BRILL CREAM! (Brylcreem Original Gel)

Member Name: DJBorley

Product:	Brylcreem Original Gel
Date:	03/04/05 (5406 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Performs well

Disadvantages: Can be sticky

Picture the scene: It’s a Monday morning, the heat of the impending Summer has prevented you from getting a decent nights sleep for the best part of a week. A distant noise wakes you, and you realise that it’s the radio alarm, which you normally wake up before it goes off. You look over at the clock. 8.30am is still early, and it would be bad enough getting up this time on a weekend, but realisation hits you fast as you realise that you should have been up out of bed a good hour and a half ago.

Ok, let’s pause there.

Something has to give here, right? Do you preen and clean and show up late for work (on a Monday too, don’t forget. What a terrible way to start your week.) Or do you look for shortcuts? Yep, you’ve guessed it. You’re in the bath, taps running, bowl of cereal in hand before diving out of the bathroom, toothbrush in mouth, trying to find your wallet, mouthwashing as you run down the stairs before spitting the green minty liquid onto your front garden flowerbed as you fly down the road to your car. No time to brush the hair, so you spit in your hand and brush your hair flat, hoping that you hocked up enough phlegm to hold it in place.

Let’s be honest, your week is only going to go downhill from here, isn’t it?

So what exactly am I getting to anyway? Well, believe it or not, this is actually an op on Brylcreem. You see, nothing has that “held-in-place-by-phlegm” quality as much as Brylcreem. Except maybe phlegm itself.

This gel is also a far more pleasant colour as it is a kind of aqua-marine green and smells very similar to all other Brylcreem gels, which is a clean “shower fresh” kind of smell. Opening it again and taking a quick sniff to make sure that my memory serves me correct, I‘m actually quite surprised that the smell now reminds me of paint. Hmmm, that doesn’t seem right. Another quick inhalation confirms this negative smell, though squeezing the gel out onto my hand (ewwww, slimey) and once again I would describe the smell again as fresh.

The gel is, as I mentioned above, a light green in colour, and, being a gel, is somewhat slimey. It’s texture is sticky, and it moves slowly if I roll my hand around, similar to cold syrup on a spoon. Rubbing my hands together, in order to apply the gel, and not in anticipation, the gel feels smooth beneath my fingers, and is easy to smooth through my hair. Checking the back of the rather funky packaging, I’m told quite simply that the only instructions are: “Put it in your hair, style it, go out!” Simple enough, and it seems to work too.

Applied to either wet hair, which takes less gel to achieve a decent hold, or to dry hair, this particular gel, which is marked 3 out of 4 on the “Brylcreem hold scale” is an “Endurance Hold” It will probably come as no surprise to learn that there are three other gels in this series – Two that are less effective, one that is more so.

Tesco.com have this for a whopping £3.18 for 150ml tube, which I think is fairly expensive, and is an example of paying for a named brand. I’ve no doubt that a lesser-known brand would perform just as well, though that being said, I know and trust the Brylcreem brand, and it lasts well, so it’s always my first choice.

Surprisingly, as Brylcreem is still trying to shed it’s 50s / 60s image which conjures up ideas of rockers and Teddy Boys, this looks modern, and the company has obviously thought hard about it’s image. With a pleasant smell and an effective hold, there’s now no shame of admitting that you are a Brylcreem user (unless David Beckham starts advertising it again, of course!)

Made in the UK by the same woman that makes those cakes, Sara Lee (She must work real hard, huh?!), it’s main ingredient is unsurprisingly water, which always makes me feel that we’re paying over the top for a product. That being said, the tube holds 150ml of gel, and it seems to last a few months, though granted my hair isn’t particularly long, so not a great deal gets used each time.

There are downsides to using this, though I dare say that they don’t just apply to Brylcreem. Firstly, too much can make you hair sticky, and your scalp seem flaky (it’s probably not dandruff but dry gel, believe it or not. Well, that’s MY excuse and I’m sticking to it!) Secondly, if you use this every day and don’t wash your hair at least every other day, your hair will start to smell. The last thing that I’ve noticed, which is an age old problem for gel-makers of the world is that, despite working well and holding its own in all weathers, it’s still unable to stop the familiar cry of “Just don’t touch the hair!”, as it’s no match to a hand being run through it!

Overall I’d rate this four stars. It loses a star for being so dear, and it would lose another star for not passing the “run hand through hair” test, but I’ve decided not to dock a star for this as I’ve yet to know any other brand pass this test with setting your hair like superglue!

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