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Vintage 1940's hair style

brylcreem boy

One of the Regulars
Messages
260
Location
Tulsa, OK
Blackgrass said:
Curious what product you use in your pomp?


I have used a lot of things... when I want it to look shiny and greasy... I have used Royal Crown- (the pomade, not the hair dressing)... the smell is not as intense. When I want it to pile high.. I either use Murrays.. with a top coat of Nu-Nile or Red can- Dax along with some royal crown for shine.

When I want just greasy shine.. it's usually the royal crown or three flowers....
 

brylcreem boy

One of the Regulars
Messages
260
Location
Tulsa, OK
tallyho said:
I agree with dixon. I have been sporting a 40s hair style for about 20 yrs now. I get my top really long to where the front can go to my chin if pulled down. I use royal crown to get the slick look. I have a taper down to a 1 1/2 setting on the buzz clippers. this cut allows me to eaither pull it straight back over the top or have a niffty part. I have very wavy hair but when it is long and with royal crown it lays wonderfully and people are shocked to see that I have waving hair when i dont wear the RC. I will usually leave it in for 2 days before washing it out and applying a new "coat". beware that RC will stain fabric, so becarefull where you lay your head.

Yep.. Beware is right.. I stained my girl friends pillow, and her furniture a couple of times.. she hates it. I have to use a pretty liberal amount. mine drys out in a day or two...
 

FedoraGent

One Too Many
Messages
1,223
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
My haircut.

Wild Root said:
46vitalis.jpg


Yes, Vitalis is perfect for hair! Work it in after you shower, apply and work-in to scalp, then, comb! Vitalis isn't like goopy goo or greasy messes... no, it goes on easy and makes hair healthy and gives a natural shine!

Try some today!

=WR=

PS. You can also use many store brand hair tonics that work the same way!

This is just too funny because I was just having this recent conversation with a bunch of guys over cocktails. I use two products for styling up my hair. Sometimes I use Vitalis as my old man and his old man used it. It's kinda a family tradition. However, I haven't been using it lately as the natural look has been doing quite well for me. The second product I use on the ocassion as well is the Bed Head Hair stick. Although a modern product, it works quite well. I have an OOOOOLLLLLDDDD barber that has been cutting hair for 60 years and his partner has been cutting hair for 42. They both know ALL the 30s and 40s haircuts because by virtue, they've been doing them sooo long. He cuts my hair with a taper in the back, does a two finger on the top, but as Dixon said...not too much. First applying hot cream to my face and neck, he takes a straight edge to my ears, lobs off the sideburns and carefully shapes the neck area wtih the straight edge. After that just to make sure he gets everything nice and sympatico, he styles and parts my hair so that the part is to the right of my head. Then he gets the old Osage Rub and pats it on the ears and the neck.

It works perfect for my hat and I love it. So much that I drive 20 miles one way to just get my haircut. :)

Jon
 

McPeppers

One of the Regulars
Messages
279
Location
South Florida
I recently switched from pomade to a hair cream. The downside is that it lacks the natural shine of Pomade but the hold is just as good. It also can be restyled multiple times by just splashing water on it and whipping out your trusty ACE. This also gives it shine back.

It doesnt leave the greasy spot of pomade on a pillow and washes out with just water and a little shampoo.

Sofar in the Cream grouping i've found that Manipulator by BED HEAD works great and smells fantastic.
 

brylcreem boy

One of the Regulars
Messages
260
Location
Tulsa, OK
Awesome Barbershop Experience Yesterday!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone!!... Really great Experience yesterday!!...Late yesterday I decided to take my Dad's advice and go to his old barber instead of my usual shop. Told him I was looking for a old fashioned taper cut like they used to get in late 40 and early 50's.. I even took a picture I found online from a brylcreem ad... (see the attachment)
02-21-%7e1(2).JPG
He said he could fix me up... He tapered it real short on the back down low.. didn't take much off the top at all, as it's about down to the tip of my nose, he put a real nice out line around my ears and then used the hot lather machine around my ears and on back of my neck and splashed on some bay rum. He knew I wanted it slick from lookin at the ad and said he had some good dressing to finish it off with, I told him to go for it... He used some kinda red looking hair oil from a really old looking bottle, he called it Brillantine, He took his time and massaged a pretty liberal application of it throughout all of my hair and then he put in the straightest razor sharp part I've ever seen and expertly combed it back across the top. It pretty much looked exactly the same as the ad only smarter and then only charged me only $9. I ended up tipping him $8.. it looked so good, I had to run down to the Cigar shop and show it off to all of my buddies, and man that brillantine really made it shine... I looked like an old Gangsta settin out their on the sidewalk puffin away on my stogie!!...

Thanks again Guys!
 

scotrace

Head Bartender
Staff member
Messages
14,392
Location
Small Town Ohio, USA
The search for the right haircut is never ending. You'll have to show us your results, brylcreem boy - sounds like you got lucky!

I always end up with Shemp Hair.
 

Hammelby

One of the Regulars
Messages
227
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
It's always a thrilling (nervous) adventure to find the right hairdresser
to do your vintage hair.

In stockholm i have a hairdresser who specializes
in vintage hairdos, but in copenhagen i had to find an oldschool barber..
and this worked. My general suggestion: Rather go to oldtimer barbers than to modern hairdressers, you might end up with a vanilla ice hairdo! :eusa_doh:

My favorite pomade (many rockabillys use it) is Black Diamond normal hold.
You get that nice clark gable shine in your hair, the hair stays in shape, it has aromatherapic lemon smell (and doesnt pull out your hair as fx. daxwax does) and it washes out VERY easily.
 

Mr. Rover

One Too Many
Messages
1,875
Location
The Center of the Universe
Does Royal Crown really stain? I've never had any issues...

I want to try Vitalis now! My grandpa used to use it. My grandma kept his bottle of it in her medicine cabinet in the bathroom even after he passed away.
 

brylcreem boy

One of the Regulars
Messages
260
Location
Tulsa, OK
scotrace said:
The search for the right haircut is never ending. You'll have to show us your results, brylcreem boy - sounds like you got lucky!

I always end up with Shemp Hair.

Yeah Scotrace, I definitely got lucky... if definitely pays off to listen to the older guys, the onlyl bad thing is the barber was telling me he is thinking about retiring soon... Hope I can keep going to him.... I don't think I've ever been to a guy that works on it as long as he did and has the skills and pride to detail it like that. As for a picture, one of my buddies snapped a pic last night, will try to get my hands on it and post it soon. Can't wait to show it off at work tomorrow, I know I will get alot of stares, but that's alright, that's just part of being different.
 

FredDairy

Familiar Face
Messages
87
Location
Chicago IL.
I swear by the Royal Crown Pomade(not the hairdressing).
andy1005.gif

This stuff washes out fairly easy. Just make sure the shampoo touces your hair before the hair is wet.

If you want stuff to wash out easily I'd recommend American Crew Pomade or American Crew Fiber. Those are 20.00 a jar here which I think is ridicoulus, but I recently stopped at a Sally Beauty supply and they make a copy brand of Crew called American Classics. The jars of this stuff is identicle in look and so is the product inside, and they cost about 6 bucks a jar.
 

Benny Holiday

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,795
Location
Sydney Australia
Reminds me of when I was 17

Dixon Cannon said:
...never cut the top! I let my top grow, grow, grow, (ok sometime the ends are trimmed!). When I comb forward, the longest ones are down past the tip of my nose. Then I tell the barber to only shorten the sides and back. -dixon cannon

I had one of those enormous 1980's Rockabilly pompadours, and one morning I went to comb my hair in the bathroom to find Dad had beaten me to the mirror. As we stood at the sink, side by side, I realised to my adolescent horror that Dad's hair was longer than mine. Born in 1925, Dad had kept his hair the same all his life, Brylcreemed back with a part just to the centre of the left side of his scalp, and pushed forward to make a smart wave in the front. Short back and sides always. As he combed his hair forward and wet it preparatory to combing it back, it came almost to his chin, while my giant pompadour's locks came down only to my nose when I brushed all the starch out of it! lol

Dad always thought my hair was crazy, it was all long at the sides and back with the long D.A. and sideburns. I wish he was here to see me now; though I don't part my hair, it's very long on top, all combed back with a wave to the side, and I get the sides and back tapered to a number two with the electric shears, so my hair is even shorter there than Dad's was (just by a bit). I reckon he'd be proud of my suits and hair now!

Brylcreem Boy, great to have you at the lounge!
 

RetroModelSari

Practically Family
Messages
863
Location
Duesseldorf/Germany
I don´t know if it exists in the USA, but my boyfriend uses a Styling-Cream named Brisk

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he says it was first sold in the 30s, but I could just find advertising from the 50s:

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6f_1_b.JPG


It´s not greasy like pomade so no more marks on the pillows, it´s rather light but keeps the hair in style and it smells really good ;)
 

Travis

Suspended
Messages
372
Location
Portland, Ore
I used to use both Murrays and Royal Crown years ago in high school but my mom always hated it because, as has been said, it stained everything. Recently I've been using a product called Pro-Line Comb Thru Greaseless Gel Pomade. It's a new product, and it runs about $6 a jar here, which wouldn't be too bad except my hair is so thick I have to smother my hair in it to get it everywhere (a problem I have with all products I've tried so far) and a jar only lasts 3 or 4 days. What's the deal with hair tonics and minerals and such? I've never experemented with them, do they basically give the same hold and shine as a pomade? I like my hair pretty much like the guy in the Brylcreem ad that Brylcreem Boy posted, but the hold has to be good enough as to not get disturbed by wearing and removing my hat. Also, where do you guys find these great old barburs? I've been looking and looking and all I can find are expensive places with results I'm generally less than satisfied with. I'd love to find an old barbur so bad.
 

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