On Friday, June 19, 2020 at 12:31:58 PM UTC-7, Patrick Moore wrote: > > Butch Wax is quite a bit more waxy and far less greasy than pomade; it was > made for the crew cuts popular in the '50s and early '60s, to make the hair > stand up. But it works to keep 3/4" long hair down, too. Pomade was > basically scented Vaseline. > > I am old enough, and lived in places that were backward enough, to have > used real pomade -- as an 11 year old boy in Bangalore in 1966, when I > started getting fashion conscious and let my hair grow out to combable > length (1.5") instead of the #2 guard buzz cuts my father would give my > brother and I every 2 weeks in the bathtub. Bangalore in 1966 was like the > US -- or better, Britain -- in 1950*, and you could still buy locally > manufactured, florally-scented grease for your hair. I thought it was > stylin'. > > *Long before it became part of the Indian Silicon Valley it had been a > British Indian Army cantonment town (3,000 feet above sea level, thus a bit > cooler in the horrible hot and immediately pre-monsoon seasons); in 1966 it > still had something of this flavor, rather mildewed. >
Patrick, your story reminded me of an old classmate. We never kept in touch after school, and I don't even remember his name, but I remember his hair. It was medium-long, and nothing special, except he always used so much strong gel that it formed a rigid structure on his head. One time, it started raining when we were running a 2.4km loop during PE. Lo and behold, he came back soaked but with his hair almost intact. We were laughing that his time was so good because his gelled hair made a peak/brim that allowed his unfair advantage of being able to see where he was going in the torrential rain. PS: After I typed out my story, I suddenly remembered the hair styling product *Brylcreem* (no, I never used it). It's not butch wax, nor pomade, but a quick look at its Wiki page indicated that it's an emulsion of water and mineral oil stabilized with *beeswax*. Yet another use for beeswax! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/38690425-4122-461c-8bb7-03840a51b95ao%40googlegroups.com.
