Three products

You need a shampoo, a conditioner, and one styling product. Everything past that is a finish, not a fix.

The two failures that make good products work badly are the same in both directions: too much product, applied to hair that is too dry. A fingertip of paste on damp hair does what half a palm does on dry hair — and it does not weigh the hair down or leave it looking greasy by noon.

If a product is not working, change the amount before you change the product.

Four finishes, four different jobs. Choose by the finish you want, not by the strength of the hold.

Paste — matte, textural, medium hold. The default for short to mid-length hair that should look like it has not been styled.

Crème — light, natural, low hold. For longer hair, curls and anything that needs to move rather than set.

Gel — wet look, strong hold, and it sets hard. Right for a slicked finish, wrong for anything that should look soft.

Pomade — shine and reworkability. It stays soft, so it can be re-shaped through the day, which also means it transfers.

A shampoo cleans the scalp. That is the job, and no shampoo regrows hair — the ones that claim to are selling the same false promise as a scalp treatment that promises density.

What a shampoo can do is stop making things worse: a gentle one that rinses clean leaves the scalp in better condition than a strong one used daily, and a scalp that is not irritated is a scalp that is not adding a problem to the one you already have.

Wash when the hair needs it, not on a schedule. For most men that is every other day, and less in winter.

A fingertip of paste or crème, warmed between the palms, applied to towel-damp hair. Start at the back and the sides, finish at the front — the front is where product shows first and where it is easiest to over-apply.

Then stop touching it. Most of what looks wrong at 10 a.m. was decided at 7 a.m. by hands going back through the hair.