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If you’ve been up to date on the latest beauty trends and haircare trends, you’ve probably heard the hype about the viral K18 hair mask. With over 23,000 reviews on Amazon at 4.3 stars and over 9,000 reviews on Sephora at 4.5 stars, beauty audiences have been raving about the benefits of K18 hair products. It’s supposed to transform dry, damaged hair in just 4 minutes, so the big question is with claims like this, does it really work??

For some context, I have lower back-length hair and it’s been my biggest goal in life to have super long, healthy, elven-like hair. The trouble is, I have fine hair and hair that’s prone to breakage and fallout from stress. I’ve rarely cut my hair, only a slight trim once every several months, but I have been almost every natural hair color you could think of. My natural color is dark ashy brown, but I’ve been a redhead, blonde, black, and (currently) reddish brown. The last time I went blonde was about three years ago and boy does bleach do a number on my hair! Every time I’ve gone blonde, I’ve suffered from straw-like tresses and TONS of breakage regardless of how gently I treat my hair (which is pretty gentle). I sleep with silk hair caps, don’t wash everyday, and don’t go to bed with wet hair. I also never style my hair minus a quick blow dry after showering to alleviate my scalp dermatitis acting up from wet roots. I’m just about as gentle as you can get with hair, but even after I returned to brown, my hair has still been slow to recover from a year of bleach. I even currently use henna hair dye (which has helped my hair considerably), but the ends are still just SO broken! I couldn’t bring myself to go for a chop, so I turned to K18 to try and bring my hair back to life.

Alright, back to the big question: Does K18 work? The short answer (in my experience): YES. The long answer? I’m going to try the K18 treatment for a few more months and update you further, but so far, I really love my results. I will say, btw, that this post is not sponsored and is my honest review of K18 haircare. I know some people don’t have a great experience, but I personally have!

Keep reading and I’ll tell you more about how K18 molecular repair hair mask changed my hair…

The Before

Like I mentioned before, I’ve struggled with scraggly and crunchy split ends post hair bleaching, even after going away from blonde. I can still tell which parts of my hair used to be bleached just from the texture difference! I’ve tried oils, moisturizers, conditioners, etc. and nothing seemed to really help. Plus, other products I’ve used have either left my hair a weird, stiff texture or made it greasy feeling.

The K18 System

I will preface this by saying that I do a LOT of reading about haircare, from treatments to products and techniques, so I had heard about K18 being the latest “holy grail” haircare product to try, and I stayed away for a while because the price point is higher and some people said it made their hair feel odd. But, I finally found a low-investment way to try out this system without losing out on much if it didn’t work for me.

To try things out (since K18 is a bit pricey!), I found this K18 Damage Repair Essentials kit on Amazon for about $50. It’s great because K18 recommends using their Peptide Prep detox shampoo prior to using the K18 hair mask, and the K18 Molecular Repair hair oil as a finisher after using the mask.

The After

The instructions on the kit say to wash your hair with the detox shampoo and then to skip conditioner, towel dry your hair, apply the mask, and wait four minutes. After waiting the required time, you can apply the hair oil, and other styling products, then style your hair as usual (which for me, consists of simply blow drying lightly).

After applying the mask, my hair instantly felt smoothed and the ends felt a LOT more silky than usual, even when wet! Once my hair dried, I was thoroughly surprised at how smooth my hair felt, especially on the broken ends. My hair was less tangled and snagged less too! Obsession loading…

For my second use, I skipped washing my hair for one day in between, then repeated the whole routine (detox shampoo, mask, then oil). The kit recommended using the system after 4-6 washes, then going to once a month or so. I styled my hair the exact same way I always do, with just a basic blow dry and my hair feels so much smoother and sleeker!

Overall, I’d definitely recommend the K18 haircare system if you suffer from damaged and brittle hair. It’s worth the investment IMO and is a staple for those with long hair! I’ll keep using it and keep you updated on my progress!

If you want to try the K18 haircare system, I’ve linked it below for you to shop:

What are some of your essentials for haircare?

Xx Tabi