I’ve been busy at work in the last few weeks trying some new products, and I’m happy to start back up again with blog posts, as I have a lot to talk about. Plus, I’m really happy to report that many of these new products that I’ll be reviewing are from indie brands, which I’ll admit I have a soft spot for. I love entrepreneurial spirit, especially within the beauty industry. They say that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, and I truly believe that is one the best approaches to use in figuring out how to make beauty products work better. One of the brands that recently caught my attention uses this approach – Function of Beauty was started by two MIT grads and a chemist, and their inspiration to develop a haircare line that addresses multiple concerns within customized formulas was based on the lack of multi-tasking products available in haircare. I’m sure you’ve seen their ads all over social media. Their process is really simple but intuitive – you take a quiz, describe your haircare goals, and then your customized formula is shipped to you within a few days! Here’s how this customized formula approach delivered results for me:

First off, the brand boasts some pretty awesome attributes: sulfate free, cruelty free, paraben free, toxin free, and made in the USA. Top it all off with you being able to control the formula to address exactly what you want in your ideal haircare. To me, all of those qualities appealed to me, especially since I wasn’t really loving my current haircare routine. And with summer starting, I felt it would be ideal to make a seasonal product switch and try it out.

When starting the quiz online, make sure to give yourself a few minutes to concentrate and determine what you want from your haircare. After answering a few questions that describe my hair type, I was faced with identifying five hair goals that I wanted to achieve – I found that it was easier to focus on what I didn’t like about my current haircare, as it narrowed down my answers more quickly. The last portion was more of the “fun” part, in which I could choose scent and color, and then name my formula. I actually chose to forgo any dyes in my formula (which you’ll see in my photo above), as I’ve always been sensitive to coloring and I didn’t want to take a chance on irritating my scalp. There is no choice for “unscented”, but I did choose the lightest amount of scent to add, and stuck with an easy essential oil blend for fragrance – grapefruit hibiscus. After I answered all of these questions, I chose my final sizes (I selected 8oz as my initial sizes to try) and was ready to checkout. I did have a $5 credit for my order, so my order came to just over $30 for both shampoo and conditioner. To me, this was worth the price since I’ve spent way more than that on salon-recommended products in the past.

When the box arrived a few days later, it included everything that you see in the photo above. The packaging is very clean, and the white font on the bottles is a bit hard to read with dye-free product. Pumps came with the bottles, and thought that was a really nice touch to include.

What was also pretty awesome was that they included a customized printout that confirmed what I ordered, and listed the ingredients that directly address what my hair goals are. I tried the products the next morning, and was immediately impressed by how silky and sudsy the shampoo was. I am not a fan of the no-poo movement, and I’ll admit that I love suds. This shampoo didn’t disappoint, and the fragrance was a nice combination of citrus and sweet. I was surprised by how light the conditioner felt going on, but I could tell my hair felt hydrated when rinsing out. The proof ultimately was in the next steps of blow-drying and styling – I was seeing the first hints of volume that I wanted, and that I hadn’t been getting from the previous haircare I was using. What I noticed over the next several weeks is that my hair felt cleaner in between washes, and that I didn’t need to use as much dry shampoo. I usually wash my hair every other day or on the third day, and my hair was looking and feeling great! I did notice that my hair felt a little bit limp a few days in a row, but that was also when humidity came full force into our forecast. So, it may be coincidence, or it is possible that my formula has a bit too much hydration within it. When I’m done with this initial order, I will actually be trying another brand of shampoo and conditioner to compare these against. But my curiosity is piqued to keep tweaking my custom formula with Function of Beauty to see if I can find my ultimate unicorn of haircare. If you are interested in trying out your own combo, here’s my referral link: https://functionofbeauty.com/?ref=58be3cb40faf5

I recommend giving this brand a try – to me, the concept of customized haircare is great, especially since hair can be such a finicky thing that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always work. If they are able to eventually include dandruff-control, or scalp-specific treatments, then I think this brand will be even more appealing to more people.

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