Thoughts on Personalized Haircare: Prose Hair
- - This post is sponsored by Prose Hair. - -
If you've been on Instagram lately, you've probably seen ads for various personalized hair brands. One of the brands that caught my eye was Prose Hair and I was over the moon when they reached out to see if I'd like to try out their system for myself. To be quite honest, I've never fully wrapped my head around luxury haircare. My favorite haircare brand has to be Not Your Mother's brand which is as good as it can get for good affordable haircare. I'm always interested to try luxury haircare because in the end the real question is whether or not I would re-purchase the products once they're through. So what are my thoughts? Let's get on with the review!
With most personalized haircare brands, you'll create an account online where you'll proceed with completing a questionnaire for the brand. In the questionnaire you'll cover all your hair wants and needs. They'll learn as much as they can about your hair - is it dry/oily/combo, does it get greasy quickly, does it get heat styled often? They'll determine what your normal stress levels are, what your diet tends to be like, and what your workout preferences are so they can gauge your lifestyle. They even ask for your zip code so they can include additional ingredients that combat geo-aggressors such as pollution, water quality, and humidity - this was one I've never seen before and thought was pretty cool! I don't really feel like I have too many of those issues where I love, but I know pollution and humidity is a big factor a lot of people have to deal with in other parts of the world. You can customize this down to the very last detail - you even have the option to have your products be vegan, gluten-free, silicone-free, or even fragrance free! Getting the option to choose your own fragrance is always a nice added touch - everyone has their own particular scent preferences and it's nice to have an option. I went with the natural scent because I'm very picky about scented products. The questionnaire took no more than 5-10 minutes to complete and just like that, my hair products were ready to be made in their labs. In about a week, the products arrived and I was so excited to give it a try. (Much to my dismay, I had just washed my hair the night before I received my set so I had to wait a little bit until it was hair-washing time again.)
At first I didn't realize that there was a little tray in the box that the products were shipped in that contained pumps for the shampoo + conditioner. Silly me didn't know so I just uncapped the products and poured them onto my hands. Luckily the products were pretty runny in consistency so I didn't really have any issues with getting product out of the bottle. It actually wasn't until I was breaking down the box to recycle that I noticed the pumps. So note to you all - rip that tray out so you can get to the pumps!! One thing I actually didn't love about the conditioner being runny was that it didn't feel like it was grabbing onto my hair well. I also found the hair mask to be a tad too runny in consistency which just made for a hot mess when trying to handle the jar in shower. I think because the consistency of these two products were so thin, I was probably overcompensating and adding a bit too much which led to my hair feeling sticky, not clean, and getting greasy much quicker. It really just takes a few times experimenting to really find what combination (# of pumps) works for you.
I mentioned my qualms to the Prose Hair team and they quickly had their chemists in the Research & Development Team in Paris assess the formula and send me a revised one. The formula is definitely a lot more thick now and I feel a little goes a long way. My hair is so silky smooth and smells light and fresh. I don't really like to waste products and usually will pass on products to my friends. But since the products were customized for me, I wanted to keep trying to see if I could find ways to make the products work for me. I find the runnier texture of the first hair mask to be difficult to work with, but it still makes a great pre hair wash mask. So when I jump in the shower, I'll usually apply my facial oil cleanser and then take a scoop of the mask and apply it to my dry hair and throw it up in a bun while I exfoliate and shave. Using one of the wide-tooth combs also helps me disperse the mask in my hair without using too much. I find it makes my hair silky smooth and it requires me to use the teensiest amount of conditioner in my ends afterwards. I definitely do prefer the thicker consistency of my re-formulated mask though - so be sure to speak up if there's something you'd like changed.
Overall there weren't too many things that were "wrong" with my hair - I've trained it to be good in the last few years and definitely have seen a huge change in my hair over the years. It used to be extra wavy and frizzy but has mostly tamed itself and straightened out since I started washing/styling it less. Since I was starting to wash my hair less and used more styling products (hair spray, dry shampoo, etc.), I noticed that my hair just felt a bit more grimey near my roots. I even resorted to using a hair scrub (which was a tad too stripping) to help get this excess build up out. Some of the hair concerns I wanted addressed were definitely frizz and buildup, and as you can see my products have purify & detox + smooth solution as their goals. Overall I do feel like they helped with the frizz because my hair was a lot smoother after using the products. Regarding the purifying and detox, I'm not necessarily certain it helped more than any other shampoo to really combat that build up. But of course my hair still felt clean and never stripped, so in terms of hair cycles it did work. My 2nd/3rd day hair looked great so I didn't really reach for dry shampoo as much which led to less build up. However, I still reach for hairspray to keep my curls intact and that can build up if I curl my hair a few times in one week (even though I opt for the non-crunch hairsprays). I did mention in my questionnaire that I do a lot of heat styling and my hair honestly looks good so kudos (no split ends in sight) and I think the heat repair aspect of my pre-wash hair mask has contributed even more to that. Silky smooth hair - check!
Sold individually, the products start off at $25 each - but prices do vary. Now I know this can be a bit on the pricier side for a haircare product, but I think that Prose does a great job of addressing your hair needs and giving you a replacement if you find that those needs aren't met. They were so great about replacing my set when I stated all of my issues that I had. I've seen others mention that they re-formulated it for them as well if the scent wasn't quite what they imagined or if it was too strong. As I mentioned, a little goes a long way so I can see these bottles lasting quite a while in my shower. And also, they're pretty incredibly packaged and are easy on the eyes in the shower! And anyways, shampoo/conditioner/hair masks are some of the products you use the most, so why not treat yourself and splurge?
Would I repurchase? Maybe! I have a lot of haircare products queued up to try/use so I need to give those a try before I can re-purchase any new hair products. {read: I need to finish up my ridiculous stash of products} The great thing about being able to purchase products individually is that you can definitely re-purchase individual products and not have to get the entire set. I also have a favorite hair mask that has been tried and true for more than half a decade and while the Prose one is nice, I don't think I'd ever replace my other one. Of course they're different - one's a pre-wash and one is more for after. I only wash my hair 2-3 times a week and don't really see myself using one each time so it just doesn't seem as practical to have both. If you're unhappy with the current state of your hair, I highly encourage you to give this range a try as I think you may really be able to find products that are perfectly suited for all your hair needs to really get your hair to that state that you want it to be in!
Have you ever tried a personalized haircare system?
Would you be interested in giving Prose a try?
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This post is sponsored in partnership with Prose Hair, but all opinions remain my own.
This post contains affiliate links. Feel free to read more on my disclaimer.