Without styling products, this would be one ugly world. Sure, some of us are born with perfectly shiny tresses of golden or chocolatey curls, but the rest of us need a little help making the best of what our parents bequeathed us.

Just because you were born with straight, fine, lustreless hair doesn’t mean you have to like it. No, modern science has given us a wondrous array of pomades, putties, creams, gels, mousses, sprays and powders to make our hair into the technicolor dream each of us has imagined.

Now, the only question that remains is, how do you go about choosing from the countless options? We figured perhaps a few of our local stylists could lend us a word of advice. So, we asked them what their favorite styling product was. For fun, we also asked them what was the strangest haircut they were ever asked to create. Unfortunately, they all answered the same thing: A mullet. So, call it business in front and a party in the back if you want, but according to the following stylists, there’s nothing funny about ordering a mullet at the salon.

“Kenra Platinum Line. The reason I love it is because I have a lot of customers that love body, shine and texture. And the pack is really pretty, which always counts.”

Liza Strome, Studio 355

“Pureology Dry Shine and Styler. You can use it on dry or wet hair for piecing out layers. You can use it for long or for short hair, too.”

Amy Sleeman, The Rage

“Cat Walk Curls Rock for curly hair by Tigi. (I like) the opportunity it gives people with frizzy hair to lock down the curls and provide lots of texture.”

Stan Robinson, Studio 355

“I like Redken and Pureology. I like Redken because it’s cost effective and works on all types of hair. Pureology because they don’t do animal testing, and they smell really good, and they work really good for colored hair.”

Hillary Boje, Studio 355

Hairy wisdom

Finally, we leave you with some famous quotes about hair from the movies. And really, who better to comment on the state of style than Hollywood? The film industry often seems to think of little else.

“Well, it didn't look like a two-horse town, but try finding a decent hair jelly.”

George Clooney as Ulysses Everett McGill in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

“Would ya just watch the hair. Ya know, I work on my hair a long time and you hit it. He hits my hair.”

John Travolta as Tony Manero in “Saturday Night Fever”

“Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair, shining gleaming streaming flaxen waxen. Give me it down to there, hair ...”

The Chorus from the motion picture ‘Hair’

Compiled by Jake TenPas