K18 Hair Mask Review: Here Are My Honest Thoughts

K18 uses a patented peptide in their formula that can penetrate deep into the hair shaft and reconnect broken keratin bonds to make hair stronger and feel smoother. While a lot of masks and conditoners do help make your hair feel smooth, most will only work on the outer layers of the hair and some even use ingredients to mimic smoothness without actually fixing the problem. Have you ever used a mask that feels great but then you wash your hair and it feels super tangly and dry? That’s because the conditioner you used sat on top of your hair but isn’t actually repairing from the inside, usually due to the silicone or silicone-like ingredients in the formula. Which brings me to the first thing that’s a bit odd about this mask, you don’t condition before you apply it. You just shampoo, towel-dry and then apply.

When you’re used to shampoo and conditioner tag teaming this does feel a bit strange but it makes sense as you want to give the peptides the best chance reaching your hair cuticle so it can’t have anything on it before you use. Most people only need one pump of this to work– another thing that felt entirely wrong but worked for me.

I have mid-length, Afro-textured hair and one pump was fine to apply from the tips to roots and comb through. If you have longer hair, start with one and then do another if you feel like it’s not enough. The mask is small and the price is high but it’s very concentrated so you really don’t need a lot to see a difference. I applied a heat protector straight after as it doesn’t claim to be one, and then got to drying my hair.

I’m not one for theatrics (often) but I genuinely gasped when I felt how smooth my hair was and how little breakage had happened after blow-drying and straightening, plus, my hair looked shinier too and this was after just one use. K18 suggest using for at least 4 washes to see the biggest difference but if this is the impact after just one, I’m beyond excited to see how far this can take my hair.