Grooming Garage: Hair Stuff

Take a look at my cartoon avatar over there: not much hair, right? I'm 50, and the gene for baldness is part of my genetic makeup. That's how it goes. But what hair I do have is stubborn and wavy, and if I don't do anything to it, it just frizzes out in whatever direction it feels like. If I didn't make some sort of effort to try to tame it, I would end up looking like someone you'd want to avoid on the subway.

So for starters, it stays short, and between haircuts I have to tend to it with a trimmer around my ears. For styling product, I have tried dozens of creams and gels in my life. None of them has been perfect; most have either too much hold, or not enough. The "too much" products tend to be too heavy and sticky, and plaster my hair down, making it look even thinner on top of my head.

For a long time I have used a small amount of a leave-in conditioner as a sort of primer or base coat that adds a bit of thickness to my hair, or at least the illusion of it. In some cases it helps other product take to my hair better. The stuff I use comes in a comically oversized 32-ounce container that costs around $7 or $8 at drug stores and Target, and since I use just a small amount each day, the container lasts me a year or so, on average.

I got pretty good results for a while with a gel from Redken's men's line called Grip Tight; they make a stronger-hold version, but I never tried it because I didn't think I needed extra hold. But I prefer creams to gels in general, because they tend to provide a comparable amount of hold while being lighter and less sticky. There was an inexpensive cream product from Garnier that worked pretty well, but as has happened to me before, it was discontinued.

About six months ago I came across something, either in a magazine or online, about a styling cream from a company called Malin + Goetz that makes apothecary products using natural ingredients. I had heard of the company, and had maybe even browsed their website once, and even knew they made hair care products, but somehow hadn't taken the leap to trying it. The easiest way for me to do that was with one of my drugstore.com orders (it's carried on their sibling site, beauty.com, and the two sites share a shopping bag and checkout).

The M+G cream has definitely been one of the best hair styling products I have used. It's light, not sticky, handles easily, and even smells nice (sage). It has given me satisfactory to above average results for my problem hair, so whatever is in it seems to work for me. It's not cheap; none of the M+G stuff is. The 4-ounce tube is $20 and lasted me almost five months, and now that I'm more familiar with how it works, I might be able to stretch that a bit.

In the past I've endeavored to find the least expensive products that worked for me, but after a lot of trial and error I have learned that when you find something that does work, it's worth it to stick with it.