Meet The Brand That’s Revolutionized How I Wash My Hair

About a month ago, I was invited to check out Function of Beauty, a brand offering customizable and personalized hair care, at its new NYC-based Beauty Lab offices. I was slightly familiar with the brand and its products offered in an array of pretty pastel shades, but it wasn't until I entered the showroom—a laboratory-meets-bar space (think: a wall lined with colorful beakers), where my formula was filled and mixed before my eyes—that I realized just how truly unique it really is.

The millennial-focused beauty industry is booming, and it's doing so by promoting individuality above all else. Because what do millennials want most out of a product? Customization and products that are specific to their individual selves. And Function of Beauty takes individuality to another level, by allowing you to create your very own product—in cool, minimalist packaging, no less, which is another thing millennials love.

Amongst the sea of brands offering options for four or five or eight different hair types, Function of Beauty strives to be the leader in personalized hair care. No one's hair is exactly the same, so why treat it that way? “Function of Beauty came about after becoming frustrated with how the beauty industry buckets people into categories and dictates what beauty looks like," says co-founder Zahir Dossa. “My co-founder and I are both engineering graduates from MIT and wanted to use the latest science and technology to radically usurp Big Beauty, to create truly customized and hyper-personalized products. No two people are the same, so no two products should be the same, either."

Thanks to a special algorithm that goes off of the hair quiz you take before ordering, all of the hard work is done ahead of time. It automatically converts the quiz into a unique formulation for both a shampoo and conditioner. “We are hyper-personalized, so we individually formulate and fill each bottle based on the users' concerns—we can actually personalize each formula down to .01 percent," says Dossa. “A lot of other companies have things pre-mixed, or they have concerns bucketed, and you're pointed into one category—for example, oily hair, dry ends, etc. But what if you have both? Because the algorithm we created interprets every hair profile, we can create every formula from scratch in our lab, which allows us to combine every unique hair concern the consumer has."

There are about 12 billion possible combinations of formulas—and no two have been the same so far. Dossa joked that if that did, in fact, happen, it would be time to go back to the drawing boards and make it even more individualized. Each formula is made right here in the USA, in the brand's own production facility.

What exactly is in each unique Function Of Beauty formula? In short, all the good stuff. Each concoction is made up of numerous naturally derived ingredients: lavender oil and algae extract to nourish the hair's roots, pea sprout extract and ginger root to strengthen, and sunflower oil to straighten... Every formula is free of toxins, parabens, and sulfates and is cruelty-free and vegan. An added bonus is the price point—it's actually affordable for what you're getting. You can get an eight-ounce size of both the shampoo and conditioner for $36, two 16-ounce bottles for $46, or a combination of sizes (because many of us use shampoo or conditioner more than the other) for $42.

So, what I bet you're wondering is whether or not these highly individualized products work. When Dossa told me of the super-high satisfaction rate, I was excited to see what the products would do for my own hair. I can 100 percent vouch for them now—they truly do not disappoint. In fact, because the formula blesses my bleach-ravaged locks with just enough hydration without weighing it down, my hair stays in this new, perfect state for way longer than usual and I actually wash it less, making it a win-win situation.

Right now, the brand's offering is pretty simple: shampoo and conditioner, but as it continues to grow and expand, who knows what will be offered next. Curious to try it out for yourself? To get started on a custom personalized blend of your own, head on over to FunctionOfBeauty.com.