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Avoid pomades and gels like the plague, consider hair wax, but go ahead with hair cream.
One of this includes watching what kind of hair product to use, as that can make all the difference when you might not be working with very much hair to begin with.
Men with thinning hair should avoid products that give a sheen to the hair. "When you have shiny products, you're going to have light reflecting off the product," Diana Schmidtke, a Los Angeles-based stylist, told the Wall Street Journal.
Light reflecting is bad, she says, because the object is to block and absorb light and stop it from highlighting the bare spots on your scalp.
So this knocks out pomades and gels, which also have a nasty habit of clumping together and making hair loss more obvious.
The next product for consideration is hair wax, which is typically a great option for men with shorter hair who want high hold and low shine. Men who are losing their hair should probably avoid hair wax, however, because it's sticky and not very pliable. While it can add weight and body to your hair, you may end up ripping out a lot of the more brittle hairs on your scalp just by trying to work it into your hair.
So that leaves hair cream, which is gentler on the hair, but still offers some of the hold that hair wax would. Styling cream will leave your hair light and manageable, giving it much-needed movement and body, which is especially important when it is thinning out. That's why we recommend it the most for men with thinning hair.
"[Styling cream] replicates the natural oils that your body produces so it gives you that 'three-day' dirty look right out of the shower," Riki Bryan, head of marketing for New York City- and San Francisco-based barber chain Fellow Barber, told Business Insider.
In short, it offers a light shine with a light hold, and it takes care of the frizz and unruliness in your hair.
Men's-focused creams like the Fellow Barber's Styling Cream and Malin + Goetz's sage styling cream are excellent choices. For a cheap alternative, even Axe makes a decent version.