296. Lord of the Tangles: TARZAN HAIR PRODUCT LABELS

An essential to manly good grooming in the 50s is a thick dab of pomada on your hair to keep hair licks in place and give your mane a noticeably brilliant sheen. Pomades like Brilliantine, Glo-Co, Bryllcreem, Verbena and Three Flowers were the leading brands of the day--guaranteed to turn one into a Rudolph Valentino, Clark Gable, James Dean or Elvis Presley.

One other popular brands was TARZAN, which not only manufactured a pomade (the greasy stuff was bottled in a small clear glass with a an aluminum cap) but also a whole line of hair grooming products like quality hair tonics and lotions--as these colorful labels show. The graphics are bold, the colors brilliant and the illustrations art deco-ish.

The brand name makes an allusion to the shiny, elegant locks of the Lord of the Jungle, exemplified by Johnny Weissmuller, who swang from tree to tree--always with hair in place. But while Tarzan had a lush head, but have you ever noticed that he has non-existent facial hair? I wonder why.