Ok, I’m done trying heavy pomades made in other states. I’m trying out AZ’s own High Life heavy. It was made here in the Phoenix valley for years by my buddy Adam. And now it’s being made by the fine folks over at DAX as most of you know. This one will be another side by side review like the last one was. As usual I will be starting with the old first in my hair then completely degreasing and using the new. Let’s get started, shall we?
The old one comes in their signature 3oz slip cover stainless steel tins, and has the lid and can labels. The new one comes in the new 4oz slip cover tins and has both the lid and can labels. However, these labels are a little different from the mediums labels. The old one is the same layout with “High Life” in the center, “heavy” underneath that, and “High Quality Hair Dressing” around it. This one has a black back ground and yellow accents, without the large solid dot in the center. This time it’s just yellow rings. The can label on the old one is the same way. The new one is the same layout and colors, but there is some new stuff added as well. First is a little “Peel Here” symbol to the left of the name. Once you peel it you see a blurb about High Life Pomade, the directions for use, and the ingredient list. The can wrap is also a little different. It’s not just the oval labels anymore, they’re clear rectangle labels that kind of wrap around the tin half way. On the front is the familiar oval label that’s the same as the old, except that this one indicates the hold also now. The back has a warning, the manufacturer and a barcode.
Opening up the old one you see an off white super waxy pomade. You can tell by the look that it’s a heavy pomade. This one looks a little more cream colored than the medium. Which makes sense since this is the heavy and it is going to have more wax in it. The new one is bright white like the new medium was. You can tell its a lot more waxy than the medium though. The old one has the exact same scent as both the light in the medium. The new one smells softer like the new medium did.
Digging the old one out wasn’t nearly as tough as I thought it would be. It was about as easy as scooping the medium, it just had a waxier feel to it. It feels about twice as waxy, but isn’t super hard like straight wax or anything like that. The scent gets a little stronger when you scoop it, but not a whole bunch. The new one is kind of similar in that its twice as waxy as the medium, but it scoops out harder than the medium. It also has a very waxy texture to it. I really like the way it feels scooping out. I can’t really compare it to anything though, it’s very unique.
As usual I will be starting with the old first. It doesn’t really break down in your hands at all. In fact it kind of does the opposite and gets to be more of the feel of straight wax in your hands. It wasn’t as bad as say Putrescence was in my hands, but it was pretty waxy. I did the whole clap my hands together thing and that made it really tacky and pretty easy to apply. Now it wasn’t super easy to apply, just easier after I clapped my hands together to tack it up a bit. It had a very tough feel in my hair and was a little difficult to comb. I did notice quite a few hairs in my comb after I had gotten it all worked in. Not as many as when I used that Knockout stuff, but still quite a few.
Old High Life Heavy
At first it wanted to kind of make my hair stick straight out, but I stood outside for a couple minutes and it became a little more manageable. I was able to get a really nice looking medium pomp with it. I didn’t want to go too high, because I didn’t want to have to keep recombing my hair all day. I was pretty happy with the way it looked with this stuff in my hair. For being such a waxy pomade it doesn’t leave straggly hairs sticking out like other waxy pomades do.
I ended up being outside a little more than I wanted to that day, but that was a good test for this stuff. The pomade held my hair really well! I didn’t notice any hairs come out of place, or any splitting or drooping of my hair at all. Yes!!! Finally! You can see that at the end of the day my hair hadn’t moved at all. I did get bit by about 8 or 9 Mosquitos on my face though. And my hair was a tiny bit shiny at the end of the day. Definitely happy with this pomade’s performance in the humid heat and dry heat out here. So far this is the only pomade that holds any sort of pomp all day. It will for sure be one of my go to’s next summer.
Old High Life Heavy
Now on to the new High Life heavy. This one breaks down in your hands much differently than the old one. This one spreads around a lot easier and doesn’t get super waxy in your hands. It does have a waxy feel in your hands, it just spreads easier than the old one. When I applied it to my hair I noticed a big difference. This one was quite a bit harder for me to work in with my hands and comb. I also noticed more hairs in my comb after combing this one in. Almost as many as the Knockout pomade. I was pretty bummed out about that. Even after I got it worked all the way in, it was still somewhat difficult to comb my hair. And also my hair wanted to stick straight out like it did with the old one. So I went outside again for a few minutes to soften it up.
Since the old one held really good I decided to comb a taller pomp to see if it would hold all day. It wasn’t as full and nice looking as I wanted it to be, but I wasn’t having the best hair day. It didn’t look terrible though, I just couldn’t get it to be as smooth as I wanted. I was able to get a pretty tall pomp with the pomade, so that’s cool. This one is a tab bit shinier than the old one too, which is also nice.
-.O New High Life
Unfortunately my pomp didn’t stay that tall all day. But it did stay a nice medium pomp once I recombed my hair. It wasn’t as easy to recomb as the old one though. I had to really try to get my little pocket comb to go through my hair. But once I got it where I wanted it, it didn’t move at all for the rest of the day. Looks like I got another solid go to for next summer! The second day I had to add a grease to my hair in order to comb it. With the build up and what I added it was just too hard to comb. The grease didn’t compromise the hold at all, just gave me lots of shine. Most likely I will always use a little grease with it in the future to make it easier to work with.
I can highly recommend High Life Heavy pomade. They’re great heavy pomades with awesome hold. The old one will be pretty hard to find, so if you find one snag it like there’s no tomorrow! It’s more than worth the money you’ll pay for it. Next will be the VooDoo Brews by High Life, and maybe some of the old private labels Adam made for people!
Get greasy!