for curly hair of all lengths.

Not only does it offer an excellent moisturizing effect to prevent your hair from turning frizzy, but it also lets you finally reign in the tangles and curls that you might want to tone down.

Men with curly hair can benefit from pomades of all different hold strengths.

Kinky hair is also difficult to manage.

Men with this hair type will probably want a pomade with a firm hold and with a shiny finish to make it look more vibrant and alive.

Your mileage may vary but suffice it to say that adding a pomade as opposed to wax or clay is a great idea.

Men with short hair can also benefit from the pomade applications.

You can achieve many classic hairstyles by adding a small amount of matte-finished pomade, and it doesn’t take much hold strength to keep the style in check since your hair doesn’t have enough length to be easily messed up.

Feel free to use any type of pomade you like but be careful of using a shiny finish type as your hair may look exceptionally greasy by accident.

Finally, we want to reiterate our above warning for men with thick hair.

You must be cautious of how to apply pomade on your thick hair, this is because it’s easy to over-apply pomade in thick hair since it can feel like you haven’t applied enough of the stuff after the first few seconds.

But applying too much will make your hair look super oily and greasy, which is the opposite of what we’re going for.

Because thick hair tends to be heavy, you’ll probably want a pomade with a pretty high hold strength.

This will allow you to style your hair without having to worry about the wind messing everything up right after heading outside.

5. Fragrance

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One last aspect to keep in mind as you browse is a pomade’s fragrance.

Most pomades for hair will smell relatively clean, but in your search for the best pomade for your hair, you may come across more dramatic scents.

Lots of masculine hair styling products will have fragrances from your typical collection of smells; things like cedarwood or citrus are prevalent.

This isn’t a huge deciding factor for most men, but it’s something to keep in mind since your hair will likely retain the fragrance of a for as long as the stuff is mixed with its strands.

If you don’t want to smell like cedarwood for the next 12 hours or so, try to find something that lacks a fragrance entirely or which has a smell that you prefer.

Now that you’ve got some great pomades to put in your digital shopping cart, what’s go over any questions you might have remaining.