
Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo - dossa
https://functionofbeauty.com
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dlss
Some suggestions/comments:

1\. I'd appreciate an unscented and uncolored option.

2\. I'd appreciate some details on how the questionnaire translates to a
changed formulation (why it's better, what research you used, ideally
technical with references). Soylent and/or Mealsquares did this reasonably
imo.

3\. I don't _really_ know if my hair is oily or dry, as I don't have a lot of
experience with hair. Maybe normal? but then again I think everyone probably
thinks that.

4\. Cool!

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dossa
Thanks for the comments! See my responses below :)

1) Essential oils correlates to the "unscented" option-- we use a variety of
essential oils in our bases and nothing artificial is added. Similarly, the
"yellow" color option is actually uncolored. We should specify that!

2) We're trying to make a cool feature in the account page and a follow-on
e-mail to mention some of the active ingredients at work in each formulation.

3) The oil level is a bit tougher to estimate but the easiest way is if you
wash your hair with shampoo/conditioner in the evening, how does your scalp
feel in the morning? If you dab it with a paper towel, would there be no oil
(dry), a little oil (normal), or a lot of oil (oily). We are trying to make
this process easier in hair lab:
[https://functionofbeauty.com/hair_lab/](https://functionofbeauty.com/hair_lab/)

4) Thanks!! We think so too.

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userium
Nice! My first impression of the website was positive. Some quick thoughts:

\- I would like to see how the bottle (and maybe also packaging) looks like in
real life before ordering.

\- I would prefer to fill in my personal hair profile before entering my full
name and email address.

~~~
dossa
Great suggestions! We are waiting for the touched up images of our bottles to
come back today so we can at least show the actual bottles on the homepage.
And that's a fair point- we collected the name to help demonstrate how it
looks on a bottle in the next screen and we also didn't want to lose people
during the order process for some glitches we were having which is why we get
an e-mail address. We'll probably be able to do without it soon though!

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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!

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spydertennis
I ordered this awhile back when it was posted in the YC Holiday Gift list.

I freaking love it. Relatively cheap and makes my hair feel better than the
Aveda products I was previously using.

~~~
dossa
That's really great-- we are super happy you are enjoying your set. We also
have a pretty easy way for reordering

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Nadya
Men served but the little example JS`/inc/loop.js` only pulls in feminine
names. May want to alternate a bit more. It comes off as a women's product
until I go to the order page.

This is the price point of my current stuff. I've sent a link to myself and
will try it out when I get home. If you guys can actually create me the
"perfect shampoo" for my needs at that competitive of a price, you've won
yourself a customer.

~~~
dossa
Awesome, thanks! That's a great point-- We actually had separated out our site
into Function of Beauty: For Him and For Her (with separate loops) but didn't
include it in the latest revision. I'll combine that now :)

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nextos
Have you considered taking into account the customer's skin bacterial
composition? Or making a shampoo that is bacterial friendly?

~~~
dossa
That's a great question-- the scalp and hair roots are arguably the most
important aspects to consider when developing formulations. We don't currently
take that into account but we should try to find an easy way to work with
customers on that!

~~~
nextos
Yep, I do some metagenomics in an autoimmunity lab in Cambridge and this
should be quite easy to address with a small and cheap trial. I'd definitely
buy a bacteria-friendly shampoo. Ping me if you need some help.

~~~
dwgetjg
Hey nextos, I am interested in beginning a project in a related area and would
really love to ask you some questions that few but a metagenomics researcher
could answer.

Could you send me an email at okolobeta@gmail.com if you're willing? (Or
provide your contact info?)

Thanks so much!

~~~
nextos
Emailed you. Contact info is on my profile nonetheless. Happy to help.

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aurbano
It looks really good, I can't wait to give it a go.

Any idea of when you'll start shipping worldwide? I'm based in the UK.

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danielovich
Can I become a distributor of this in the Nordics, Europe ?

