Clay, Cream, Pomade, or Paste? A Barber's Guide to Choosing Your Style

A man will spend thirty minutes choosing a haircut and thirty seconds choosing what holds it. Then he wonders why the style never looks the way it did in the chair.

Most of the time the cut is fine. The product is wrong, or the right product is being used the wrong way. Clay, cream, pomade, and paste are not interchangeable. Each one is built for a different finish, a different hold, and a different kind of hair. Here is how our barbers decide, and how you can decide the same way at home.

Start with two questions

Before the product, answer two things. First, how much shine do you want, from none to high gloss. Second, how much your style needs to move through the day. Those two answers point you to one of four places.

Pomade: high shine, sharp control

Pomade is the classic barbershop finish. High gloss and firm control, made for slick-backs, side parts, and anything that should look deliberate. The old formulas were oil based and stayed in the hair until they were scrubbed out. Ours is water soluble, so you get the same sharp, polished look and it rinses clean with no residue. Use it on damp or dry hair, a small amount worked through the palms first, then combed for definition.

Reach for: the Deluxe Pomade.

Clay: matte, all-day hold, natural look

Clay is for the man who wants his hair to hold without looking held. It gives a strong, pliable grip with no shine at all, which is why it suits textured crops, messy fringes, and modern short styles. Because it is matte, it reads as your own hair on a good day rather than a styled look. Work it between dry palms and push the hair into shape rather than combing it.

Reach for: the Dry Matte Clay.

Paste: the versatile middle

If you are not sure where to start, start with paste. It sits in the middle: medium hold, natural finish, no stiffness. It adds body to finer hair and lets you piece out thicker hair, and it stays reworkable through the day so you can reset the style without starting over.

Reach for: the Texture Paste, the most versatile product in the line.

Cream: soft control, everyday polish

Cream is the everyday option for classic cuts that want to look neat, not sculpted. A defining cream gives you control without the stiffness of a stronger hold, and keeps the hair soft to the touch. It is the product to keep a good haircut looking its best between visits. For soft, natural shine, the Molding Cream does the same job with a touch more polish.

Reach for: the Defining Cream.

What about texture and volume?

Two more tools solve two common problems. If your hair is fine and falls flat, a pinch of Volumising Dust at the roots lifts it without any weight or residue. If you want loose, lived-in texture rather than hold, the Sea Salt Spray builds that raw, air-dried look, and the Texture Spray sets a finished style fast and locks out humidity.

The step most men skip

Product performs on hair that is actually clean. Buildup dulls shine, weakens hold, and coats the scalp. A proper wash is part of the ritual, not separate from it. We use a tea tree formula for a scalp that feels genuinely clean, and an argan formula when the hair is dry or coarse. Whichever you choose, that clean base is what lets everything above it work.

The rule our barbers follow

When in doubt, use less than you think and add. Warm the product between your palms first so it spreads evenly and never lands in one heavy patch. Style hair that is damp for shine or dry for texture. And match the product to the finish you actually want, not the one on the label of whatever you bought last. Get those four right and the style holds the way it did when you left the chair.

Explore the full Hair collection, or book a visit and let one of our barbers choose for you.