This is an unbiased non-sponsored review. I paid for my Prose Shampoo. This post does, however, contain affiliate links.
I was told at a very young age that I didn’t have nice hair and that it was my sister who got the good hair. And, it’s true, by comparison, my sister’s hair is much better than mine. It’s thick, a pretty natural chestnut color, before it went grey, has a lovely bounce, and has always required very little to look good. My hair is finer, the natural color (last I checked) is a dull swampy brown, is limp straight, and a bit lifeless. When people compliment my hair I tell them, “I don’t have good hair. I have a good hairstylist.” It takes work for my hair to look good.
I was raised to believe that you don’t cheap out on hair and shoes and the upside of not having great hair is that I needed to learn proper hair care to manage it. It’s similar to growing up with acne, as I did. My skin looks good now after years of needing to be vigilant about my skin.
For the past few years, I have been a Kevin Murphy haircare devotee. I am still pretty loyal to his products, but lately, his shampoo just wasn’t doing it for me. By nature, I have pretty oily hair and in order to keep my red permanent dye vibrant, I try to space my hair washings out as much as possible. What I was noticing about the shampoo I had been using was that I didn’t feel like I was getting a good wash. I’d get very little lather and often it would take repeating my wash three or four times for my hair to feel clean. Sulfates, which you want to avoid in your shampoos, are often what give that sudsy lather effect, and even though I avoid using shampoos with sulfates, I do like the feeling of my hair sudsing up. I could accept my low sudsing shampoo if I felt like I was getting a good clean, but I wasn’t. Even after washing my hair, it felt heavy, unclean, and like I was developing build-up on my scalp even though I don’t really use any hair products. I even purchased one of those shampoo massage scrubbers you can use to get a better wash with hopes it would help. For the record, I love my scalp shampoo massager but even that didn’t do much. To make matters worse, even though I have a pretty oily scalp, about two weeks after a fresh cut and color, the strands of my hair develop a frizzy dryness.
Clearly, it was time for a change and if you spend enough time on social media you will see an ad for Prose Shampoo. You can visit their website here if you haven’t. What could it hurt to take their extensive quiz and see how they would customize a shampoo for me?
Customized and Personalized: The Biggest Trends in Beauty
Currently, the biggest demand for beauty is personalization. Brands have realized that in order to stand out they will need to personalize and thanks to technology this has never been easier. YPulse’s research found that 72% of 13-34-year-olds agree that products that are personalized for each individual are superior to mass-produced products, and 74% are interested in buying products that are customized to their taste/made specifically for them. Customization is the perfect place for start-ups to shine, providing they can scale, and there are some well-established companies finding their patches in the garden, like Clinique’s Clinique ID allows a customer to pick a base lotion, gel, or jelly and choose cartridges based on their skincare needs. Lancome makes a personalized foundation that starts with a skin scan to find your perfect match and allows you to select your coverage and hydration levels. These are just a few examples and you should expect to continue to see this market explode in the coming years.
Obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all beauty product so I’m totally here for this customized beauty trend. I’m also a cynical Gen X’er who wonders just how much of it is hype. Despite the fact that I did take an extensive quiz on Prose and I am sure my shampoo was developed specifically for my needs, I’m not naive enough to think that there was a scientist in a lab who created a unique Bridgette-shampoo. However, even if my shampoo was created by adding a little from column a and a little from column b and mixing it with a dash from column c, it’s far more customized than anything I’m used to.
About Prose
Prose uses ingredients that are ethically harvested from all corners of the world in concert with trusted local partners. Every product they formulate is free of parabens, sulfates, phthalates, mineral oils, GMOs, and is always cruelty-free. Based on your preferences, they can make your formula vegan, gluten-free, silicone-free, dye-free, or fragrance-free. You can view their extensive ingredient list that includes the EWG (Environmental Working Group) score of each. Bottles are made out of 100% recyclable, BPA-free plastic, and Prose is transparent with its mandate to care for the planet. Their goal is to give back more than they take. To do that, they’ve cut their carbon and have offset the rest to become the first and only carbon-neutral custom beauty brand since their start in 2017.
The Prose Hair Quiz
In order to get your shampoo and any other hair care products Pose offers, you take an extensive quiz that asks questions about your hair type, color preferences, length, density, scalp sensitivity, stress level, amount of grey you have, and even your geographic location. Upon completion of your quiz, you will receive your shampoo formula along with other products you can purchase, like conditioner, hair masks, hair supplements, dry shampoo, and more. Like their shampoo, these products are customized based on your needs.
To start, I only purchased the shampoo. I have no complaints about my Kevin Murphy Autumn Angel Apricot Rose Color Enhancing Shine Treatment that acts as my conditioner and keeps my red hair vibrant and I don’t use a lot of other hair care products to justify purchasing the other products Prose offers. However, I’m not opposed to checking them out in the future. What I wanted to address was my most pressing concern, my shampoo.
Prose Shampoo: My Review
Be prepared for your Prose order to take a bit to come in. It’s not an outlandish wait, between 10 to 12 days, but in this day and age of Amazon Prime and same-day shipping, it can feel like a lifetime, especially when you are over your current shampoo and excited to try Prose. However, we are dealing with personalized products, a wait is to be expected. Upon receipt, the bespoke look of the bottle is endearing, and seeing my name on the bottle along with my zip code was a nice touch. Contained in the box was a pump that screwed into the top of the bottle. To continue their green initiative, you can opt-out of receiving a pump with future orders in favor of reusing the pump that came in your original packaging. My love of good packaging aside, the true test was in how well it worked.
The only thing I wish about Prose shampoo is that I ordered it sooner. After first use, my hair felt completely different. Not only did I get a good lathery clean with half the amount of repeat washing I was doing with my Kevin Murphy shampoo, I felt a lightness and a movement to my hair that I hadn’t felt in ages. Often, by the end of the day on days I washed my hair, I hated how my hair felt near my face and within hours I would whip it up into a clip or ponytail, and, definitely, by the second day, my hair went up. After months of being frustrated by my hair, Prose made me actually like it again and even the day after my hair wash I was still wearing it down. It’s an important note that I started using my Prose shampoo about a week prior to a cut and color, which is the time I find my hair the least manageable, which says a lot about the shampoo. By my second wash with Prose, I signed up for a subscription plan to receive regular reorders.
This past weekend, I curled my hair, something I try to do only occasionally to avoid damaging my fine strands. Normally what happens is after a night of sleeping on my curls is I wake up with them completely out of sorts unless I wear a sleeping cap. I decided to test my curled hair sans cap to see what would happen with this shampoo change. When I woke up, my curls were softened and expectedly flatter, yet my hair still looked good enough to wear down.
If you don’t like your Prose shampoo formula you can always revise and Prose is always evolving and updating its formulas to bring you the best shampoo for your hair. I find the price for their shampoo reasonable, especially for a customized product, but others find the $25 price to be expensive. I guess it is all relative. I’ve always bought salon-quality shampoo so I’m used to paying that amount for my products. However, if you’re used to buying shampoo at the drugstore, it’s an investment, but definitely worth it.
Ready to change up your hair care routine for a more personalized experience? Check out Prose here.
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