We all love new to market hair styling products, don’t we? I’m excited to announce that this is an exclusive brand battle featuring the brand spanking new matte product, Hairbond Super Professional Hair Fibre which hasn’t even officially come out yet. The Hairbond Super Fibre is being launched alongside another new matte product, Hairbond Power Professional Hair Wax and they are likely to hit barbershop and salon shelves just in time for Christmas. The team at Hairbond have been kind enough to send me a couple of prototypes for testing in preparation for their big pre-Christmas launch party. What better way to compare them but to put them up against one of the most popular selling matte products on the market. Today we will fight it out, Slick Gorilla Powder VS Hairbond Super Professional Hair Fibre.

We will find out which product ranks better under evaluation from the 7 main categories, which include packaging, application, finish, consistency, hold, overall and what each brand has to say about their product.
What will rank higher? Will it be Hairbond’s new release, or the Slick Gorilla Powder?
Before we decide, lets check out who these brands are and what they claim.
Whilst Slick Gorilla is quite new to market, their success has grown from the growing trends and demands for matte hairstyles.
The Slick Gorilla brand is run from Leeds, UK. Whilst it is early days for the Yorkshire company, the Slick Gorilla range has started to evolve and diversify as they bring out more hair clays and creams.

Slick Gorilla Powder
“A new and emerging brand from the streets of downtown Leeds is about to hit the pavements – well hair, to be honest! We introduce to you the one and only Slick Gorilla. A hair brand created with the urban jungle in mind.
Our first product – one of many we’ll be launching – is a volumising hair powder to give your mane that stand out look. Slick Gorilla’s mantra is to create the best hair products for the discerning gentleman who wants to look great and survive in the urban jungle…
When only Slick will do!“
Hairbond United Kingdom on the other hand is much more established. A range which similarly only started with just a select few products over 12 years ago has gone on to dominate global demand now manufacturing a range of products suited to different hair types.
Unlike Slick Gorilla, Hairbond launched out of Lancashire when multi-brand owner Scott Michaels saw that a premium British label had the potential to represent the best-made quality hair styling products when it comes to world hair styling. Since then Hairbond products have been crafted to be loved by the masses.
Over the years Hairbond has gone from strength to strength with thousands of celebrity endorsements. Due to the amount of Premier League and International footballers who support it, Hairbond United Kingdom have become known as the “Premier League Of Hair Styling”.
Hairbond UK says
“Launched in 2008, Hairbond is an authentic British hair brand that produces professional hair products. The brand products are all as a result of progression, innovation, and expression. What Hairbond offers, no other hair brand can claim. It uses the best ingredients to formulate professional products that achieve creativity and style. Hairbond has won many awards across the globe, and rightfully so.
The Hairbond brand is distinctive and luxurious, trading all over the world as the number one men’s hair product. Hairbond’s mission is to bring together different world fashion into one world stage. Therefore, to get the right hair products to achieve your best results, buy Hairbond products.
The philosophy of Hairbond is as true today as the day it was founded. The Hairbond range has intended to deliver its promise of quality by maintaining the highest possible standards, using top of the range product formulations and ingredients to create an authentic British solution for the ultimate hairstyling results.”
Let’s take a look, each category will be marked out of 5, first up is the Hairbond Super Professional Hair Fibre!

Hairbond Super Professional Hair Fibre

Packaging:
Glad to see red back amongst the Hairbond collection. For those that don’t know, all Hairbond stylers come in the same packaging and mainly the products names and the colour of the font is different. These tubs are spectacular and breath a premium quality. They look better than anything else out there in my opinion. 5/5
Application:
This formulation has one major key ingredient which helps make the application process an absolute breeze. Keratin is a type of protein which actually makes your hair smoother and stronger. I’ve never seen this before in a hair fibre. Works great! 5/5
Finish:
Soft, matte look, use in conjunction with a hairdryer for best results. 5/5
Consistency:
The dark grey colour of the product makes you think this might be like concrete but I can assure you it’s extremely smooth and breaks down super easy. 5/5
Hold:
Strong 4/5 matte effect. 5/5
Overall:
5/5
What They Say
Lets see how the Slick Gorilla Powder can compete with that!

Slick Gorilla Hair Styling Texturising Powder

Packaging:
Tidy job. Like the black and white. The outer box has been nicely produced. Only gripe is the shaker comes half full. Although 20g is 20g whether it’s sat in a small shaker or a huge bucket, I can’t help but feel like I’ve been short changed. 4/5
Application:
The Slick Gorilla hair powder works well once you have managed to get it in your hair. Be careful not to waste any more than you need to during the application.
I ended up with white shoulders when trying to apply it whilst trying two different ways. The instructions say to put in the hand first, but I didn’t get even distribution.
The second way is to lightly shake it over your hair but be careful it can come out quickly and missing your head isn’t the most difficult thing to do. 2/5
Finish:
Once you have it where you want it, the volumous look and the results are decent. I do however believe that powders are just a prestyling tool for adding volume in the roots and that for the complete professional style you need something else like a matte clay or a mud to seal the deal for coating of the actual strands of hair. 3/5
Consistency:
A fine powder. 5/5
Hold:
Good hold alone but recommend working additionaly with a strong clay, mud or wax if hold is important to your style. 4/5
Overall:
4/5.
What They Say
“Put a small amount of powder on your palm or apply directly to dry hair
Mess it up and make sure the powder is distributed all over the styling area
Style your hair the way you want
Remember you can rework the powder later or simply add more to get the desired look”

And the winner is..

Scoring an impressive 5/5 overall, the new Hairbond Super Professional Hair Fibre will go far. On this occasion, it beats one of the best selling matte products on the market only ranking a high performing 4/5.
