Veena started this discussion ·
New dancers have a difficult choice when deciding on a pole finish. We know that weather, cold, heat, humidity all affect your ability to stick to the pole but I also think skin type may affect it as well. I was hoping some of you who have experience with different pole finishes would help! I did not add Climate because some of us live in areas where it is always changing. ☀️
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I have dry skin and I'm always needing to wear moisturizer. I've tried brass poles and I prefer them more because they are more grippier. I have a Chrome Xpole and I need to use some sort of grip aid otherwise I cannot do anything on it.
joni1 ·
I have 6 pole/stages 😳 in brass, chrome, stainless steel and powdered coated and my favorite is hands down BRASS. 🥂 It is the perfect bend of grippyness for me 🫡 . And chrome comes a close second. I love to do advance tricks on my powder coat pole but its a painful burn 😮 to slide down from it. And I just slip and slide on the stainless steel 😈 . But I feel if I can master the stainless steel, I would be able to pole anywhere 🤸 🤸 🤸 . Most of the dance clubs I go to has brass. Never tried titanium pole. 🤔
Jenn ·
I'm assuming skin type is referring to your hands? Cuz I have sweaty hands but normal/dry skin everywhere else.
Veena ·
awww its not posting the results like I thought it would..I thought each vote would show up under each members post.....So for example mine... I have Dry skin and prefer Titanium gold....but it doesn't show individual results....damn... so this isn't helpful LOL 😢 😂
TG which I love and sweaty hands which I hate!
I don't know because I have had trouble gripping my chrome pole. But I have dry skin, its weird my hands are smooth and ashy lmao.
I wish I could try out other kinds of poles. Chrome is all I've ever experienced. Maybe it would be totally better to experience brass / tg
Okay....I will add my 2 cents..... I have weird hands and chrome poles..........Some days are great.....some not so much. Some days....sweaty......some days dry. Go figure. All about the climate and humidity. I have danced on brass..........love it! My friend just recently bought a TG-----Not too bad~ Brass is still grippier....... At least for these hands.......
moth ·
I have weird hands and chrome poles..........Some days are great.....some not so much. Some days....sweaty......some days dry. Go figure. All about the climate and humidity. I've only ever danced on my own chrome pole but I'm the same way! Some days I love it, some days I want to break it. 😂
mizvix ·
sweaty hands but dry skin elsewhere. NEVER stick to my chrome without either boots or a massive amount of grip. I learned on brass - much grippier but my sweaty hands still don't always grip.
I first learned on stainless steel (for over a year and a half), but didn't make a lot of progress on climbs and holds until I got my chrome X Pole. I found the grip to be much better. I first tried brass at a pole jam and I loved it so much I bought a pole and I use it mainly for tricks and holds practice because of the sweet grippiness. I do prefer doing spins on the chrome as it's a little slicker. I have oily skin and I find that I cannot get a grip on any pole unless I and it are quite warm. I get calluses rather than blisters while poling and rarely have sweaty hands. I hope this helps!
I've never gotten to try brass or TG, though I want to! I have normal to sweaty hands and normal skin... I do love my chrome pole better than stainless steel (all I've ever tried).
I have probably been on all materials. I have a powder coated at home and while I love it, it can be too grippy at times....ESPECIALLY when you are just learning and you have a death grip! Superman was brutal on it! I have been on 2 brass poles and love the grip but hate the smell. I have ripped skin on these too just because they tend to get scuffed up quite a bit which is not kind to your skin. Be has stainless and I would have to say this is my least favorite. I have never had as many issues with grip as I do at the studio. Got to try both the titanium and the chrome in Chicago and I don't remember having issues with either. The TG was def grippier than the chrome. If I had a choice though I would probably go with the TG over chrome just because of the material. The gold finish may fade but I do not see titanium chipping or rusting or even scratching like any of the other materials. Now if they would just make other colors.....dreaming. My skin is pretty normal and I have large hands. The only times I have issues with grip is when my legs are sweaty, there is a big difference in pole to room temperature or when I am just learning something that I am kind of afraid of.
Charley ·
I really do not like brass at all - it's too grippy on my skins and I feel like it sweats against my hands so it's harder to do hand holds and my body sticks too much. Same with powder coated. I prefer stainless probably over anything but it's a pain to get it warmed up so I picked chrome which to me gets a little too warm and grippy at times but overall seems like the best in between grip. I think overall you can't go wrong with chrome, it's the safest bet if you are new to pole dancing. Also, there are a lot of things you can do if you have sweaty hands - botox, drying grip aids such as dry hands, Grrrip, and No Sweat and Antiperspirants such as Tite Grip, Drysol or Dricilor. If you are dry you can used waterbased lotions like Vaseline Intensive Care, - a moisturizer which can be used while pole dancing, Corn Huskers lotion... For new pole dancers the thing to remember is Powder Coated and Chrome are your least expensive options and it's best to save money in the beginning to see if you will commit to practice, without sacrficing safety of the pole. Stainless, brass and tg are more expensive and you may not always be happy with the grip once you get comfortable pole dancing. You can always sell a pole to get a new one too. Generally your standard static Lil Mynx is the cheapest, followed by X-pole and Platinum Stages are the most expensive. I started on a static powder coated LM and moved to a stainless steel ps pole...it wasn't too bad of a move but it did take some adjustment.
I'm in the minority with my preference for steel poles. I've only ever used steel and chrome, so I can't comment on TG or brass, but I should also explain my skin - there wasn't an exact option for my skin type, so I put dry. But my skin is atypical. 😛 I've had very oily skin most of my life, and I had a treatment of Accutane a few years ago. That took the edge off the oiliness, and it's not exactly dry now, but it's now extremely sensitive (never poled pre-Accutane so I don't know how it would be without it). It can get oily, and it can get VERY dry and react to anything I put on it. I prefer steel because I can get a grip on it better than chrome. I guess my skin chemistry just doesn't jive with chrome, but I slide right off my chrome X-Pole. I end up gripping so hard that I can give myself hand cramps. But the steel Lil Mynx poles at the gym I can grip with no problem, I find they warm up more easily and don't get greasy nearly as quickly as chrome.
I learned on Stainless, now have a chrome x-pole. I have very dry hands and I slip a lot. In the beginning I didn't want to use grip aid, but I finally caved and tried just a bit and it helped me SO much. There are days when it is cold and dry and I can't put enough grip aid on 😢 (very frustrating) I have been considering selling my chrome for the TG. I've used brass once and was amazed my its grippyness; I felt much safer too.
I have only ever used brass & stainless steel, and I MUCH prefer stainless steel. I learned on brass and only ever used brass until a few months ago. I think I will be selling my brass pole for a stainless one. For me, brass gets too hot too fast (even in cold, dry weather) and it slows me down.. I have to wait for the pole to cool down before I can get back on it, or else it makes painful calluses on my hands. And I get pole burn on my thighs. I have never used chrome or tg, so I can't comment on those..
I haven't had too many opportunities to try different poles and finishes...but I think I like Brass the best. As a heavy male poler, the grip is really nice for keeping all 200 pound of me up on the pole. This thread gave me an idea. At the next pole convention, wouldn't it be nice to have a "pole testing" room where there was one pole of every diameter and coating. Then you could try out each one and make a decision to inform future purchases. Just a fantasy, I guess... Joel Lessing (poledancefan)
EVamp83 ·
Joel, that's a great idea! Not many of us would otherwise have the opportunity to try many different sizes and finishes. I've only ever tried steel and chrome. I practice on stainless steel, which is very grippy in the summer and hard to warm up in the winter. I have dry skin, especially in winter which only makes it harder to get a good practice when it's cold. But thanks to Vaseline's aloe vera lotion, the winters aren't that bad anymore. All in all, I like the stainless steel poles. They are a bit scratched from heavy use, which makes them grippier than most SS poles. And I just had to figure out what works for me regarding those specific poles. I tried chrome once, at a pole jam. I felt the chrome pole and I got along fine. So I'll be getting a chrome x-pole in a few weeks, so I can finally start practicing at home. (Yay! 😀 )
I'm a real newbie at pole dancing, and the only thing I've tried are the brass poles at my studio. I have normal skin and hands, and they do not sweat. I'm not a huge fan of the brass poles, though, I feel like I stick too much, and I've only logged 5 hours on the poles so far. I tend to like the poles better at the beginning of class, before they warm up, because they're a little more slick. I have no problems whatsoever gripping or climbing, but I sometimes stick too much to be able to comfortably do spins, and sometimes just sliding down from a climb is sticky and uncomfortable. I don't know if this is inexperience or not, though. Would like to try a chrome pole, as that seems to be the next more slippery pole, excepting the Titanium Gold XPole, and I doubt I'll ever have or get to play on one of those. 🙂 Also, I'm in Charleston, and the weather here is mostly hot and humid. ☀️ Thank you so much for starting this thread, Veena!! It has been SUPER informative and helpful!!! 🌈 ☀️
i have been using a chrome pole since i started poling and didnt really get much chance to try any other finishes on poles. My skin on my hands is very weathered and sweats a lot too. and i have trouble with sweating a lot too during any form of exercise. i have just started lessons up in edinburgh and unlike the lessons i had in blackpool where we had all chrome xpoles this instructor uses stainless steel. i found the stainless steel very hard to grip and get warmed up on. i could climb ok on it after i had warmed up the pole for a long while. it may have helped a bit that i was too warm and was slightly sticky, but i still found it hard to grip when spinning. i think i prefer the chrome as its a bit stickier to hold and do spins on although it can still take a while to warm up.
I have dry skin. In cooler temperatures, my hands prefer brass but my legs/body prefer TG. Can't dance on stainless in cool to warm temps. In hot temperatures, I can dance on anything including stainless.
This thread should be fixed now.
Might as well share my experience :) I live in Canada, Winnipeg to be precise. You know? The city that's colder than the north pole in the winter(up to -50 degrees C) :) and fairly hot in the summer(30-35 degrees C)...ohhh yes. In my poling lifetime I've tried chrome 45mm x-sport, TG 45mm AND 50mm x-pert and brass 50mm. No experience with stainless steel :( sorry The one i own is 45mm TG x-pert My favorite would have to be TG 50 mm. Yes, i have small hands but love skin grips and inverts and i just love the feel. I Wish wish wish i had know of my love for 50mm before ordering my pole but i'm honestly just happy to have my own pole and i know that if i can do something on a 45mm i can definitly do it on a 50 mm! Especially anything skin grippy :P My hands don't get too sweaty, I don't have dry skin on my hands either. Just regular old hands i'd say. I have a few calluses right under my fingers on the inside of my hand from poling. I don't find the weather changes affect my poling too much. Sure if it's very very hot i will sweat more but i live in a pretty dry climate and i think that has a lot to do with it. Basically that's it. About me; I'm 5 foot 4, 20 years old and have an average body type. I taught pole fitness until recently, teaching mostly spins and transitions, levels beginner to intermediate. The studio where i worked shut down so now i'm back to focusing on my own pole growth. I'm excited to finally work on skin grips! I have kind of a mix of fair and olive skin. I guess i'm light olive skinned in case that helps. My siblings burn to death in the sun but i have the ability to tan and don't need a stupid high spf when wearing sunscreen. I CAN burn but definitly not as easily as my fair skinned friends. Here's my 2 cents on the actualy different finishes; chrome is just too slippery for me, the brass was fine. It's GREAT for skin grips, oh my, but i really love spins so it was just too grippy for my liking and how i want to pole dance. Now for the titanium gold...This is the best of both worlds for me!! It it definitly grippier than chrome but not so grippy than it makes it hard for my hand to turn around the pole during spins like with the brass. The TG is my favorite by far :) I guess you need to think of a few factors befoer choosing a pole. This is what i wish someone would have told me before i got my own pole: What do you like to do while pole dancing? Spins, skin grips, inverts, simply for fun or fitness? How far do you plan on taking your poling skills? competitions? inverts? skin grips? spins? If you plan on taking you poling skills very far would you consider getting an x-pert or would a x-sport do just fine? What are you using now? 45mm or 50mm? what finish? How do u like it? Too slippery? Too grippy? Just right? Basically it's all about preference and what you want to DO or eventually be able to do with your pole. You can use these questions as a guideline to making the right decision. Again, if you plan on going competitive, take into account the types of pole used for competitions. Maybe you want to do a lot of skin grips and inverts with which a 50mm would offer more grip but you prefer the 45mm anyway, that is just fine. As long as you understand what you need for you style of dance and what you want while taking into accound you future pole self as well. I hope this helps! I know it would have helped me.
Haha, i didn't realise how much i had written! So sorry lol
