Clubman-Pinaud Eau de Portugal Hair Tonic

To date the only hair tonic I had explored was the one from Reuzel.  After a period of unclarity as to what a hair tonic is used for, its purpose painted itself as a fantastic hair style revival solution.

Hair Tonics claim a number of things: adds more shine, removes or kills dandruff, as a first step before applying pomade, as a finishing step to handle fly-aways, to stimulates the scalp when massaged in.  That last statement is backed up in the below video where Reuzel’s Bertus indicates that the tonic gives a little humpft to the client.  To me, it has proven to be a solid hair style reviver.

After a full day of fun and adventure, your morning pomade styling might not have survived perfectly.  Adding another coat of pomade is not necessarily always the easiest or best solution.  This is where hair tonic offers something interesting, it revives the pomade you have in place by dissolving or softening it.  For example: If your hair was firm but not really holding its style anymore, this will do a better job than water as it won’t wash away the pomade, but rather revive it while offering a slight touch of a fixative of its own. The result is slightly lighter hair with a bit more volume.  It does the same thing as water but much better.  As you might have understood,  I am dedicated “pomade” user.

I was so impressed with the Reuzel hair tonic, that I figured I should continue to explore other hair tonics and perhaps try out an original hair tonic.  In the old-school original space, Clubman-Pinaud fits among my favorites.  Clubman makes 3 different hair tonics:

• Greaseless Hair tonic
• Eau de Portugal Hair Tonic
• Eau de Quinine Har tonic

My old-school hair product supplier, OBSCO, carries both the Eau de Portugal and the Eau de Quinine.  I picked up Eau de Portugal for some $12.  Up front, I love the Clubman-Pinaud  presentation.  So perfectly authentic.  The bottle is rather large at some 370 ml.  That kind of volume will last you numerous months if not more, considering how little is needed per application.

At first my nose detected an orange-clementine scent, but I was having my doubts and consulted with other noses.  The verdict was: sweet grapefruit.  Note that the potency of the fragrance is mild.  It will have faded away in minutes.  The tonic from Reuzel has some staying power and lasts well over an hour.

As far as how it is as a tonic?  It does what I am expecting:

• Revives my hair style
• Relaxes or dissolves hard pomades
• Controls flyaways’
• Smells nice

If you haven’t used a tonic before, Pinaud is the original stuff.  It is also priced between $10-$14 which won’t break the bank while you are trying this solution out.

I should say that I haven’t tested this out with non-pomade fixatives.  In that sense I can’t venture an opinion as to how it will behave with gel for example.  With water based pomades, it is a 4/5.  The Reuzel hair tonic is nicer but it is also double the price.  Considering that the Pinaud tonic comes in at cheaper price for almost exactly the same result, it is worth starting there.

If you can’t make it out to OBSCO, use these links to shop online: