Just Add a Little Dab of Pomade – History of Pomade
Pomade is an excellent tool for controlling fly away’s and smoothing those curls when styling hair. We particularly love the Suavecita Pomade, it smells lush and has just been re-stocked!
But where did Pomade originate from?
Pomade has been dated back as far as the 18th century and was originally used as an ointment, it later became a hair product. “Pomade” is derived from the French word pomade, which means “ointment.” Pomade comes from the Latin pomum (fruit, apple) and Italian pomata (apple). Pomades were originally made with mashed apples as well as animal fats such as bear fat and herbs, lovely!
With the turn of the 20th century came better ingredients in the form of petroleum jelly, lanolin, beeswax and even lard. These ingredients made Pomade a versatile product to work and style hair with. For men in particular, it became an essential for styling slick, tall artful hairstyles with swoops, waves and curls. Pomades were known for being hard to wash out taking a good few days to be fully washed out.
With the return in popularity of hairstyles such as the pomp and quiff’s pomade has become a popular product once again. However, we are lucky because we now have pomades that are water soluble and wash out completely with just water, but leave hair the scalp feeling dry after it’s washed. These water soluble pomades remove the oil base, a key ingredient of traditional pomade.
