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What is the cult-favourite K18 hair mask and does it actually work? I tried it to find out

WORDS BY ALYSSA FORATO

 

Calling all the damaged hair girlies.

My hair has been through the wringer. As someone who constantly gets bored of her appearance, it takes a lot of self-restraint to not dye my hair a different colour every month. I like to think of my appearance as my own personal avatar, and I love customising it.

Bleach, dye, heat – my hair’s been through it all. And she’s tired. Prone to breakage, constantly dehydrated and begging for nourishment, no hair mask or haircare routine seems to replenish and revitalise my dry, suffering ends. 


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I was sitting in the office when my friend started talking about a new hair treatment she was trying called K18. Since she’s the queen of healthy, shiny hair, I immediately spun around in my chair and asked for more details.

What is K18?

K18 is a molecular repair hair mask that claims to reverse hair damage while taking only four minutes to work. The mask is a bond builder that supposedly reverses damage caused by heat styling, chemicals and colour damage. The peptide treatment repairs hair damage from inside the hair’s core, reconnecting the broken polypeptide chains to strengthen hair elasticity. It also claims to moisturise and detangle hair, leaving it feeling soft and restored.

Since K18 is a leave-in hair mask, you don’t need to worry about conditioning. After shampooing, you just hop out of the shower, towel-dry your hair and apply the treatment. After four minutes, you have the green light to style your hair how you normally would. The K18 experts recommend using it four to six times in a row when starting out, then every three to four washes as needed.

After hearing all about its perks, I rushed to the K18 website so I could get my hands on this miracle mask. My eyes popped out of my sockets when I saw the $94 price tag, and I quickly closed the tab before I could impulsively add to cart and check out.

Months later, I forked out the cash and justified buying K18 for the sake of Fashion Journal readers (and just as an excuse to buy it really). So does K18 actually work? I tried it out so that you don’t have to.

First use

After double-shampooing and thoroughly towel-drying, I combed out all the knots and divided my hair into sections. It felt wrong to leave the shower without doing my usual hair mask and conditioner routine, and clawing through my hair with a wide-tooth comb was no easy feat. 

I pulled out the small bottle from the box and stared at it with wonder. How was this tiny thing supposed to treat and repair my untameable mane? My friend had warned me not to use a lot of product, otherwise, my hair would feel like straw. “A little goes a long way, trust me,” she’d said.

Following the instructions, I applied the K18 one pump at a time. I didn’t have much faith in three to four pumps covering my entire head (the recommended amount for people with thick hair), and I was struggling not to apply more, as I’m used to doing with hair products. I’m glad I didn’t cave because brushing four pumps through my hair left it feeling smooth post-shower.

Since it was a late-night wash, I went to bed with wet hair (yes, I know this is bad but I’m often too busy to wash my hair during the day) and hoped it would look half-decent in the morning. To my amazement, my hair looked hydrated and my waves were defined. I usually can’t comb through my hair after a shower – I have to let it dry in curl clumps, otherwise, my waves simply don’t cooperate and turn into a frizzy mess.

However, that wasn’t the case after using K18. I didn’t feel the need to heat-style it and tame any frizz, and simply let it be, which is a world first for me. In the below photo, the left is before I used K18 for the first time, and the right is after. You can see how much more defined my waves look.

Second use

For my second rodeo, I repeated the same steps and went to bed with wet hair. Something I did notice after stepping out of the shower was that because my hair was so knotted after shampooing and not conditioning, I shed quite a lot of hair when I combed it before applying the K18. This wasn’t entirely new to me; I do lose hair when I condition it normally. I wasn’t entirely sure if I was shedding more this time around, or if it was just the usual amount.

Either way, I woke up the next morning with – once again – beautiful-looking hair. My waves weren’t as intense as the first round of K18 (although how I slept could’ve been a factor), but were still sitting nicely. My hair also felt more hydrated when it dried.

The third and fourth use

I applied the K18 during the day for my third and fourth attempts at the treatment to see if there was much of a difference. Upon inspection, I noticed that my waves sat extra nicely and my hair’s wave pattern was more pronounced (although I also swore off heat styling while trying out K18, so that may have been a factor). My locks felt extremely soft, especially at the ends where my hair usually feels dry and brittle.

At the end of my first K18 journey, my hair is looking far healthier and more hydrated than when I started. There are still some dry ends, but it’s nothing like how it was before. I noticed the biggest difference in my first two treatments, but my hair did continue to improve in the second half of my K18 cycle.

So, would I recommend K18? If you have very damaged hair that needs some serious restoration added to your haircare routine, then yes. The more damaged your hair is, the more visible the difference will be after using it. If your hair is already luscious and you’re simply in the market for a new hair mask to maintain that health, save your money and give this one a miss, IMO.

For more about the K18 Peptide Mask, head here.

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