I Designed My Own Shampoo, and I Never Want to Buy It Off the Shelf Again

I’m surprisingly low-key when it comes to my hair. (It’s surprising because I’m a neurotic type-A about everything else.) I don’t use styling products. My hair-dryer has a two-inch layer of dust. And I’ve used the same gentle, organic shampoo for the past three years. So I’m never really in the market for new hair products.

That’s why I didn’t really pay any attention at first to Function of Beauty, the new hair care brand that offers customized shampoo and conditioner formulas. I thought it was a cool concept, but not for me. I don’t really have any hair problems I’m looking to solve, having fully embraced my curly hair and generally feeling excited to have any hair at all. You don’t have to have gone through chemotherapy—like I did—to feel this way, because making the most of your natural hair texture is 2017’s answer to the bouncy blowout. Both on the runways and IRL, women are wearing their hair however it happens to air-dry.

That’s kind of why Function of Beauty is timely, though. By leading you through a series of very specific questions, it basically guarantees that the formula is going to be for your hair and your hair only. The online quiz begins with the basics. I checked off my hair type (curly), hair structure (medium), and scalp moisture (normal, although I could’ve used an option for occasional flakes of unknown origin). The process goes a lot more quickly if you take five minutes to figure out your hair situation in advance.

Then, you select your five hair #goals from preset options. Mine were: curl definition, volumize, shine, soothe scalp, and antifrizz. What I was really into: When you click on each goal, info pops up to tell you what, exactly, something like curl definition entails, as well as which active ingredients help you achieve it.

The next page is, in my opinion, the most fun—because at this point, you can customize the color(s) of your shampoo and conditioner, name the formula (which will show up on the bottle), and choose a scent. It’s the sort of thing that control freaks like me dream of, and I was here—there?—for it. My biggest gripe was that there were four scents, from grapefruit hibiscus to cucumber mint, and I wanted to sniff all of them. After much internal debate, I opted for essential oils (a blend with eucalyptus, tea tree, and lavender oils, among others).

It gets even better. You can also customize the sizes of your shampoo and conditioner. I tend to shampoo more often than I condition (because, humblebrag, I was told that since my hair is too healthy and soft, I need to reduce moisture), so I opted for the larger shampoo and smaller conditioner. And if you always plow through your conditioner and are stuck with leftover shampoo, there’s an option for that too.

My second gripe is that it takes a while for the company to formulate and ship the products (it took over two weeks to receive them), but that’s the trade-off when you’re dealing with customized shampoo and conditioner. And it’s by no means a bargain: The prices range from $30 for an individual product to $46 for a large-sized pair of 16 ounces each. But if you’re interested in working with the hair you’ve got and tailoring your products to it, it might just be worth it.

When I received and opened the package, my mom and sister freaked. So did I. The minty scent was refreshing and bright, and I loved that both my shampoo and conditioner had my name slapped on it, which is a fancy, less-aggressive way of telling my sister: “Use my shit and you’ll lose a hand.” And while I didn’t notice a difference in volume, my curls were definitely shinier and more defined. So, despite the price tag, consider me sold. I’ll probably order again just so I can test out all the other scents.

Related Stories:
-This $8 German Conditioning Mask Completely Transformed My Dry, Brittle Hair
-15 Shampoos That’ll Make Your Hair Smell Absolutely Incredible
-What Exactly DO All Those Ingredients on Your Shampoo Bottle Mean? Here’s Your Guide