Vintage cosmetic video – Wildroot Cream Oil is non-alcoholic

I realize it was the 1950’s but I still find the use of a talking dragon as a spokesperson for Wildroot Cream Oil to be very bizarre.

Interestingly the dragon claims that the cream oil is “non-alcoholic. (There’s no explanation of how the product can be both a “cream” and an “oil.”) Alcohol free is a good thing for hair care products provided that the following are true:

1. The alcohol in question is ethanol (because it can be drying to skin.) Fatty alcohols like cetyl and stearyl alcohol are actually good for hair.
2. The product is a leave on. If the alcohol is rinsed off the hair (or in the case of hairspray if it evaporates quickly) then there’s no harm to your hair or scalp.

I couldn’t locate a complete ingredient list (which is too bad because I’m dying to find out what the “wildroot” was). But I did find out that it contains mineral oil, microcrystalline wax, lanolin and beeswax which are standard grooming ingredients still used in pomades today.

But the nagging question remains: why does the Dragon keep calling the guy Charlie?