*This post is not sponsored, does not include affiliate links, and is nothing other than my personal opinion/babbling.*
Hello, fellow product-junkies, and welcome to another post about an impulse beauty-buy!
Well, that’s not totally true. The truth is I had my eye on this product for at least three months. In fact, I couldn’t take my eye off this product because I’d get at least one–if not two–ads for this on Instagram a day.
I’m talking about Nutrafol hair vitamins, and if you’re anything like me (i.e. obsessively Googling “how to make hair grow thicker” at least eighty percent of the time you spend on the internet), you’ve probably seen ads for this too.
Let me give you a little background. I spent the better part of my childhood and adolescence wishing I had less hair (oh what I fool I was) because the hair on my head was essentially an untamable puff-ball (and also, you know, I had a mustache and a unibrow–middle school wasn’t easy).
It took me until freshman year of college to finally read Lorraine Massey’s Curly Girl Handbook, start the Curly Girl Method (oh what a ride it’s been since then, but more on that some other time), and figure out that I had this massive head of curly hair.
Things were great for about two years. I could step out of the shower, rake some product through my hair and go–I was seriously living the lazy girl’s dream. My hair, which I had hated for so long, became a major part of my identity.
I’m not afraid or ashamed to admit that, people. Taking control of my hair, rocking my natural texture, and all the self-care involved in curl-upkeep seriously improved my self-confidence. I felt beautiful, I felt womanly, I felt like a natural goddess.
Then my hair started falling out.
I’m not going to make a long story much longer by telling you guys all the different ways I tried to deal with the fallout or all my different theories for why it happened (nutrition? stress? long term anti-depressant usage?)–the fact is that I was shedding hair worse than my cat, and my curls just weren’t curling anymore, no matter what I tried. It looked like I had limp noodles growing out of my scalp. (See more embarrassing photo evidence).
So then I made the biggest mistake ever and chopped all my hair off. I mean, I looked cute with a bob and everything but my hair will not. grow. back.
Fast forward almost three years (and a lot of hair product) later, and enter Nutrafol. I started seeing ads and reviews for this product about three or four months ago, and there are a few reasons I finally decided to try it, despite the hefty price tag ($88 a bottle! For vitamins!):
- Nutrafol is classified as a “nutraceutical,” which means that it’s made up of all-natural botanical ingredients, but unlike most OTC vitamins, the ingredients (and finished product) go through medical-grade clinical testing for optimal results. (1)
- Nutrafol is designed to target many different factors of hair loss. It’s not just about curing a nutrient deficiency with a vitamin, it’s about using bio-available botanical ingredients to target things like stress (cortisol production), “microinflammation,” free radicals, and hormones related to hair growth. Basically, from what I understand, it’s taking a holistic approach to hormone balance and hair growth.
- Nutrafol comes in “for her” and “for him” formulations, which tells me they’re actually taking into account the hormonal differences between men and women. They aren’t marketing this as a magic pill that will work the same for everyone.
- Speaking of magic pills, their website is extremely straightforward, transparent, and the company is very clear that it’s going to take consistency (taking four pills each and every day) and time (at least six months) to see results.
All of this is a super long-winded way of saying f*ck it, I’ve been convinced–I bought the stuff and I’m going to give it a try.
Here’s my before picture:
I’ll check back in with you guys in a month! Fingers crossed…
(Oh, and to answer my own question–I’m already beautiful, thank you very much. We all are).
What do you think? Have you tried Nutrafol? Are you as attached to your hair as I am? Let me know in the comments below!
Invisible Exclamation Points 