American Crew: Helping Dads Look Cool from GoFatherhood®

Growing up in Southern California, I spent a lot of my formative years on the beach and grew to have an appreciation for longer hair on guys. All these years later, I still eschew a crewcut or super short haircut in favor of wearing my hair longer, but that involves some level of work and commitment so that I don’t look too much like a mad scientist when I leave the house.

And I’m not alone. The “hipster” movement has made beards trendy, big, full, bushy beards. I find that a bit suspicious on guys, however, but hair is definitely trendier for men now than it has been in many decades. That’s good if, like me, you actually want to do something other than shave your head or have that 1/4″ crewcut, showing your oddly shaped noggin’ to the world at large.

As a father, though, the trick is to find the balance between your desired look and the fact that you have basically zero time to yourself for grooming and some mornings it’s all you can accomplish to actually clean your teeth before it’s full-on dad time!

Enter the popular professional men’s grooming brand American Crew®. Based in San Diego, California, the company makes a huge range of hair products and when they launched “The King of Men’s Grooming™” line branded with Elvis Presley™, I was definitely curious to try ’em out. Ya see, there are a very small number of men who are known for their appearance and Elvis, well, particularly in the heyday of his career, was an unquestionable icon, an extraordinarily handsome man with, yes, a whole lotta hair.

Check out the beautiful photo of Elvis on this product, “Fiber™”:

I have to be candid here, I own all the Elvis movies too and while they’re sappy and entirely predictable, he exudes charm and charisma throughout, making them great entertainment.

American Crew® sent me the entire line of their best-selling Elvis packaged products, all in what they call their “puck” design:

I use Molding Clay, as I’ll show in a moment, but the other ones? I was a bit stymied by what exactly differentiated these and how they’d be used, so here’s the official word from the team:

Fiber is a high hold, low shine product that thickens and increases fullness. Pomade offers smooth control, shine and a pliable hold, an alternative to styling gels. Molding Clay offers all day hold and medium shine, ideal for active men. Forming Cream helps make hair look thicker, offers all-day hold and a natural shine. Grooming Cream is high hold, high shine, offering a straight, sleek look, and, finally, Defining Paste adds texture and definition to hair.

Got all that? Here’s how it works: On the left is my bed head, tired, superdad staring a bit glassy-eyed in the mirror, realizing I only have a minute or two before I need to get started making breakfast, and on the right is me 30 seconds later, having used a pea-sized amount of the product to tame my hair, and a quick brush:

I still look tired – and am still dreaming of a hammock in the shade just a few feet from the lapping waves of the ocean – but my hair’s gone from unkempt to, well, kempt.

Here’s the specific product I used:

I don’t end up looking like the King of Rock ‘n Roll, unfortunately, but when it’s a matter of ‘Go! Go! Go, Daaaaaaad!’ Having this as a quick and effective solution is a great thing. And it’s really easy to work with: just dig a tiny bit out with your finger, then spread it evenly on both palms and run your hands through your hair. Then comb/brush. Done. Easy enough!

Haven’t yet experimented with all of the other haircare products that the company sent me, but I have to say that I really like the Molding Clay because it’s fast and easy to work with, whether I’ve just gotten out of the shower and I’m inadvertently doing my Einstein impersonation or whether I’m just trying to tame bedhead in the few seconds I have to spare of a morning.

American Crew® also makes a range of other products too, including 3-in-1 Tea Tree, a shampoo, conditioner and body wash. All in the same bottle. Again, pretty darn handy, and it’d be perfect for me to toss into my gym bag rather than use the industrial strength soap that they stock! You can learn more about the company’s offerings at AmericanCrew.com or you can just ask your local hair stylist about ’em.

Disclosure: American Crew sent me a wide range of products to try out for the purposes of this writeup. They did not, however, send me all the Elvis movies on Blu-Ray. We need to talk.