Hair Health Hotline: Is Custom Shampoo Worth it?

Hair Health Hotline is your direct access to dermatologists, trichologists, hairstylists, and other beauty pros. Each story in this series tackles a common hair or scalp concern and offers science-backed solutions to care for your strands.

Custom shampoo and conditioner is a huge trend in hair care these days. Brands such as Prose and Function of Beauty are increasingly popular for their custom shampoo and conditioner offerings, which are customized to your preferences, needs, and concerns. Thanks to these brands, it’s super easy to create a shampoo that’s suited to your hair type and to any problems you’re experiencing — plus you can often also choose the color of the bottle and the scent of the product, too.

In order to “formulate” your customized shampoo (or conditioner), you’ll usually be asked to fill in a user-friendly hair quiz, which asks about the nature of your hair, any hair concerns you have, plus some demographic and lifestyle questions. The website then tells you which ingredients it recommends for your hair care products, out of all of the ingredients they use (both Prose and Function of Beauty offer dozens of nature-derived ingredients and transparency as to what’s in your formulation).

While prices for these brands’ shampoos and conditioners are similar to those from luxe brands (think Olaplex or Kérastase), they’re a much bigger investment than your average drugstore shampoos, so why might you take the plunge with these customized hair products? We investigate, with the help of Alan J. Bauman, MD, founder, CEO, and medical director of Bauman Medical Hair Transplant & Hair Loss Treatment Center. Dr. Bauman has treated some 30,000 patients over the course of his career, and has been voted “America’s #1 Top Hair Restoration Physician” by Aesthetic Everything for seven years in a row.

Q: I keep hearing about custom shampoo lately. Is it really better than the store-bought kind for my particular hair type?

A: Custom shampoo is absolutely worth it for people with specific hair concerns which they’ve had trouble addressing with off-the-shelf shampoo. “This includes unique hair types or personal preferences in fragrance and ingredients,” says Dr. Bauman. “For those with standard hair types without specific concerns, regular shampoos and conditioners might suffice, making the additional cost of custom products unnecessary.”

Why Use Custom Shampoo Rather Than The Pre-Formulated Kind?

If you’ve been using regular, off-the-shelf shampoo and conditioner your whole life and are happy enough with the results, you don’t really need to invest in custom shampoo. With that in mind, customized shampoos and conditioners can offer you certain benefits you won’t find from a more basic product. “Custom products can be formulated to address specific hair issues like dryness, oiliness, or color-treated hair as well as curl and cuticle status,” says Dr. Bauman, adding, “You have more control over what goes into your product, which is ideal for those with allergies, sensitivities, or ethical concerns (e.g., vegan, cruelty-free).” In a nutshell, custom shampoo has the potential to improve your hair health if you haven’t had any joy addressing your hair concerns with other products. With these custom picks, you don’t have to choose between a scent you like and hair-healthy ingredients, and you can have it all.

Related: The 12 Best Shampoos For Thinning Hair, Tested & Reviewed

What Ingredients Should You Look for in Custom Shampoo?

While answering the quiz to formulate your custom hair products, and once your results have been processed, it’s important to check that you’re happy with all the ingredients that are included in your proposed products. Dr. Bauman explains that you should look for “natural oils, proteins, and botanical extracts beneficial for your hair type, scalp condition, hairstyling habits, shampoo frequency and other concerns,” while avoiding overly drying sulfates, potentially harmful parabens, and fragrances or dyes if you know you’re sensitive to these.

Dr. Bauman also cautions that you should go for reputable brands that are transparent about the ingredients they use and don’t use, and which have plenty of customer reviews available. The two examples we’ve used so far, Prose and Function of Beauty, both boast products that are cruelty-free, and free of sulfates and parabens. While taking your hair quiz, you’ll also have the opportunity to say whether you prefer a product without specific ingredients such as silicones or fragrance.

Is Custom Shampoo Right for Everyone?

Custom shampoo is a great idea, but it’s definitely not necessary for everyone. For one thing, if you’ve already found a pre-formulated shampoo that works for you, you’re all set.

Meanwhile, while the quizzes custom hair care brands make you take will certainly help you get a more personalized product than if you just pick something off the shelf, Dr. Bauman warns that it may still take some trial and error to get the exact formulation that complements your hair. “The custom beauty industry isn't as regulated as mainstream products, which could raise concerns about efficacy and safety,” he notes. “They also might look at only your hair needs and not your scalp needs, when it is important to take both into consideration.”

Custom shampoo and conditioner is best suited to those with hair concerns they find difficult to address, as well as those with hair types that are less common, and those who have sensitivities to certain ingredients that are hard to avoid on the shelves of a drugstore. “Formulated shampoos may be less necessary for individuals with 'normal' hair types without specific issues and those who are satisfied with the results from standard, off-the-shelf hair care products,” Dr. Bauman concludes. “If you have a special scalp condition or hair concern, seeking advice from a Certified Trichologist or a Board-Certified Hair Restoration Physician who is knowledgeable in scalp health is recommended.”

Have a hair health question you want answered? Send your Q to hairhotline@shape.com for a chance to have it featured in a future installment of Hair Health Hotline.

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