Pomade: "Pomade is a greasy or waxy substance used to style the hair.
Pomade makes the hair look slick and shiny. Unlike hair spray and hair gel, pomade does not dry and often takes several washings to get it out of the hair.
Most pomades contain petroleum jelly (and in fact petroleum jelly may be used alone as a pomade) and mineral oil, and many also contain some sort of wax."
What the article fails to mention is that during the Renaissance, pomades were made from bacon fat. Which smelled lovely, I'm sure. Renaissance my ass!
But pomade is much different than normal hair conditioner. And it would be ideal to use in desert situations, especially if your hair is already dry. I assume it would work just as well on dry skin, but as I hate the feeling of even my natural skin oil on my skin, I don't know.