REUZEL Hair Tonic

Today’s post is about the Reuzel hair tonic.  A men’s hair solution that has more or less been forgotten or at the very least fallen outside the hair repertoire.

Having recently been trying older types of pomades which are not strictly water based I was also being confronted with the difficult reality of washing out these oil or petroleum solutions.  I started researching different shampoos.  Maybe one or two commercial/artisanal products came up, but for the most part it was DIY solutions. Some of the recurring recipe ingredients where AJAX detergents and dish detergents.  Not being a chemist, I don’t know if there is a real difference between AJAX and a Fructis Shampoo for example.  But I can’t help myself but think that what is good to wash steel can’t be good to wash my hair.  That being said, I didn’t really find any single shampoo targeted for this job.

This search for shampoos and cleaning solution took me down on a bit of a parallel path; hair tonics.  One of the numerous claims of hair tonic is to act as a solvent for pomades.  During my last visit at OBSCO, hair tonics where suggested to me, but I didn’t quite grasp what their purpose was.

It wasn’t clear to me if:

• they were solvent solutions for oil based pomades,
• or if they were a first steps before applying pomade,
• of if they were scalp nourishing treatments
• or if finally they were a fixative in their own respect

I started to looking for different hair tonic in order to see what each product was claiming or indicating as its intended purpose.  This search rendered only a few brands:

• Clubman-Pinaud
• Jeris (Another Clubman-Pinaud branding)
• Lucky Tiger
• Vitalis
• Reuzel

Notice the recurring aspect here?  Aside from Reuzel, these are all older brand names. In most cases, the formulation contains some level of oil, since the most recurring purpose for the hair tonic is to help with scalp dryness.  The other main objective is to help hair shine.  A tonic composed with oil will also clearly offer some level of solvency for oil and or petroleum based pomades

Over the next few days while exploring  “Reuzel” and “Schorem” videos on YouTube,I came across one on their line of hair tonics.

This led me to go and pick up a bottle of the Reuzel Blue hair tonic at Eleganza (my Reuzel supplier).

The Blue Reuzel hair tonic is an oil-free formulation.  The labeling suggests that it will keep the hair in place all day, that it is excellent for scalp and neck massages, perfect for wetting the hair during a haircut.  The label also indicates to use some hair tonic to revitalize and freshen your hair style between work and play.  This last purpose is essentially what I have used it for so far.

For example on a rushed morning, instead of simply re-applying some pomade I tried the hair tonic to wet the hair and loosen the pomade still in my hair before restyling and applying a bit more pomade.

First off, this product smells very nice. Fresh, clean and musky.  It is certainly not a “typical” scent. Nor does it smell cheap.  It is more in line with the traditional Barber shop scents.  I don’t want to say that it smells “dated”, as it does not.  Classic, would better describe it.  It is also not an over bearing scent.  It will have mostly faded within about 30 minutes of applying to your hair.

So when applying this, I used very little.  A tiny squirt which I rubbed in my hands and then applied to my hair to wet it.  I have used it with 3 different pomades (Railcar, Rumble 59 Schmiere, Clubman-Pinaud Brillantine) so far and in all cases, the results were the same; it smoothed my hair and the pomade I already had.  This made it very easy to restyle and apply some new pomade to face the next event.

You might ask, how is this different from just using water to relax the pomade and restyle?  Fair question!  It does the exact same thing, but it does it better.  First off it dries a bit faster than water giving you a more immediate result.  By wetting your hair with the tonic, it gives a second life to the pomade already present in your hair and makes it easier to work in a new application of pomade.  Don’t read this as a substitute for washing your hair.  It’s more of a “stretcher” for those longer days or the morning after.

Coming back on my entry point about finding an oil and petroleum based pomade washing solution, I have to assume that applying some hair tonic in your hair before the wash will greatly simplify the process as the tonic offer fabulous solvent properties.  I will need to confirm that the next time I wear the petroleum based Lucky Tiger pomade.

Price wise, tonics are not overly expensive.  My bottle of Reuzel Blue was $17 at Eleganza and they seams to go around $20 on Amazon.  Note that Reuzel being an “IN” brand at the moment, it fetches a slightly higher price.  Some of the other brands listed above are still readily available and will be cheaper.  If memory serves me right OBSCO was selling the Clubman-Pinaud tonic for under $10 a bottle.

In summary hair tonic;

• is a great solution to revitalize your hair styling between events,
• it offers great solvency to relax those harder to wash out pomades,
• it offer some shine,
• help reduce scalp dryness
• and lastly adds a nice fresh scent

To read a bit more on the subject, this page offered a good summary:  Sharpalogist.

Use this link to shop for the Reuzel hair tonic: