[dossa]

Hey guys, I'm the co-founder and CEO of Function of Beauty (a YC company in the current batch). We're trying to disrupt the beauty space beginning with personalized shampoo and conditioner formulations. We use an algorithmic approach to translate a customer's hair type and hair goals into ingredient combinations that work perfectly for them. Customers are able to design almost any aspect of their formulation, from its color to its fragrance. We also print their name on the bottle with a UV printer, which is really cool. Once they receive their set, customers can further tweak their formula until they have the perfect shampoo. To achieve all this, we individually fill each bottle of shampoo and conditioner (rather than produce large batches). While this process is currently done by hand (which takes forever), my co-founder Josh is developing a machine to automatically and precisely fill each bottle. Hien, my third co-founder, is an industry-leading formulation chemist (and an awesome one) who oversees every bottle that is made from the algorithm we developed together. You can check this all out on our site if you'd like! Before placing your order, we show you the precise ingredients that will go into your bottles based on your hair profile so you can see our algorithm in action.

[woah]

I just tried it out and looking at the ingredients list, some of them are "bristle oat seed extract, sweet almond extract, beet root extract, tamarind fruit extract"

I always thought that the random vegetable extracts in hair products were just BS for the label, but I assume you must be putting them in the shampoo for good reason.

[hientnguyen]

Hello there,

My name is Hien Nguyen and I am a co-founder and the chief scientist at Function of Beauty. Our hair goals are a proprietary blend of selected performance ingredients; each ingredient has been through rigorous clinical testing from reputable cosmetic ingredient suppliers. Black oat is used to "fix split ends", sweet almond extract deep conditions, beet root extract has high performance moisture, and tamarind fruit extract fights frizz. The extracts contain either amino acids, protein, essential fatty acids, or polysaccharides (and more!) which give its beneficial hair goal properties. I hope this helps answer your question and also in choosing your personalized hair care set.

[DrScump]

Do you have independent, scientific references supporting your reasoning about the role each ingredient is intended to perform?

[hientnguyen]

We do from our raw material suppliers who work with independent labs. However, the literature is for our research and development purposes only. Thank you for your interest!

[unexpected]

Zahir, are these shampoos sulfate free?

[dossa]

They are! All our formulas are free of parabens, sulfates, phthalates, GMOs, and triclosan.