One man’s solution to keep his mustache in pristine condition in Mississippi heat and humidity has turned into a business, with worldwide shipping power.
John Pitts grew out his mustache in 1987, but there was one problem. He lived in the hot and humid climate of Mississippi and struggled to find a wax that held his mustache together.
His mom gave him a wax that worked for his ‘stache. However, after a couple years of using it, the maker sold the formula and he was unable to track it down again. So he moved on to another one and then the same thing happened again.
“My mom actually gave me a thing of wax that was my dad’s from who knows when,” Pitts said. “I used it then it went away, you could not find it in any stores. So I used another wax I found online and then it became unavailable.”
He was unable to find any waxes that could withstand the blistering heat and humidity of Mississippi’s summers. He tried this wax and that wax but none of them worked either. So he took matters into his own hands and experimented until he found a solution. That solution is the origin of Firehouse Mustache Wax.
After keeping it between himself and some friend for a couple years, he went to his wife Kristine and told her he thought they could sell the wax. She, naturally, was skeptical.
“He came to me and said I think we can sell this and make this an internet business,” Kristine said. “I said who is going buy mustache wax and was like that is not going to work. He proved me wrong.”
Now Firehouse sells all over the world, from California to the Slavic states. They have shipped orders to Canada, the Netherlands, Russia, England, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Germany Croatia, Estonia and more.
“Some places we have to get a globe out and look up where it is,” John laughed.
Kristine is amazed at the dedication some of their customers have to support the wax. They post photos of customers of who have used the wax on their website and also get posts that people put up themselves on their Facebook page. Their customers brag on what John said is the difference between his wax and other waxes, that his holds in any condition.
“A triathlete asked if we could send him our logo so he could put it on his shirt,” Kristine said. “We had one guy who posted saying I was just in a hurricane and this is my ‘stache.”
They sell to individuals and through retailers on major websites like Amazon. Their success is a credit to the quality of their product and the hard work the two have put in. John makes every single tin of wax himself.
“We put it online and it kind of blew up from there,” John said. “We thought we would sell one or two tins a week and were really excited about that, then it got crazy. Now, we can get 200 orders week or all of sudden we get an order from Amazon and need to make 1400 tins in a week.”
Now they are at a point where Kristine has left her job at a commercial mortgage company to run the business side of things full-time. If you asked John, he would tell you she does 80 percent of the work.
More importantly, they found ways to help others with their work. They donate 25 cents from each tin and 50 cents from each t-shirt sold to a different charity each year. Customers can keep track of how much has been donated on the Firehouse Mustache Wax website. This year’s donations go to Shriner’s Hospital for Children.
For more information, visit www.firehousemoustachewax.com.
