TIGI bed head Matte Separation VS Hairbond Gripper Leave a comment

This time we go head to head with two of the most popular UK hair styling products from two of the UK’s biggest hair styling brands, both in fact launched by professional hairdressers. We want to know which is better, by ranking them out of five across seven categories. Today we will be testing the TIGI bed head Matte Separation VS Hairbond Gripper

TIGI

TIGI as founded by the famous Tony and Guy hairdresser, Anthony Mascolo, launched products with fellow hairdressers in mind. Within the Bed Head For Men collection, we noticed Matte Separation is their best selling hair styling product. Today this huge corporate brand has dominated the most affordable proportion of the market for a number of years now. With thousands of sellers at their fingertips like supermarkets, discount shops, as well as hair salons, the whole Bed Head brand was designed to be a low cost, high volume mass-market brand.

“WHEN WE COULDN’T FIND THE PRODUCTS WE WANTED, WE MADE THEM OURSELVES.”

“TIGI founder, award-winning, iconic hairdresser, Anthony Mascolo has created a unique culture: a family-orientated hub of creatives who share his ethos of pushing the boundaries and technical know-how to benefit themselves and other professional hairdressers. It’s about sharing everything through TIGI education, exciting the audience through shows and artistic imagery. TIGI understand and interpret fashion to create hairstyles hairdressers will want to recreate and their clients will love to wear, using TIGI products to enhance the cut, colour, style and finish.”

Hairbond United Kingdom

Hairbond United Kingdom was also originally founded by a professional hairdresser and barber Scott Michaels.

Unlike TIGI, Scott stated his original focus was to only provide the best quality hair styling products Britain could manufacture, whatever the cost. Since then Hairbond products have been carefully crafted to be loved by the masses, at the premium end of the market.

With the brand like Hairbond representing at the quality end of the market, the male grooming industry has certainly evolved with more of us realising low price points aren’t everything if there’s a level of quality you don’t mind paying for. This is why Hairbond hair styling products are so popular today.

Hairbond United Kingdom AKA “The Premier League of Hair Styling” has rapidly grown with endorsements from thousands of celebrities over the years. The “Premier League” is a reference due to the amount of famous International footballers who use and promote it like England’s Jamie Vardy, Jordan Pickford, Harry Winks, Michael Owen etc, the list of footballers goes on.

Hairbond United Kingdom 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, you must 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.”

OK now we’re ready for marking, each category will be ranked a score out of five, first up is the Hairbond Gripper Professional Hair Pomade

Hairbond United Kingdom Gripper Professional Hair Pomade

Packaging:

Attractive packaging! Sparkle in lit up areas. Premium quality levels. Attention to detail. Probably the best in the business 5/5

Application:

The Hairbond Gripper is so smooth. This water-based pomade is so easy to apply. I prefer applying to damp towel dry hair for a slicker finish. 5/5

Finish:

When you prepare your hair damp it adds more shine to the look. You love pomade but not into shiny hair? Just apply to dry hair. If you have a coarse or thick curly hair type, you may want to add small amounts to dry hair. 5/5

Consistency:

Something inbetween a jelly and a gel. 5/5

Hold:

It is labelled as 4 notches out of 5 for hold. As mentioned this can fluctuate depending on how you prepare your hair. 4/5

Overall:

4.5/5

What They Say

“With a mouth-watering cola cube fruity fragrance, this product might remind you of some of the thirst-quenching sweets you had as a kid. Depending on how much is used and how the hair is prepared, different levels of shine can be achieved to best suit the hairstyle. To use, simply start with a small amount in your palms and then apply to your hair and style however you desire.

For a lower hold and high shine, give your hair a towel dry keeping some of the moisture in after rinsing, or for a higher hold and lower shine, you could blow-dry the hair first before applying the pomade.

The Hairbond Gripper Pomade has a nice 4/5 hold factor, making it ideal for controlling and styling even the curliest, thickest or coarsest hair. It’s strong enough to allow you to work high hairstyles and it’s paraben-free, meaning high, healthy, styled hair!  You will find the Hairbond Gripper Pomade in any top barbers arsenal/toolbox as the pomade’s versatility is perfect for finishing off their freshest work giving their clients a well-groomed, smart appearance.”

Up next is the TIGI bed head Matte Separation!

TIGI Bed Head Matte Separation

TIGI bed head Matte Separation Packaging:

Budget. Even at the price point I still feel the packaging is too cheap. 1/5

Application:

I’ve recently had my hair cut shorter and the application was better than before when I had a longer style. Still some tug and pull but not as bad 2/5

Finish:

It was actually more of a sticky cream which meant the finish was a bit wetter than I was hoping for especially when it’s supposed to be a matte separator! 2/5

Consistency:

Tacky. Thinner than expected as a matte separation product 2/5

Hold:

Not bad. 3/5

Overall:

2/5. Room for improvements.

What They Say

“Style hair with texture and definition with the Bed Head for Men Matte Separation Hair Wax. This strong hold hair wax adds hold, texture, separation and definition to styled hair. The hair wax has a natural matte finish and resists humidity for long-lasting hair styling. The Matte Separation Hair Wax is the most popular Bed Head for Men product globally.

Ideal for styling short to medium hair. Apply the hair wax to towel-dried or dry hair, then style and create extra detail with fingers. Top tip: the drier your hair, the more matte the finish and the wetter the hair, the softer the results.

Formulated with Beeswax for hair amazing texture and hold, Cera Carnauba, a medium-weight wax that gives a long-lasting workable hold and Glycerine that moisturises, conditions and nourishes the hair.

The hair wax is 85 g and comes with Fresh Green Aromatic fragrance.

Apply to damp or dry hair for texture and hold”

TIGI bed head Matte Separation VS Hairbond Gripper WINNER

Our hand’s down winner is the Hairbond Gripper Professional Hair Pomade with a great near perfect score of 4.5/5 compared to TIGI matte separation scoring a disappointing 2/5.

Disappointed with the TIGI Matte Separation, the fact it was designed by a hairdresser, I expected much bigger differences from the supermarket labels but they weren’t there.

Anyway I hope this gave you a better insight!

Thanks for reading