King Brown Pomade

King Brown Pomade is an Australian men's grooming brand based in Burleigh Heads, on Queensland's Gold Coast. It makes hairstyling pomades and related grooming products aimed at the barbershop trade, and describes itself as an Australian-owned and Australian-manufactured company. The brand was started in 2013 by Dan Binskin and Daen Brown, two childhood friends, and remains active, having broadened beyond styling products into hair-care in 2024 [1].

The company's earliest product, the Original Pomade, was conceived as a traditional oil-based pomade and built around a single-product launch to Australian barbershops. From that beginning the range grew to span light- to heavy-hold styling products, and the brand carries the tagline "Ask for it by name."

King Brown Pomade was created by Dan Binskin and Daen Brown, who first met as children and reconnected in 2012 to develop a hairstyling product [2]. Binskin came from a marketing and fashion background, having run his own agency representing fashion and action-sports labels; Brown had spent years in the surf industry with companies including Quiksilver and DC Shoes before moving into the barbering scene around 2009. According to the founders, the opportunity arose because they felt the product offering in the barber market at the time was limited, and they set out to make a higher-quality, barber-specific alternative.

The brand's name has been explained by the founders in an interview with the stockist Lefty's Barbershop as a combination of "King," the maiden name of Binskin's wife Belinda, and co-founder Daen Brown's surname; the founders added that they wanted the brand to have a distinctly Australian feel [8]. (The phrase "king brown" is also colloquial Australian usage.) King Brown's own team page does not state the derivation, noting only that the name appears to combine the founders' surnames [2].

The company gives its starting point as mid-2013, after which it spent about 15 months on brand concept, design and sampling — 34 samples in all — before signing off on the Original Pomade [1]. The first product was released in September 2014; the founders say they travelled around Australia pitching the brand to 50 barbershops and that 48 of them pre-purchased the product ahead of that release. Some accounts, including the Lefty's interview, date the brand to its September 2014 launch rather than its 2013 origin [8].

After the Original Pomade, King Brown widened its range steadily through the second half of the 2010s. A water-based Premium Pomade followed in September 2015 and a Matte Pomade in December that year, the company crediting the matte shift to styling trends it had been observing in Europe. A lighter Cream Pomade arrived in December 2016, a Grooming Spray in March 2018, and the heavier-hold, heat-resistant Paste Pomade in November 2018 [1].

Through 2016 to 2018 the founders focused on expanding stockists and distribution, reporting visits to several hundred barbershops internationally and the establishment of distribution in New Zealand, Indonesia, Europe, the United States and Canada. In 2022 the company released a limited-edition Matte Pomade in collaboration with Indigenous artist Goompi Ugerabah, titled "Yarunya Jarrah" (Burning Off The Land), with tin artwork referencing traditional land-burning practices [1].

King Brown positions itself as a premium, barber-specific grooming brand, with a stated mission to "create premium quality grooming products that withstand time and trends." The company frames its outlook around community — summarised in the motto "locals supporting locals" — and, in the Lefty's interview, the founders described their aim as building "a premium brand that was inclusive not exclusive," accessible to a broad audience rather than positioned as exclusive [8].

The brand's core line is its range of styling pomades, differentiated chiefly by hold and finish: the oil-and-beeswax Original Pomade, the water-based Premium Pomade, the dry-finish Matte Pomade, the lighter Cream Pomade, the heavy-hold Paste Pomade, a Powder Wax and a Grooming Spray. Several products draw on native Australian botanicals; the founders cite lemon myrtle and sandalwood in the Cream Pomade and native vernal grasses in the Matte Pomade [8]. Product copy reproduced by the Australian retailer Beard & Blade lists the Original Pomade's scent as a mild tobacco and vanilla blend and, because it contains beeswax, notes that the formula is not vegan [7].

In 2024 the company moved beyond styling with the King Brown Hair Thickening System, a regimen of shampoo, conditioner or serum and a styling powder intended to support thicker-looking hair [1]. The brand identifies its primary active as Procapil, which it describes as clinically proven to increase hair growth and reduce hair loss, and states that the products help block the effects of DHT and are made with clinically proven botanical actives [4]. King Brown says the thickening range was developed in an FDA-approved facility and advises that visible results typically require around three months of consistent use.

In an independent review, the grooming site Compare Grooming assessed the Cream Pomade as suited to men with fine hair and to casual, natural-looking styles rather than all-day hold, rating its finish highly for a natural look [9].

King Brown Pomade is active. Its most recent major launch was the 2024 Hair Thickening System, and the company's site refers to further projects planned for 2025 [1]. The brand remains Australian-owned and manufactured and sells both domestically and through distribution networks in markets including New Zealand, Europe, the United States and Canada.