This is the transcript of our Episode 3: Popular Pole Grip Aids and Why We Use Them from Pole On The Call that aired Thursday, January 20, 2022.
You can watch this episode on YouTube, or listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music, or your favorite podcast service.
Hi everyone it's me, Cris Rivers.
And I'm Mændy Mac.
And we are with Pole on the Call Podcast — and we are going into episode three already, about hand grips and why we use them!
All right different pole grips. So um why do we use them? Do we have to use them? And what the hell are they?
So when I first started poling as a Stripper, I did not use hand grips. I never heard of hand grips.
Yeah for some reason, we wiped the pole with alcohol, but we still did pretty good and made our money. It wasn't until I started actual pole fitness as a sport and as a lifestyle that I was introduced into it.
So why do we use them? Pretty much we use them to help us stick on the pole. y
Yeah that's probably like, the suckiest part of pole is like sliding down.
Yes and don't let the label confuse you, hand grip is not only for your hands. You can use it all over your body. Yes and there's some that are specifically just for your body, and some that are just for hands. But we'll go over the different types, at least the types that we have in front of us here.
Yes there are a couple different types that you will find. Let's see so do you want to go into the basic? And have your basic dry hands.
Dry hands it's probably like the yeah the basic one that everyone has heard about and knows about. This one you can put on, you know, any part of your body. And it's called dry hands because it dries um it's like an antiperspirant, so it makes your hands or your body parts not as sweaty as they would have once been.
With that being said I have personally stopped supporting Dry Hands because I just learned that they don't want strippers or polers buying from them, um so if you don't want us to buy it we won't.
Yeah.
It's very sad because it's a very good product and they are probably gonna lose a lot of money, but yeah they have come up and said they do not want their product for strippers or pole dancers.
Which is weird because there's a pole answer on the packaging!
Yeah yeah it really makes no sense.
These are just a little bit of what is available. There's like a zillion — and I mean to be honest, i'm not even sure if I like the ingredients.
That's another thing, yeah the ingredients. We have to think about these things because as pole dancers, we are putting these things on our bodies pretty much every day, because we pole every day. We can't stop! Sometimes we have cracks in our our skin when we put the hand grips on, um we're putting them on near like lymph nodes…
Yeah yeah so um just things to think about. Like Dry Hands has alcohol [---ingredients] i don't know what any of those things are. Yeah if I can't say it, I probably don't want to put it in my body, or on my body.
Yeah I mean you can also just try to use just the regular um alcohol on your body. Sometimes that's enough to just dry yourself out if you have like a sweatiness in the back of knee, your hands, or anywhere. Yes but beyond that, um I mean you might need something more hardcore with chemicals — but just things to think about.
Yes we also have different kind of chalk grips, which you'll find chalk grips a lot for like rock climbing, and trapeze, and things like that. But we do have one here, which I believe is from Russia, right?
Yes yes brought in from one of our instructors, Paulina.
Thank you for this @russianamericanpoler
Yes @russianamericanpoler on instagram! We should put that in the link below. This has pretty much what you'd expect in any liquid chalk: magnesium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide, aloe vera, some alcohol, a thickener, and a set added.
So it's not as bad as with these, where you have no idea what the hell that methyl or whatever! I like the chalk as a top grip. So I would do like my Dry Hands and my Dry Hands alternative first all over my body, and then this. And this, it's really going to leave a stain just for the hour. It washes off, but it's really good. Yeah all reasons definitely a good shot.
The one that I have been using recently as an alternate to the Dry Hands is this Grip Rx and like it. Still has some some interesting ingredients, but has much less interesting ingredients, which I appreciate. Has the same kind of consistency and it sticks. Helps me to not be so sweaty onto the pole. And I use this one all over my body as well.
So I just noticed we can't — y'all probably can't see this in the cable!
Oh yeah!
We have this chalk one right here. I know right it's so bright. And then we have, obviously most of you know, the Dry Hands. This is like the most common one, and then the one she just went into was the Grip Rx which i'm excited to try but I have not tried.
We've had mixed reviews in the studio.
Yes we definitely have all the different hand grips. They're going to be um responding differently to all different skin types, and like I said earlier, all different weather types too. Like whatever conditions are in your studio. If it's really humid, you might have an issue with your tried and true. We can definitely write these — we probably won't put a link to their websites because that's just too much, but we can definitely write these names in the notes for you at the bottom.
And these are just ones that we've had in the studio, like these aren't ones that we promote or anything.
We tried them — no affiliation we are not making any commission from these! Expressing information from our personal bodies.
The other one that I like uh for me is this Lupit Pole one. Yeah and it comes, it's a little powder puff. And I like this one mostly in the the summer time, but the the black part of the powder puff goes on your body, and the pink goes on the pole — or it might be the other way around I have forgotten. But I mean either way, it's just like a powder. Um it kind of is like the um —
Maybe like this one this mighty grip powder stuff, um except for I feel like it stays on my body a little bit easier than the mighty grip stuff.
That that's cool.
One side goes on the pole, and one side goes on your body, I just don't remember which.
It's not even a cream it's pad! I love it! Yes so going into this one thing that she just mentioned — the Mighty Grip which is a special formula for a better grip. And it has a sexy little pole dancer on it! And I had high hopes for that one, but it did not work for me.
But it's definitely just a powder and you um put it on put it underneath your knee pits, armpits, anywhere. Some people say it would work, and it's got interesting, it has similar ingredients to powdered um grip for sports.
You said you only liked it sometimes, right?
No I, it didn't work for me at all. But yeah I didn't like it, it does not mean it will not work for you! And that is another thing we cannot emphasize enough: these are only some products that you can use. They are not guaranteed to work for everyone's body types. You have to experiment and find what works for you.
That's the one thing about being a pole dancer. Now you're also a scientist, a physicist — But at least you don't get graded. The only grade is as long as you stick! And if you slide you know you fail!
Yeah! So do you want to go to our next one next one?
I was gifted this one. It's Dancing Dust! It's beautiful! It has glitter in it! And I was so happy, and it smells so good, um however I thought it was too sticky for me. s
Sometimes, um there's another one that this one reminded me of, we don't have it here — but it's called Dew Point. And I really wanted to love this Dew Point, but just like this one, it's um a little bit more of like, residue-leaving on me. So I just don't stick to the pole, I just slide right down.
That was the same issue I was having when I tried this one because she let me use it, and i was offered. And actually I didn't like the residue like you said but when I used a top coat on top of it because I always use this DY as a top coat it worked a little bit different. When I tried it alone, no I was not a fan but when I did a top coat it did work better so…
Don't worry all our body types are different. I was just messing around, that's how I found out that the top coat helped. It's the glitter!
Yes it's so pretty! Glitter!
And it smells beautiful!
Right it smells really really good. I appreciate when they smell really good. I like to mention like this Grip Rx one, as much as I like it, it just smells like straight up alcohol or something.
That is awful! So the next one I want to go into which I think Trick Tack. This was from PSO. This was when I first learned about it. Trick Tack and um beeswax infused pole towel. Of course it is.
So this is obviously made from beeswax. I like these wax hand grips. Another one I tried which we don't have here is iTack 2. You can find that on amazon. a
And yes on the back of knee pit — saves my life!
Yes back of the hips, elbows, on the arms, my shoulders too. It's pretty much similar ingredients to this this one, but its made from beeswax. But this is a pole towel infused with beeswax, so what you do is take a towel there and then you go on the pole.
I, personally, it does not work for me.
I don't know how it works for me either.
Yeah iTack works! The tub!
iTack2 which is a different company, worked better for me than this. I'm sorry yes, a great product, but it did not work for me. It might work for you, so please try it!
Um and it's cool because it's just a towel. Like you might need like more than one coat, but you might have to figure out the solution for your body. And it could also be your pole, in the temperature too, which will have to be another discussion — because it's such a big topic.
But yeah the climate, the temperature of the room, and how your body temperature is, can highly affect your progress. Because if you go poling angry, you might have a better chance of sticking. Because your body temperature is so hot, and you can create the friction. But if you go in sick, sad, and gloomy, you're a little more down, a little more cold. It might take a little while. It's weird how it works.
So what's the next one?
We have um some of these other ones I have not tried. These are the ones that maybe people have left at the studio. This one is Dry Sport Grip. There are a lot of ingredients on the back of this one. I have seen it. I have not used it. This is good for rock climbers, and like — so what do they call it? The shot throwers and things like that? And even trapeze artists.
I haven't used it before. Let me look at the ingredients: alcohol, aqua, silica, magnesium carbonate, hydroxyl, so this is a combination of the Dry Hands and it looks like it has a little bit of chalk inside it. Looks like it's mostly Dry Hands and a little bit of chalk. So I have to try this, it might work. I've never tried it. Here's what it looks like: XDry Sports Grip.
Yeah I'll definitely have to try this, you should definitely try it too. It it's a combination of a chalk grip and the Dry Hands which is pretty cool.
And then the last one that we have here in the studio, I remember I purchased this one when we first opened because we wanted to give our students a cornucopia of different hand grips to try. So this one was specifically for hands and feet it's called Tight Grip for hands and feet that sweat. And I was really excited about it. Once again, it did not work for me. It's a little bit too slippery for me. It added an extra coat of thing, that did not work out for my skin, and it also smells like calamine lotion, which I didn't appreciate.
There was one —
Chicken pox!
There was another one, that um I believe it was like a lavender scent, which it did smell a little bit better, so this one I guess they did realize that it's stunk.
Here's this one. I'm gonna have to try that. I've never tried that. I can't see anywhere — yeah we're gonna give you all the ingredients: alcohol, aluminum, chlorohydrate, hydrated silica…
So similar to Dry Hands. y
Yeah yeah… yellow number five! Why why is that in there?
Yes which is, yeah which is another thing with pole grips: be mindful of the chemicals! Because unfortunately some of them, while they are made for our bodies, in the long run they are not good for our bodies.
Yeah I feel like it's the technology that um, you know the deodorants everyone uses. Over time people realize that they were you know, not so good for our bodies, especially the places that we were putting them. So if you want to think about it like that, and you know applying things to your body over time… y
Yes yeah there are um organic grip creators. I know we are personally working on our own blend here at studio, that's not saying it's gonna be out anytime soon! When I say working, we're working here! But there are websites that you can visit with a more organic, homemade, natural approach.
Yeah yes I actually do have an organic recipe I can easily add that there for you.
So that is pretty much it with pole grips! I know we had a question on why we use hand grips, and I hope that answered it: We use it to help us stick to the pole! And we can put it all over our bodies.
The difference between hand grips — I do want to touch on it.
Chalk grip and beeswax grip is for people who sweat a lot, so if you're heavy sweater, I recommend the chalk and the beeswax. The Dry Hands will be good, but it might add to the sweating. Like i'm very heavy sweater, not as much since I've increased my pole, since my body's gotten more used to it, but I did learn that if you sweat a lot, not all grips are the same. So if you are a heavy sweater, look into the chalk and the beeswax.
If you're not a heavy sweater, then the Dry Hands and the other versions that aren't these, right some chalk will be pretty good for you.
Yeah like i'm not not really a heavy sweater, and I really only sweat a lot in the summer, which I think that's why I like this powder puff. Because, it's probably gonna be gross to say this, but it does soak up your sweat!
Yeah.
Other than, like putting a liquid on where maybe like you know you were so sweaty that it couldn't absorb at all, some sort of powdery thing would be better.
Yes so I hope that answers a few of your questions on hand grips. I know you might have more, there's so many different hand grips out there.
Yeah like if you need to use a hand grip, it doesn't make you a bad pole dancer.
Nothing, like it just means that you need a pole grip!
Yes yes yes yeah and there's some people who don't need them at all!
I've never met those people! Envious of you! And me everyone's different. So don't think that like you know, you have to go through all this stuff just to be a pole dancer. This is just part of it. And if you want to use it to up up your stripping game, feel free! Yes I did not use any grips as a stripper and I made money, so I can only imagine if I had grips and if I was killing it even more!
But i think that's it if you have any more questions, please please reach out to us on our Instagram or our email. You can find both of those on the bottom. You can also visit our website! What else our freebies too, right?
Yeah yeah! Yes um we do have paid products coming up, but you can find that all on the website right now. Focus on the free stuff because everybody likes free!
So thank you for everything! Please reach out with those comments, questions, concerns, even to say hi! Yeah let us know if any of these worked for you, yeah other ones that you want us to discuss, yeah definitely reach out! We are very open-minded about suggestions and learning more, because that is why we are here!
Yes to all learn together.
Thank you so much for this episode episode 3 of the different hand grips and why do we use them! I'm Cris Rivers.
And I'm Mændy Mac.
And we are signing off!