SugarBearHair Review
Some of you may remember a post I made a while back about taking care of damaged hair, and what sort of vitamins I take and why. I mentioned SugarBearHair, but I didn't go into great length about what sort of experience I had with it, and for good reason! I was waiting. I started on SugarBear back in November, and after three months I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how they worked for me and how they didn't. In the hopes of helping anyone out there who's on the fence about making the commitment to buy them, I'll tell you about my experience with them for the sake of education.
Disclaimer: I was not asked to write a review for SugarBear, nor did I receive their products for free in exchange for endorsement or anything like that. This is purely feedback based on something I bought, had thoughts about, and maybe would not buy again. Allow me to elaborate.
Back in October, when I had some spending money, I tried out quite a few products. One of them was SugarBear. I'd been eyeing them for a while, not just because of how adorable they look, but because a lot of people I followed on Instagram were endorsing them. I've noticed that this has become a popular selling tool, but that's an analysis for another blog post.
The main selling point for me was that the ingredients are easy to read. I had considered other hair supplements before committing to buying this one, but I was put off by the lengthy ingredients lists. This is purely a personal choice; I can tell you with confidence that long lists of ingredients lists do not inherently mean a product is bad for you. However, due to my allergies, I have to be extremely careful where supplements get their ingredients from. Knowing the SugarBear was committed to creating gluten-free, soy-free, and cruelty-free products was comforting, and their considerably shorter and easier to read ingredients list was comforting.
SugarBear's ingredients list, according to their website.
I purchased a six-month pack of supplements, which had the added bonus of coming with a cute little makeup bag, a bamboo-bristled brush, some stickers, and one of those hair ties that's designed so you can wear it on your wrist without it cutting off the circulation to your fingers. I didn't use all of these; I split my vitamins with my sister-in-law, who has a very different hair type and texture than I do -- I'll explain more on that in a bit.
Pros
If you don't like taking pills, these are for you. I've raved about the pros of gummies as vitamins before, so I won't go into intense detail here. As I do have difficulty swallowing pills for medical reasons, however, I can't recommend gummies enough. And they're fun to eat, so it doesn't even feel like something you have to take in the morning.
They taste really good. I know everyone says this, but they do! They smell really good too, in the kind of way that gives me an almost painful sensory reaction just from opening the bottle. Super weird, I know.
It kind of forced me to create more concrete habits with my daily routine. I noticed that while I was taking the supplements, I put a lot more effort into self-care as a part of my day. This has deteriorated since coming off of them, whoops.
My nails grew rock-hard. I've always struggled with my nails, and it seems weird that this is what I would value getting from my supplements, but I went from having flimsy nails that resembled sad and broken flags at half-mast to having... probably what normal people nails feel like. I can actually grow them a little bit now because they don't peel down the middle (sorry to the visually creative readers out there).
As a business, SugarBear is responsible and gives the impression of genuinely caring about their customers. Whenever I've contacted them (I had to report a bottle without a safety seal), they were prompt and courteous. They sent me another bottle for my troubles, too -- and some extra stickers.
Cons
My skin got really bad. I've never had a huge problem with acne, and to be honest, I wouldn't call what happened to my face "acne". I definitely had something weird going on with my skin, however; the texture of the skin on my face got sort of weird and bumpy, like I had lots and lots of little whiteheads. This seemed to be especially noticeable on my forehead, but they were all over my face. But in the time that I was taking the supplements, they never produced any sort of "head", so they never went away, and I couldn't pop them. Hence referring to my face as a minefield as of late. As soon as I stopped taking the vitamins, I noticed this slowly start to improve... very slowly.
Verdict
I would probably not buy these again. They're a little expensive for my budget, and truthfully... I didn't notice that much of a difference while I was on them. In my hair, at least. My nails are amazing right now and I'm kind of sad that they will more than likely go back to their sad and pathetic selves once the last of the supplements are out of my system.
That said, I will admit that my weird Irish/Chinese combination hair type that my parents so lovingly bestowed upon me is a bad point of reference. My parents both have very strong, fast-growing hair. I've never really measured how fast my hair grows, but the fact that I can't let my roots grow out much more than a month probably gives a fair indication. Just from eyeballing my hair growth from an array of selfies, I think I grew about an inch of hair every month that I was on SugarBear... but again, this is sort of normal for me and my family, so this was wasted on me.
My sister-in-law probably got more use out of them than I did. She does have a very different hair texture to me; where mine is wavy, thick, and possesses levels of bedhead power no mere mortal should have, hers is comparatively straight and fine. She enjoyed the supplements as well, but I feel like based on the fact that her hair didn't already grow as fast as mine does, it's easier to see those differences. Something to keep in mind.
Overall, if you don't have hair that grows like a weed, would like hair that grows like a weed, and are not prone to acne or weird skin problems, I would say go for it. SugarBear is an ethical and responsible business that I would buy from again, and their product is pretty great. Plus, the freebies that come with your order are genuinely thoughtful and useful products that they could sell on their own; I still use my hairbrush and I'm actually so spoiled now I won't use any others, they just don't feel as nice (and they tend to hurt me).
Hopefully this helps anyone considering buying it! I'll try and do more reviews soon, I know I have a terrible backlog of things I've said I'll review and never have... stay tuned!
DJ
