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Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo

functionofbeauty.com

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Re: Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo

#2

Post by 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.

Re: Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo

#3

Post by 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.

Re: Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo

#4

Post by woah »

dossa wrote: post #2

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 it…

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.

Re: Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo

#5

Post by 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!

Re: Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo

#6

Post by dossa »

Nadya wrote: post #3

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…

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 :)

Re: Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo

#7

Post by dossa »

dlss wrote: post #5

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 the…

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/

4) Thanks!! We think so too.

Re: Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo

#9

Post by dossa »

nextos wrote: post #8

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

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!

Re: Show HN: Function of Beauty (YC W16) – Personalized Shampoo

#10

Post by hientnguyen »

woah wrote: post #4
dossa wrote: post #2

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 it…

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.

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.

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