One of the hairstyles that gains popularity now again is the slick back hairstyle. It is a hairstyle that we have seen in the early 1900 and then came back again now and then. It reminds me always of Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street where Michael Douglas is leading with his strategy and winnings.
Slick back for Asian hair
For Asian men this hairstyle is not as easy as it looks like as our hair is tougher and straight, and does not accommodate a natural slick back without use of any hair product. But even with the hardest gel, it is a guaranteed hairdo you can expect after a few combs.
So, after trying out, I show here a ways to do slick back for cases when you have thick hair:
1) First step is to make you hair wet, not soaked, but a bit wetter than towel dry. If you just come out of the shower, dry it once with a towl. Or just wet your hands and put some water in your hair. It should be wet enough that once combes it shapes to what you want it to be. But for now, do not comb or touch it.
2) Then, if you want to do the slick back very tight without any volume, than take with a fingerpoint some (preferably) wax or other hairproduct and warm it up in both hands. Without combing, put it on top of your hair, moving your hair forward. You do not have to put your fingers through your hair, but with the flat palm you push your hair. Do it 5-7 times till most of the hairproduct is put on the hair. If you want more volume and less strong, you can skip this step.
3) Once your hair is forward, then rub again a finger of wax in your hands and with your waxed hands move your hair backwards. Again, do not use your fingers through your hair, but use the palms with wax and push your hair backwards away from your face. Do not use too much hair product as otherwise your hair it may become very stuck to each other.
4) Once you have your hair backwards, use a comb to comb it neatly backwards. Do only use 1 or 2 strokes for each part of your hair, to avoid combing out the wax.
5) Now touch once more with your hands that still have some wax in it to slide it over your hair backwards to spread a bit your hair and to give it its final fixture. If you want a bit of volume, use your fingers to spread your hair a bit. But if you want it to be flat against your head, then just use the palms of your hands. Just do it once, not multiple times to avoid losing its strength.
Hair length
Obviously if your hair is too short, it will be difficult to comb back your hair. Best length is to have at least minimum hair length of a thumb.
Hair Product
As a hair product, you can use gel with a very hard fixture without shine. Gel is easier to wash out, but is typically not as strong as wax, so you may not be able to comb it that close to your head and will loose shape during the day. Typically price range is directly linked to quality and best guidance is to ask a hair dresser what he/she would recommend. It is ideal if you already have longer hair, but if your hair is short (less than thumb length), gel may not be the best product.
Wax is harder, but look for one that is water-based, so you do not have trouble washing it out. There are some good wax products in the market. You need to warm it up with rubbing it in between the palms of your hands but it will shape your hair stronger during the day. Try to avoid wax that have perfume or smell, because if you apply too much, the odor will hang around you.
If you have much longer hair (much longer than thumb), you can use hair clay, that is easy to apply and wash out. But for short and medium hair, better is to use wax or gel.