Hey guys, back with the next one up in the High Life line. Adam recently sold High Life to DAX so if you collect and can find some of the old HL pomades, buy em! However, now that they’re being made by the awesome folks over at DAX, you know they’re going to be great, quality pomades. Not that they weren’t before, but DAX is big time manufacturing, so they will be refined a bit. Being that a new company is making them I am trying something unprecedented in the pomade review world. I am going to be doing a side-by-side review of the old and the new. Let’s see how I do with this.

The old pomade comes in the exact same tin as the light did. A 3oz slipcover stainless tin with an indented lid. The new pomade comes in a slightly larger tin. A 4oz slipcover stainless tin with a raised lid. They both have the same lid label and can wrap. It’s a tan background with black writing and red accents. In the center of the lid label is a red circle with “High Life” written across it. Above it says “high quality” and below it says “hair dressing.” Just underneath the name is “medium.” The can wrap has a red ring in the center with “High Life” across it. Then at the bottom is their website. I’ve always dug the simple classic look of these labels, they’re just really cool looking.

When you pull off the lids you see the next difference. The old pomade is a cream colored waxy looking pomade. The new one is much whiter and has a more greasy look to it. It kind of looks a little a white version of DAX’s green and gold. Will they hold differently? We will soon see, but I know they will be different textures just by looking at them. Another difference between the two is the scent and strength of it. The old one is a very strong creamy vanilla scent. The new one is a more mellowed out mainstream vanilla scent. Kind of like vanilla lotion or something like that. It’s still a great scent, it’s just not quite as strong and distinct as the old pomade’s scent. This new one is more familiar to me, like I’ve smelled it before somewhere. Either way, they’re both great scents.

Now for the scoop test. I am going to start with the original first. Just as I thought, it has I nice medium-heavy waxy feel to it. It scoops out nice and easy though, easier than I expected. It kind of ripples when you dig it out, but they’re not small ripples. There were only 3 in one scoop. The new one scooped out about the same as DAX’s green and gold pomade does. I’m not that surprised, since it kind of looks like it. It was a tad bit lighter and had more of a wispy pull to it. The pomade stuck together and had about a 2 1/2″ tail on the end of my scoop. It’s kind of hard to see, because it kind if wrapped around my finger.

So, they’re totally different texture wise, how will they break down in my hands? Surprisingly they spread around in your hands the exact same. I know, kind of weird huh? Two totally different textures end up the exact same in your hands. However, I look at that as a good sign. Not that it needs to be said, but DAX sure knows what they’re doing. I’m pretty excited to see if they work and hold the same in my hair. What I’m going to do is try out the old pomade for a few days and then switch to the new one.

The old one goes in your hair more like a heavy pomade does. Kind of a higher resistance as you run your hands over your hair at first. The more I worked it around with my hands, the easier it felt in my hair. Even though it has a stronger resistance in your hair, it combs fairly easy. Not nearly as much resistance when I combed it as I thought it was going to have when I first applied it to my hair. And combing a pomp was really easy. Just about as easy as it was with the light. I ended up getting quite a bit more height with it than I did with the light, as to be expected. It didn’t have as much shine to it as the light did, but it still had some to it, which is nice.

Old High Life Medium

I really like the way that this pomade makes my hair look. It gives my hair a nice full and healthy look. And my hair has a nice feel to it with this pomade in it. I got quite a few comments on the look and smell of my hair throughout the day. And that’s always a good thing. In the AZ hear this pomade did slightly soften and my pomp kind of suffered because of the heat. However, it did recomb very easily and went right back into place.

The next day was even better, I didn’t have to add hardly any pomade to my hair. And the build up was almost perfect with this one. I liked it even better the second day. Much more control, a little more shine and a little more height. It didn’t quite soften up as much the second day either. I did have to recomb it once and it did recomb even better the second day than it did the first.

Now for the new pomade. This one goes in quite a bit more difficult than the old one. It kind of reminds me of Murray’s. And trying to work it around with my hands didn’t really make a difference. It was still pretty hard to work into my hair with my hands. So I reached for my comb thinking maybe it would comb as easy as the old one did. Nope. The stuff combs pretty difficultly. It took me a long time to get it worked in, because I had to comb in short strokes. It was harder than combing Murray’s for sure. However, despite it being difficult to comb and work into my hair, it didn’t rip any of my hairs out. That’s definitely a good thing.

New High Life Medium

Once I got it worked into my hair, it started to became easier to work with. I was able to get a nice sharp part going with this stuff. And you can get a little more height with the new medium. There isn’t a huge difference, but you do get about half an inch to an inch more height with this new one. I did notice that the shine is a little bit higher on this one as well. I am definitely liking that! Let’s see how this one holds up in the heat.

Unfortunately, the dry Arizona heat melted this pomade very quickly. After being outside for about 30 minutes the left side of my pomp sunk in and the right side split where my cowlick is. Bummer dude! Another unfortunate thing was that I was out running errands. So I couldn’t just go back inside and leave it, my hair had to stay all softened up. So I quickly pulled out my comb and just kind of combed my hair back since I could not rock a pomp.

The second day, like with the old one, I didn’t have to add very much pomade. The buildup was very nice, but it still combed pretty difficultly. I’m not one for pomades that are hard to comb, but because this one makes my hair look so good I will definitely make an exception. I didn’t have to be out in the heat very much the second day, so I noticed a lot more stay in regards to my pomp. I didn’t even have to recomb it at all that day. Another thing that I noticed, is that this pomade takes little more work to get out of your hair than the old one did. But no matter, I make a degreasing shampoo that gets anything out in one wash. So when it didn’t come out the first time, I just threw my shampoo and boom, it was gone.

So what’s my conclusion? Well for the old one, it’s a great pomade. If you can find some, BUY IT!!! For the new one, it’s a great pomade. It is a little hard to comb, but other than that the pomade does a great job in your hair. So buy some! Since I have all of the old ones and I will be buying the new ones soon, each review from now on will be a side-by-side review. That way you guys don’t have to read two separate reviews on the same product. The only ones that will not be like that are the old special edition pomades made by High Life.

Live the high life fellas,

-JC