The K18 hair mask uses a peptide technology that promises to repair damaged hair from the inside out but how does the “miracle” K18 hair treatment actually work – and is it worth the money?
JUMP TO SECTION
Click the links below to jump to the relevant section:
UPDATE: K18 (and Olaplex for that matter) has a new competitor – the Living Proof Triple Bond Complex.
It calls itself a bond builder and claims to repair the hair.
In fact, Living Proof claims that it has been scientifically proven to make hair eight times stronger and is capable of reversing a year’s worth of damage with one use.
Beyond bond building, it reduces visible signs of hair damage including split ends, prevents breakage and future damage, and protects the hair from heat styling up to 232°C.
All of this doesn’t come cheap though and a 45ml bottle costs £42. We’ve ordered the Triple Bond Complex and will update this page once we’ve had the chance to compare it to the K18.
In the meantime, click the button below to learn more about the Living Proof bond builder, or keep reading for our K18 hair treatment review.
LEARN MOREOriginal K18 hair treatment continues below
If you’re anything like me, you’ll be fed up with hair products that promise so much but deliver so little.
I’ve tried countless hair treatments, masks, hair oils, and more in a bid to get the healthy and long hair of my dreams, and very few things have worked.
That was until I tried the K18 leave-in hair mask.
Unlike conditioners, which largely just create a barrier on the hair, or even Olaplex which temporarily mends the bonds in broken hair, the K18 hair mask promises to zero in on the disulfide bonds that make hair strong and bouncy.
These bonds, which you can think of as tiny bridges holding your hair together, are easily weakened and destroyed by chemicals, heat styling, and the environment.
The patented peptide sequence inside the K18 hair treatment works to reconnect the broken bridges and leave your hair looking and feeling healthier.
Below I explain everything you need to know about K18 – what the hair mask does, how it works, and if it’s worth the money. You can also see how well it fixed my own hair in my K18 before and after images.
If you’re interested in knowing if K18 UK is better than Olaplex, go to our K18 vs Olaplex article.
K18 gets its name from a sequence of peptides engineered by researchers at the University of Minho in Portugal. Using fragments of keratin taken from human hair, the team engineered eight small peptides and tested them to see how well they penetrated the hair, and which sequence created the strongest bonds with the hair proteins.
According to one research paper, the K18 peptide sequence had “just the right structure, adjacency, and length” to fit between the keratin chains in damaged hair. Once inside the hair, this sequence of peptides binds itself with the chains, while helping to repair the disulfide bonds.
K18 This image compares the benefits of different hair treatments
Disulfide bonds, also known as sulfur bridges, are the chemical bonds that give proteins their structure and stability. These bonds are formed between two sulfur atoms, each belonging to a cysteine amino acid within a protein molecule.
In terms of hair, disulfide bonds are important because they give hair its strength and shape. When you chemically treat hair, like when you chemically straighten, perm, or bleach your hair, these bonds break and then reform which ends up changing the hair’s shape. Excess heat can also damage these bonds.
Hair can’t repair itself because it doesn’t have any live cells to make keratin peptides so K18 is “the next best thing” because it mimics the structure of keratin found naturally.
BUY NOW
mamabella | mamabella The K18 leave-in hair mask consistency is shown
The official step-by-step guide on how to use the K18 mask are:
When your hair is first damaged, K18 suggests using the mask every wash. After six washes, your hair should be repaired enough to enter what K18 calls the “maintenance” stage.
From this point on you can use the mask every 3-4 washes to protect against daily damage.
mamabella | mamabella As you can see in the K18 before and after image above, the treatment took my hair from looking and feeling rough, with dry and straggly ends, to looking soft, and smooth
I used the K18 hair mask for three months using the step-by-step guide listed in the How to use K18 hair treatment section.
As you can see in the K18 before and after image above, the treatment took my hair from looking and feeling rough, with dry and straggly ends, to looking soft, and smooth. It also made the blonde look brighter.
The results aren’t a million miles away from the K18 before and after image released by the brand itself below.
K18 My results weren’t a million miles away from the K18 before and after image released by the brand itself (pictured)
In addition to the K18 leave-in mask, you can also buy two variations of the K18 shampoo and a K18 hair oil, which is the newest entry to the range.
The full range of consumer K18 hair products is as follows:
K18 In addition to the K18 leave-in mask, you can also buy two variations of the K18 shampoo, the K18 hair oil and the Damage Shield conditioner
The full range of professional K18 hair products includes:
There are also pro versions of the K18 shampoos.
In the UK, K18 is sold at:
The K18 brand was recently bought by Unilever and, given Unilever’s legacy, portfolio of brands, and international reach, I expect more K18 hair products to come to market faster than before.
I had recently destroyed my hair with box dyes. It wouldn’t grow, the colour looked faded and the ends were a mess so I decided to see if the K18 hair treatment worked as well as the online K18 hair mask reviews suggested.
I only wash my hair 2-3 times a week but, as the brand advises, I used the K18 mask after every wash for the first six washes. I used the Hairstory New Wash clarifying shampoo with it, and not the K18 shampoo. I then switched to only applying the K18 hair treatment once every three washes.
During my K18 review period, my hair looked noticeably healthier from the first application. It was less frizzy and felt smoother after blow-drying it, and it held its style much longer than it had before. It felt soft and had more bounce and volume. The blonde also looked brighter than it had in months, despite having not dyed it again.
mamabella | mamabella During my K18 review period, my hair looked noticeably healthier from the first application. It was less frizzy and felt smoother after blow-drying it, and it held its style much longer than it had before
The only way I can describe it is the look and finish you get from a salon.
What’s more, my hair started growing again! For the first time in years, my hair grew below my chin and is still growing – albeit slowly. It also has more body than before.
The downside is that K18 is expensive. Exceedingly so. Using it every wash for six washes means you’ll get through a lot of the hair mask in a short period.
However, if your hair isn’t too damaged, or once you reach the maintenance stage, even a small bottle of K18 lasts a while. Plus the impact it had on my hair was so significant that I think it’s more than worth the money.
BUY NOW
Victoria is founder and editor-in-chief of mamabella, freelance journalist and Mum. She has a passion for empowering people to feel beautiful whatever their age, size, skin type and budget
