If you’ve googled hair care products within the last year, you’ve probably come across Function of Beauty - the customizable shampoo and conditioner range that claims to help your hair live its best life. But is it worth it?
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Function of Beauty offer shampoos and conditioners that are formulated to suit your unique locks. You jump online, take a two-minute quiz about your hair and your hair goals and BOOM, out pops hair care products designed for your head alone. It’s even got your name on it.
It stood out to me because, along with being vegan and cruelty-free, the products are free of sulfates (which curly hair tends to hate) and parabens, and everyone under the sun seemed to be talking about how amazing the products are.
(Click here to read my Function of Beauty skin care review!)
Initially, it sounded gimmicky and unreal. How could a company mass produce that much product while formulating each bottle for every customer, based on a short multiple choice questionnaire? It sounded a bit like a scam.
I was also skeptical because, when I first looked into it, silicones were included in the conditioners and that’s just one giant ‘no’ for anyone with curly hair. I even reached out to Function of Beauty to ask whether they offered any options without silicones and the response I got back was all about how silicones are actually good for your hair, etc, etc. To their credit, it was a personalised response written by a human that addressed my specific questions, and not an automated bot response. But even so, it remained a giant ‘no’ for a while longer for that reason.
I remained skeptical until Function of Beauty offered a conditioner without silicones.
I decided to give it a shot and, in a dramatic and unforseen turn of events, they became my favourite curly girl method products. Here’s how it went down.
Note: I’ve included a photo of the ingredients list below, but keep in mind it’s specifically for the selections I made. The ingredients will be different for you, depending on what selections you make.
Before
Before using Function of Beauty, I had been using curly girl-friendly Bondi Boost shampoo, and alternating between Shea Moisture Black Castor Oil deep conditioner and Garnier Hair Food deep conditioner. I liked the Bondi Boost shampoo because it seemed to clean my hair in a way that a lot of other sulfate-free shampoos didn’t, but I did feel like it was drying my hair out a bit.
I alternated between the two deep conditioners in place of regular conditioner because the Bondi Boost conditioner was nowhere near hydrating enough and my hair would tangle up again really easily. While both deep conditioners did an okay job, I wasn’t overwhelmingly impressed with either. I had to use relatively large scoops of each to properly detangle my hair I alternated between them because each one would periodically make my hair dry, and I was at the point where neither product was doing a wonderful job.
Queue Function of Beauty.
Function of Beauty: A Review
Upon heading to the Function of Beauty website and hitting ‘Take The Quiz’, I was met with three questions asking me all about my hair type and structure, complete with visual aids to help me understand what the questions were asking.
I have fine, curly hair that errs on the side of dry, so that’s what I selected.
On the next page I was asked what my ‘hair goals’ were. Because my hair is dry, it’s very prone to splitting, so I opted to fix split ends, hydrate and strengthen. I also like more volume in my hair with defined curls, so I chose those options. I clicked ‘no silicones’ and was hit with a warning asking me if that’s really what I wanted. I found that pretty strange - it read as though they were trying to convince me I needed silicones, but I’ve had really bad experiences with them in the past, along with basically everyone else with curly hair, so I ignored it and continued on with my hair journey.
The next step was all about how I wanted the shampoo and conditioner to look and smell. There are a bunch of fun smells and colours to choose from, but when it comes down to it, keeping things as natural as possible keeps your hair and scalp looking it’s very best. It didn’t say whether the dyes were derived from natural ingredients, and scents are a huge cause of scalp irritation for people in general, so I opted for no dyes and the eucalyptus scent because it says that one is 100% natural. Lavender is the other natural scent, or you can choose the fragrance-free option.
You can also choose the strength of your fragrance, so I guess the option to smell like a full-blown eucalyptus tree or lavender bush is available for willing participants, however, I chose the ‘light’ option.
Finally, I got to whack my name on the bottle. Another fun part is that you don’t necessarily have to put down your name. You could choose to have it say ‘function of - sexy beast’ if you so desired ;)
I then chose the size of the bottles I wanted and had the option to add hair masks and such. I opted for the smallest bottles and no hair masks since I’d never tried it before and, at $69 for both, omgosh it’s expensive.
I felt confident with my selections throughout the process because the site is so visual, and at no point was I confused.
Because I live in Australia it took about a month to arrive, but shipping was only $5 soooo I can’t really complain.
The Products
The shampoo and conditioner bottles came packed in a personalised box that had my name on it. It also came with a info pamphlet which also contained the product ingredients - something that isn’t available on the site. Each bottle was sealed to prevent leakage, and the pump lids were included separately in the box. It also came with some stickers that I think you can use to decorate the bottles with.
Because I chose no colour, the products were both a nice pearly shade of white and they did indeed smell like eucalyptus, but not like a whole tree. Winner.
I was a little surprised at how small the bottles were. I chose 8 oz, but we measure things in litres on my side of the planet so I didn’t know how much I was selecting. It’s really quite small for the price and, given that my hair often needs more conditioner than the average human, I wondered how far it would all actually go.
Wash
The directions are pretty basic and I did nothing different or fancy before piling it in my hair. It had been about four or five days since my last wash and it was tangled as all hell.
When my hair was completely saturated under the shower, I used one pump of the shampoo and used it on my roots. Since the product has no sulfates in it, I didn’t think it would lather properly and expected to have to use more of the product to work it through my hair, but that’s not what happened at all.
It foamed like crazy. One pump was almost enough to cover my entire scalp.
Quick note - I only ever wash my roots with shampoo and let it sink through the length when I rinse it out. I’ve always found it to be an effective washing method that still leaves my hair feeling fresh and clean, and that’s what I did with the Function of Beauty shampoo.
After washing it out, I moved on to the conditioner. Function of Beauty suggest starting with the conditioner on your roots and moving down through the length. I never put conditioner up past my ears because I find my hair goes really flat on top and doesn’t sit right when it’s dry, so I didn’t put it on my roots here either.
Again, I expected to have to use more product because my hair can be so dry and hard to detangle.
Wrong.
With one pump of the Function of Beauty conditioner, I began to detangle the length with my fingers and managed to do most of it using that small amount. I grabbed a little more to squish into the ends. I was super surprised at how little I needed to use. When I couldn’t detangle any more with my fingers, I used one of those detangling brushes to do that rest. Again, it was really, really easy to do.
The instructions say to leave the conditioner in for a few minutes before rinsing it out, so that’s what I did.
Drying
Once all the conditioner was out, I tipped my head upside down, brushed it again (gently), scrunched the excess water out with my hands to create curls and put it up with a microfibre towel for 20 mins.
Then I took it out, scrunched the excess water out again, parted it and let it air dry.
The result
The first thing I noticed was how soft my hair felt. It didn’t tangle up easily, it felt stronger and smoother, and the volume was 100% more impressive than any other curly girl-friendly products I’d used.
The second thing I noticed was that my curly were basically gone. It was voluminous and healthy and shiny, buuuuut the ‘curl definition’ selection I’d chosen in my hair goals didn’t seem to do anything.
I know I said Function of Beauty is an amazing curly girl method product - sit tight - I’m getting to it.
Having said that, I don’t really put products in my hair to keep it curly, and my hair felt so good after using Function of Beauty that I thought I’d try out a new product to see if I could get some curls back post-wash.
Wash, Take 2
I washed and conditioned my hair the exact same way about five days later, but instead of putting it up in a towel once I was done brushing it in the shower, I scrunched Not Your Mother’s Kinky Moves Curl Defining Hair Cream through the ends. I put it up in a microfibre towel again, left it for 20 mins, took it out, scrunched with the towel a couple of times, then parted it and let it air dry.
Result, take 2
Curls for days!
I was so, so impressed at how curly using a small amount of Not Your Mother’s made my hair. I’m usually a bit wary of leave-in products because my hair is really sensitive to too much moisture. It doesn’t really absorb products unless it’s wet, and often it just goes stringy.
Not this time.
The combination of Function of Beauty shampoo and conditioners and Not Your Mother’s Kinky Moves Curl Defining Hair Cream made my curls defined, hydrated, and knot-free.
Pros
I used to really struggle detangling my hair in the shower - even though my hair is fine, it took me a really long time to get all the knots out without breaking the ends off. After using Function of Beauty, I literally wash my hair every five days, even though I workout every day, and it’s about 80% less tangled. The amount of hair that falls with each wash has also significantly reduced.
Cons
No matter how you look at it, the products are expensive. One of my main concerns was that the small bottles would empty really quickly, based on the amount of product I’m used to using, but I honestly only use about one pump of each with every wash. Given that I wash my hair about once every five days, it should last quite a long time.
From the bizarre caution I got when opting not to use silicones to the lack of ingredients on the website, it’s pretty clear that Function of Beauty isn’t really designed for people who follow the curly girl method, but they are still amazing curly girl method-friendly products by default.
The Verdict
Even though my hair wasn’t curly just using Function of Beauty products, it moisturised and strengthened my hair more than anything else ever has. Since it’s not specifically a curly hair company, I don’t mind that my hair wasn’t curly without using additional products - it’s so hydrated and healthy-feeling that I do feel it’s worth it.
My hair feels smoother and less tangled for about double the time it used to and I’m losing far less hair than I was before. I also have a moderately sensitive scalp, but I haven’t had any adverse reaction to this one.
Function of Beauty is very pricey, but I also think it’s a fair price considering the company are genuinely formulating each bottle to order. Not only that, but it works. That’s pretty impressive. If you have the cash to spare, I would say it’s definitely worth trying it out.
