Product Review: Hairspray

First off, I'd like to wish a very happy birthday to my friend Frank, whose constantly fabulous hair was one of my biggest inspirations.  I still can't believe he used to cut his own hair, too.

Anyway, a can of hairspray is one of those styling essentials that every woman must have, though perhaps not every guy.  Guys with short to medium-short hair will probably never need hairspray, but medium and longer can make use of it.  Today I'll be discussing Pantene's hairspray from its texturizing line of products.

Price:  ~$5 regular price, $3 on sale

Value:  269 grams

Type:  Ultra hold aerosol spray

Where to buy:  London drugs, Superstore, any old supermarket that carries Pantene products will *probably* have it, though I'm not making any guarantees.

The Fab:

I don't use a lot of hairspray, but for the price of this one it's a great deal.  It's a huge can that will last forever if you don't use it every day.  It holds amazingly well without making your hair harden into a helmet or making it feel all crispy-fried.  In fact, when used properly this hairspray will leave your hair quite flexible, maintaining that all-natural look.  Flexible, but not floppy, though.  Your hair will have some fantastic elasticity that will allow it to spring back up into place if the wind pushes your hair around.

To quote the website:

"Its fast-drying Pro-V formula has a lower water content than other Pantene hairsprays and is great for use with our wax-based styling products."

What this means, especially for guys, is that after you've painstakingly sculpted every strand of hair with your expensive Gatsby or other wax/putty, this hairspray isn't going to wash it all out and make your bold 3-D style collapse on itself.

I would absolutely recommend this hairspray for guys, it's a great investment that will save your hair on windy days and whenever you plan on going out for a long time and don't want to think about your hair all day long.

The Drab: 

The huge can can make it a little hard to wield and maneuver around your head.  Also, the nozzle is super-strong:  when it says "hold at least one foot away," you'd better listen or suffer.  If you hold it 6 inches close (which is about normal for other sprays), then the hairspray will saturate your hair and you'll get the rock-hard effect.  Or, if you're unlucky enough that it clogs, it'll just shoot a wad of hairspray onto your carefully coifed head and ruin your style while also making it look like someone blew their nose at you.

Remember that this is hairspray, not hair wax.  You can't spray it and then style your hair after and expect it to look like you used a dollar's worth of Gatsby.  This is just for giving your hair some extra durability (like if you have 6 hours of school and then you're going clubbing afterwards).

This stuff also dries really fast, so don't mess up yeah?  Spray and Stay.  And like with any hairspray, don't touch it too much.  It's flexible, but it will flake if you run your fingers through your hair, and you don't really want to create your own dandruff now, do you?

Bangs

So, I was watching a hair tutorial video on youtube and the guy in it said that if your bangs curve to the right you're manly and if they curve to the left you're feminine/gay (no hating please, his words not mine).

Well, my bangs curve to the left naturally (even if I straighten them, go figure), so in defense of my masculinity let's compare Chinese / Taiwanese male celebrities and come to a conclusion.

So here we have Wu Chun of Fahrenheit fame.  His bangs curve to the left.  He owns a gym in Brunei and fitness is his thing... so is that manly or womanly?  Apparently gyms and working out were made popular by gay men that were concerned with their image.  He's also like 30 years old and a member of a Taiwanese boy band... hmm...  and I was watching Romantic Princess (公主小妹) and my sister looked over and said "that guy looks so gay."  I guess Wu Chun supports the argument then.

And here's Jiro Wang, another Fahrenheit member.  His bangs... also curve to the left.  He also played a gay character in Hana-Kimi.  Maybe I should analyze some guys not in Fahrenheit.

Okay, here's Show Luo.  His bangs curve to the right!  But I wouldn't necessarily define him as

 masculine, so Show is support for the argument that bangs have no indication of masculinity!

Here's Leehom Wang.  He's pretty manly, don't you think?  Hm, bangs to the right... Bah.  Well those are barely even bangs, and Leehom's hairstyles are pretty mild in terms of Asian styles, so I think he can be disregarded.

Ah, Jay Chou.  He is such a man.  Have you seen him in Dragon Rider?  Whew.  Hm, bangs to the right.  Well you know, Jay

 Chou is such a man that he defies all rules and constraints.  In fact, I bet the whole idea that bangs to the right is manly came from the fact that Jay Chou's bangs go to the right.  Yup.

Gary Cao.  Well, his vocal range allows him to sing incredibly high, and in one song he sang both the guy's and the girl's parts (I think the song is Girlfriend).  Anyway, only someone very confident in his masculinity (or flamboyantly gay) would sing so high, and I'm gonna go with masculine.  And hey, his bangs go to the left!  Yay for Gary!

Conclusion:

So clearly the directions that your bangs curve in has nothing to do with your personality. Unless they're perfectly straight, in which case you most likely straighten them every morning and that speaks volumes.  But left or right, pay no attention.  Just let them fall naturally, because of course looking natural is the most important thing to having fantastic hair.

Welcome!

Hey y'all, thanks for coming!

The point of this blog is to be the guy's hairstyling resource that I never had.  I first started caring about my hair in my junior year of high school; prior to that I was happy with the short-short style.  Lame much?  But when all the cool people at school have fabulously awesome hair, you gotta keep up.  So now I have a different hairstyle every 3-4 months, thanks to my awesome stylist.

Hair isn't just about getting it cut, though.  You gotta maintain it and keep it healthy for those months in between salon visits.  Split-ends may not be a problem for me, but sooo much else is involved with hair.

Since I'm a Chinese guy, this blog will focus mainly on Asian hairstyles for guys.  But seriously, there's already so much out there for women that they don't need another one.  Some things you can look forward to are:

• Pictures of "cool" hairstyles
• Links to video tutorials that I deem "helpful"
• Product reviews
• Haircare and styling advice
• Celebrity hair critiques

So anyway, if you have any questions, comments, love/hate mail, e-mail me!  faire.Hairblog(at)gmail.com

Hope to see you around!