The word pomade connects the modern barbershop to an ancient Roman orchard. It derives from the French pommade, which came from Italian pomata, itself rooted in the Latin pomum, meaning apple or fruit. The connection is not merely linguistic: early pomades were genuinely made from mashed apple pulp mixed with animal fat, creating a fragrant, moldable substance for dressing hair.
The use of fruit-based preparations for hair and skin care has ancient precedents. Roman and medieval apothecaries regularly incorporated fruit extracts into their ointments and cosmetics. The apple, with its naturally occurring pectin and mild fragrance, was a logical choice for a hair dressing that needed to hold shape while remaining pleasant to smell. The Italian pomata specifically referred to an ointment made with apple pulp, and when French adopted the word as pommade, the apple connection remained transparent to anyone familiar with the French word pomme (apple).
English borrowed pomade in the mid-sixteenth century, during a period when continental grooming practices were influencing English fashion. The Elizabethan court adopted many French and Italian customs, including elaborate hairstyling, and the vocabulary of personal care followed. Pomade joined other borrowed grooming terms like cologne, cosmetic, and coiffure in the expanding English lexicon of personal appearance.
By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, pomade had evolved far from its apple-based origins. Bear grease became the preferred base, valued for its ability to hold elaborate hairstyles in place. The towering wigs and powdered coiffures of the Georgian era required substantial amounts of pomade, making it a significant commodity. Perfumers added various scents — lavender, bergamot, and vanilla — to mask the animal
The nineteenth century saw pomade reach new heights of popularity and variety. Petroleum-based products began replacing animal fats, and commercial brands multiplied. The slicked-back hairstyles of the early twentieth century depended entirely on pomade, and the product became associated with masculine grooming in a way that persists today.
The modern pomade revival, driven by vintage and rockabilly styling trends, has brought the word back into everyday use after a period of decline during the 1970s and 1980s, when natural, unstyled hair was fashionable. Contemporary pomades come in water-based and oil-based varieties, with the water-based versions representing perhaps the furthest evolution from the original apple-and-fat recipe.
The etymological family of pomade is surprisingly large. Pomegranate literally means apple of many seeds (from Latin pomum granatum). The French pomme de terre (apple of the earth) means potato. Pomerania, the Baltic region, may derive from a Slavic word meaning land by the sea, but its resemblance to the pomum family is coincidental.