To follow up their Original, I’m using Suavecito’s Firme Hold right away. I really liked the Original so let’s see how the Firme performs. Justin sent me both holds to review after we exchanged a few emails. So I want to thank him and the team over at Suavecito for being awesome and sending these out to me. And for sending them so dad-gum fast, I got them 3 days after he said he would send them out. Alright, let’s kick the tires and light the fires.

This one comes is the same canister as their original, a 4oz, white, plastic tub with a screw top lid. And the labeling is the same, one lid label and one wrap around label. The labels are basically the same thing as the original, only with lighter brown coloring. Instead of light to dark brown, this one is tan to light brown. A big change up from the norm, usually the harder holds are darker than the medium-light. It’s kind of a nice change though. It has the same skeleton guy and same style writing. This one does have “Firme Hold” underneath Suavecito Pomade, to also help distinguish this one from the original, apart from the color change up. However, it doesn’t only say “Firme,” on the side label it says “Strong Hold” instead of “Firme Hold.”

When I opened this one up, I was met with a familiar sight. It’s darker than the original, like most heavier holds, water based or not, the heavier hold is usually darker/less shiny. This one is a nice dark brown color, looks a lot like Coca Cola. But it doesn’t smell anything like that, it would be awesome if a pomade this color did though. This one has the same scent, well it’s similar, as the original. The main difference is this one isn’t as musky and gives off more of a soapy scent, but it still smells very similar to the original.

As I scooped a finger-full of this stuff out I noticed a big difference. It kind of rippled as I scooped it out, unlike any other water based I’ve ever tried. It was also a bit more “firme” than the original. I really liked how it came out of the tub, it has a really awesome texture to it. Plus the rippling was pretty cool, it’s really nice when products stand out from others in certain areas.

And this one is much more tacky in you palms than the original. The shine is also a lot higher, maybe this one will shine a little bit in my hair! I think I like the feel to this one in my hands better than the original. It feels a lot like Monkey Brains, which as most of you know is my favorite water based ever.

It applied a lot like Layrite or like a hair wax does. However when I combed it, it was really soft and easy to comb. That made me really like this pomade a lot, but made me wonder if its going to hold like a strong pomade. It pretty much combed like their original so I don’t know if it will hold more or not.

But just as with their original, this one showed its holding power when I went to comb my pomp. And boy did it hold great! The first day I didn’t want to pomp too tall, I just wanted to see how it performed all day and looked in my hair. I really liked how it made my hair look, and it did give my hair a little bit of shine, I love it!! As with most “heavier” water bases this stuff hardened much more than their original, almost like a gel does. That’s one thing I’m not very find of, but I know a lot of guys like that. And this stuff kept everything right in place all day long.

On the second day I really tested the hold on it and was surprised. This pomade is crazy!! It held my hair almost straight out! Now I didn’t want to make it stick straight, but I only barely curved the end to make a pomp. My hair is only 2″ or so longer than how far my pomp goes. It didn’t look right standing straight up so I angled it backward a bit to make it look a little more like a pomp. However, this stuff held it almost straight up. Not as good as Murray’s Edgewax did, but kind of close.

All day long my hair was like this, until I got to the Terror show and started to mosh. After sweating a bunch and moshing/getting moshed on for Move Forward, Code Orange Kids, Backtrack, and Terror my hair was reduced to a mess. But that’s to be expected with a water soluble product. So I pulled out my trusty comb, wet my hair and comb and slicked it back. It then held for the rest of the night. When I washed it out the second time I noticed how coarse my hair was. So I threw in some good hair conditioner and it was back to silky smooth again. I’m not sure why water based pomades do that to my hair, but they do.

So after a few days of this one, I have to recommend it for you guys that like heavier water based pomades. It performs great! I personally prefer the original to this one, but I do like this one. It would make a great one for windy days, and it has a great fresh manly smell. Thank you again Justin for sending me both of these pomades! I really appreciate it! Can’t wait to try out the next Suavecito product!

Stay fresh!

-JC