Max "Bunny" Sparber

I DON'T KNOW who first got the idea to mix together petroleum and mineral oil, or why they decided to rub it in their hair, but they transformed masculine fashion. After all, they created pomade, which apparently also once contained chunks of apple (pomme in French), because who hasn't looked at an apple and thought to themselves, man, I bet that would make my hair stiff and shiny!

Pomade had a good run, slicking back Valentino's hair in the 20s and rockabilly's pompadours in the 50s and 60s, but the 70s brought with it Gilette's The Dry Look, which allowed men with longish hair to look as though they had just driven 20 miles in a convertible or on a motorcycle and were ready to sing backup vocals on a Peter Frampton album. That was pretty much it for pomade -- it became the stuff your grandpa wore, although certain ethnic enclaves kept the stuff in business. Obviously, among these were African-Americans, as Murray's Superior Hair Dressing Pomade is illustrated by two clip art line drawings of a man and a woman with luxurious afros. Pomade has been used in African-American hairstyles as diverse as the conk, where it cemented hair into a thick helmet, and the afro, which gains extra body from a light coating of pompadour.


Then there are folks like me, whose type-6 male pattern baldness leaves us looking as though we had deliberately shaved our heads into a monk's tonsure, and, as a result, must keep our hair very short or risk looking like an experiment in static electricity. Thank goodness for pomade, which gives is the opportunity to grow our hair out and then paste it down onto our head in a style I like to call the Gerald Ford.

Here's the thing about pomade, though. It doesn't wash out. Not unless you want to douse your head with a de-greaser, such as olive oil or Coca Cola. But it's a small price to pay to look this good.