Pete & Pedro Hair Products
$16 (varying prices)
We live in the golden age of men’s grooming products. Instead of being forced to buy whatever happens to be available on the shelf at a local convenience store, men can now order online from any number of companies dedicated to producing the best quality grooming products possible. One of these companies is Pete & Pedro, founded by Aaron Marino of IAmAlphaM fame, a perfect example of a small company run by people that really know what they’re doing, and how to make a great product for men
We took a look at three of their products, and here is what we thought about them:
“Clean” Shampoo — $16.00 for 8oz: A green-colored and mint scented shampoo that works quite well. This is quite a high price for 8oz of shampoo (and the same for the other two products), but you are definitely getting a quality product, no doubt about it. Shampoo’s job is to strip your hair of just about everything (which is why you should only use shampoo once or twice a week, at most), and this does a phenomenal job at that. It smells great and clean and fresh — it is mint, after all. Plus, like we have found before, the higher quality of this product means you can use less than a cheaper, more watery shampoo.
“Condition” Conditioner — $16.00 for 8oz: I was pretty blown away with this product. While shampoo strips your hair of oils, conditioner is meant to do the opposite, and strengthen your hair and its natural oil production (which is why any product claiming to be both a shampoo and conditioner is a sham). This conditioner does a fantastic job, and leaves my hair feeling smooth, soft, and rich. It smells nice and clean and fresh — yep, it’s that mint again — and quite a bit less than you’re probably used to using will go a long way. It’s hard to truly determine rankings for products like a conditioner, but this is without question amongst the best I have used in terms of how it makes my hair feel (and brush) after use.
A note on both of these products: I am not in love with the mint smell. It’s not bad by any means. Quite the opposite, it’s really great, and subtle, and not overpowering. Still, I much prefer hair product scents that are more “manly” than they are “fresh.” This is absolutely a matter of preference, and the mint scent here is without question well done — I just personally prefer something else.
“Salt” Natural Sea Salt Spray — $19.00 for 8oz: This was the really interesting product, and the one I was most excited to try. This claims to add volume to your hair with just a few sprays. In short, it’s the least intense product one can apply to your hair — as in, it’s less than the lowest hold hair cream, but more than just wetting your hair and brushing. For someone that does not use product in his hair, but would sometimes like some more hold and volume than my hair naturally has, I thought this product would be perfect for me. In practice, while the spray does work as advertised, it ends up leaving my hair with a more “wet” look than I would like, and doesn’t add enough volume to be worth the tradeoff of having hair that gets your hands a bit sticky when you run your hands through it. Full disclaimer: My hair is wavy and somewhat short. It’s any hair product’s worst nightmare, all around.
Some other notes: Packaging here is pretty standard all around. The bottles are just, well, bottles. Considering many other brands are doing some cool stuff with packaging to make their products more premium (this lack of superior design is felt most with the Salt spray), I feel like this is an area in which they can approve. Similarly, the products arrived in just a plain cardboard box. I think having better packaging all around is becoming more and more standard and necessary. Their website could use some work, too.
You can buy a combo of both the shampoo and conditioner for a lower price of $25.
Conclusion: I really like these products. I think the prices are a bit high, and that there is room for the company to grow and improve, but their core products are quite solid. Would recommend.