K18 hair mask review: Does it actually work?
K18 leave-in molecular repair mask has been touted as the holy grail of bond builders, repairing your hair from the inside out. But does it work? Here’s my honest review.
K18 leave-in molecular repair mask has been touted as the holy grail of bond builders, repairing your hair from the inside out. But does it work?
Unlike many other bond builders on the market that apparently repair the outside of each strand, the K18 leave-in mask is supposed to be best for internal hair care. Basically, it’s meant to reach right through to the keratin bonds and heal them, giving you healthier and more resilient hair.
I was after a bond repair product because I have curly hair tangles very easily and I wanted to know if the issue stemmed from inside the hair strand. I read a lot of positive reviews, mostly from people with bleached hair and visible damage. I was spending about half an hour detangling my hair with conditioner every wash day and I was pretty desperate to fix that problem (here’s how I actually fixed the problem).
According to the K18 hair product website, your hair will be ‘like new’. It’s also meant to be for all hair types and works its magic in just four minutes.
I was sceptical, but I love a popular product and a bold claim so I decided to give it a crack. Here’s what happened.
K18 hair mask review
The first thing I noticed about K18 bond repair mask was how expensive it was, particularly when I didn’t know if it would work or not. I bought a 5ml sample size tube which still costs about AU$16, but I figured it was better than buying a full-price 50ml bottle for $120. Since I only had a small amount, I didn’t have much to experiment with so I followed the instructions carefully.
According to the instructions, you’re supposed to wash your hair with shampoo but don’t condition it. Towel dry hair until it’s damp and rake one pump of the K18 treatment through your hair, adding more as needed, working from the roots to the ends. Let it sit for four minutes, style hair as normal.
For someone with curly hair that tangles easily and relies on conditioner alone to detangle, the prospect of not conditioning my hair after shampooing was frightening. Nevertheless, I gritted my teeth and got on with it.
What happened
As expected, my hair was nice and tangled after using shampoo. I briefly tried to detangle with my fingers but gave up quickly, hoping K18 would solve those problems. My anxiety levels increased again as I towel-dried unconditioned and matted hair.
My hair was damp by the time I picked up the tube of K18. There was no drip at all. I squeezed a bit onto my hand and started trying to rake it through. The product is white, thick and feels a lot like a conditioning mask to touch.
Sadly, it did not behave like a conditioner.
I immediately started applying it to the ends of my hair, where the largest knots were, slowly trying to detangle with my fingers while trying to imagine the shiny, lush locks I’d have once this painful process was over. I ended up using a tangle teaser to get them out properly, before working the rest of the product up the strand.
I’m not going to lie, it was tough.
The product has very little slip, which essentially means it won’t properly detangle hair. This process took quite a long time. I did eventually manage to get a brush through it, making sure each strand was coated. My damp hair felt brittle with the product in it, but I hoped that would fade away as it dried.
By the time I was done, I’d used most of the 5ml tube. I didn’t use any other product and left it to air dry.
The result
I would actually call this a disaster.
My hair felt like hay. It was crisp, brittle and flat. There was no curl definition at all—there was barely a wave. My hair hated the lack of conditioner and it really hated being detangled with virtually no assistance from a product with high slippage.
Sometimes, when my hair becomes brittle after using a high-protein treatment, it softens throughout the day. I wondered if that would happen with K18. It did not. Nor did it soften the next day. By day three, it was matted and looked terrible and I had to wash it again. I used conditioner this time, without K18, and everything went back to normal.
Usually, my hair becomes brittle when I use a product with too much protein. I did some research and found K18 is not a protein treatment. It has no protein at all, so that can’t have been the problem.
I noticed no improvement in my hair after using K18.
The second attempt
After the disaster, I left the tube of K18 in the bathroom and didn’t look at it again for months. It wasn’t until I went to the hairdresser that I decided to give it another go.
The hairdresser used K18 on my hair, but he applied it after conditioner and on very wet hair. I asked why he did that because the packet explicitly says to use K18 on unconditioned hair. He confirmed you are technically only supposed to use it on unconditioned hair, but he also said it doesn’t really matter—the product works whether you condition it or not, but it might be a bit less effective if you’ve conditioned and rinsed your hair. When he was done cutting my hair, it did feel amazing. There was no dryness at all, like there was after my own attempt with K18.
I was floored and decided to give it another go.
I washed my hair, conditioned and detangled, as normal. This time, I didn’t towel dry my hair. I applied K18 pretty soon after getting out of the shower. It was easy to apply this time and I brushed it from root to end with ease. I let it drip dry. My hair felt great. I decided to give it a proper go with a full-size bottle.
Over the following months, I used K18 every five to six washes, as stated on the packet. At the start, it was hard to tell if my hair only felt good because of the conditioner, rather than because the K18 was repairing my hair. After a few months of use, I was convinced that was the case. The last few times I used it after rinsing out the conditioner, my hair started feeling brittle again.
It continued to feel brittle until I stopped using K18.
The verdict
I still use K18 about once every six months, largely to use up the rest of the bottle. If I use it more frequently than that, my hair feels brittle all over again.
According to the K18 website, brittle hair after use can mean there’s product buildup on the hair which stops the K18 from penetrating the strand. To fix that problem, they recommend using the K18 clarifying shampoo…because of course they do. I used a sulphate-heavy shampoo to remove buildup and it made no difference.
I know this product works for a lot of people, and I was pretty sad that it didn’t work for me. Of course, that doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. As I mentioned, people with bleached and dye-damaged hair have reported huge success with K18. The product clearly works, but like a lot of things, it’s highly dependent on the individual.
Want me to review something else? Let me know in the comments below!
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How to get thicker hair and increase density with one lifestyle change
Is it possible to get thicker hair, naturally? Yes, and you don’t need any hair thickening products to make it work. This method is designed to give you thicker hair, permanently.
Is it possible to get thicker hair, naturally? Yes, and you don’t even need hair thickening products to make it work.
There are so many products promising to give you thick hair—shampoos, conditioners, ointments, laser treatments, red lights—you name it. Some of them probably work, some of them probably don’t, but these are like band-aids to the problem.
None of them will solve your hair problems forever because they don’t address the underlying issue. And that’s what we want, right? We want to thicken hair strands and increase hair density for glossier, hydrated, and fast-growing locks, and we want to maintain it forever.
I’m going to tell you what I did to solve this problem.
Please note, this can work for men and women but male pattern baldness is a separate issue with very different treatment options. I recommend seeing a specialist to address that particular concern.
Before
I used to spend 30 minutes in the shower detangling my hair with my fingers and a tangle teaser. For half an hour every wash day, and I’d pull clumps of hair out of my brush. I washed my hair every three or so days, and not because it was greasy, because it was so tangled that it looked awful. If I left it longer than that between washes, the detangling process could take 40 minutes.
It was exhausting and disheartening to see so much in my brush every time. I wanted long hair, but I couldn’t maintain it—the ends were like barbed wire, brittle and split, and I could only use really thick conditioners that were actually too heavy for my fine hair, but my hair wouldn’t detangle with anything lighter. The result was over-conditioned hair that was flat, but somehow very tangled after a few days.
How I fixed thin, brittle, tangled hair
I ate loads more protein.
When I say loads, I mean about 60g more protein in one day than I had been eating.
That’s literally it, that’s the big secret. Your hair is basically just protein, so it needs a source of protein to grow properly.
I upped my protein intake so much that my body initially had no idea what hit it. I went from about 30g of protein a day to more than 80g. It was a big change, my stomach felt weird, and I felt so full I didn’t know if I’d ever be hungry again.
That initial shock to the system lasted a week or two, but after that I felt great.
I started back at the gym after a break and, due to increased protein levels, I managed to avoid muscle pain. I slept better and I had more energy. It was about a month before I really noticed a difference in my hair.
For the first few weeks, I kept using thick protein-filled conditioners, because that’s what I assumed my hair would always need. But after a while, my hair started to reject them. I’d wash my hair and let it air dry, and it felt sticky and brittle. It was horrible, I didn’t understand what was going on.
Until one day. I was sick of trying all my different protein-infused masks, so I grabbed a small bottle of conditioner I once swiped from a hotel room and slathered it on.
My hair instantly detangled—the whole conditioning and detangling process took about five minutes. I let it air dry, like I normally would, and almost cried at the result. It was shiny, glossy, and it felt so thick and full. I realised I probably didn’t need the thick conditioning masks anymore. My hair suddenly had enough protein to grow properly and detangle itself, putting more on resulted in protein overload.
I went from losing piles of hair to hardly any at all, and my conditioning and detangling routine went from 30 minutes down to five. All it took was adding more protein to my diet.
After
I’m still figuring out the best ways to incorporate more protein into my diet—90g is a lot for someone who doesn’t eat meat. My hair isn’t as thick as it was when I was really going for the protein, but it hasn’t lost it either. I still spend less than ten minutes conditioning and detangling my hair. Sometimes I use protein masks, but rarely. Most of the time, I can get away with lighter and more generic products that don’t have strengthening or lengthening properties. If I’m really in a bind and I’m away from home, I can use hotel conditioner and my hair is easy to detangle and looks great.
I was also able to stop using leave in conditioners and curl creams altogether. My hair started curling great on its own.
How much protein should you eat?
I am not a doctor or a health care professional of any kind. Before you make health and lifestyle changes, you should always speak to a professional. This is what worked for me :)
The protein recommendation is 2g per 1kg of lean body mass.
To figure this out, weigh yourself first thing in the morning, before you eat anything. Determine your body weight percentage and reduce your weight by your body fat. There are a few ways to determine your body fat percentage—either use the charts below, or you can take your measurements and use a calculator like this one.
If you weigh 60kg and your body fat is 25 per cent, the equation would be: 60 x 0.25 = 15.
60 -15 = . Your lean body mass would be 45kg.
If you need 2g of protein per kg of lean body mass, the final equation would be: 45 x 2 = 90.
So, someone who weighs 60kg with 25 per cent body fat would need to eat about 90g of protein per day.
How to increase your protein intake
Protein intake is very individual and will depend on your specific circumstance. Vegans will probably find they have to eat a lot more food in general to meet the protein requirements, but it’s still very attainable no matter what your diet is.
Personally, I had no idea my protein levels were so low and I found it difficult to incorporate so much more into my diet. When I went to the supermarket, I found a lot of yogurts and cereals and fortified with protein. I also incorporated dehydrated vegetable proteins into meals and generally started paying more attention to the nutrition charts on food packaging.
It took about a month to see real results, but I was completely blown away once I realised it was working.
Have you tried this out, or do you swear by another method? Let me know in the comments below!
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Bondi Boost HG Shampoo Review: Does It Really Work?
I bought Bondi Boost HG Shampoo on a whim one day, on my lunch break. It was kind of expensive and promised to clean my hair and help it grow faster at the same time. But does it really work and it worth the price tag?
I have been using Bondi Boost HG Shampoo for years. It’s a bit on the expensive side but I find myself going back to it time and time again. This is why.
I bought Bondi Boost HG (hair growth) shampoo on a whim one day, on my lunch break, because I saw a pharmacy and couldn’t find a reason not to get it. I had been wanting to try it for a while but kept putting it off because the bottles are kind of pricey for the size. That day at the pharmacy, I caved. It was a moment of weakness, but I’m actually really glad I did.
I have fine hair that errs on the side of dry, but my hair usually also needs a product that foams. Without that, my scalp just doesn’t feel clean and my hair doesn’t sit right on my head. Honestly, day two hair starts looking like day four hair. It’s a real pain. So I’m cautious about what products I use. The issue with that is, a lot of shampoo that lathers has sulphate in it. And we don’t like that because it strips your hair of natural oils. We’re after hydrated curls and waves and a fresh scalp. Bondi Boost shampoo is good because, not only is it vegan and cruelty-free, it’s sulphate-free but somehow it actually foams and cleans your hair without drying out your hair completely. That’s a win, in my books.
Part of the selling point for this product is that it promotes hair growth. That’s not why I bought it, but it’s a bonus if it works.
Before
Before I started with Bondi Boost, I was mostly using Shea Moisture Castor Oil shampoo, which was great but my hair gets sick of products quite quickly, so I need a few on rotation. If I keep using the same one, my hair ends up looking knotty and generally terrible. So I like to try new ones. My hair was getting really tired of Shea Moisture (which is nothing on the brand, I love their products) so Bondi Boost seemed to be a good alternative to test out.
Review
The instructions say to use a small amount on wet hair, lather and rinse, so that’s what’s I did. The first thing I noticed was that the product is almost transparent and smells like overwhelmingly peppermint — a unique choice for shampoo, but I rolled with it.
As per the directions on the bottle, I rubbed a small amount between my fingers and worked it into my scalp only. It lathered immediately. A little went a long way.
I used a bit more for the back of my scalp, made sure it was properly dispersed — it was really easy to work into my scalp — then rinsed it out. It came out easily and I didn’t notice any residue leftover. My hair felt clean, but not squeaky clean, and smelled mildly of peppermint.
I followed up with conditioner, but that’s for another review. Watch this space!
Result
My hair felt clean, my scalp felt cleansed, and my hair sat pretty well on my head. That is to say, it didn’t feel oily or part in weird places like it does on day four, for example. It didn’t tangle more easily than usual, and it didn’t create extra frizz. My hair looked hydrated and voluminous.
My hair also didn’t get sick of Bondi Boost for a while. I would actually say it took a few weeks before my hair decided it had enough, which is a pretty good run. It’s now a permanent feature in my rotation of shampoos, and I find myself going back to it time and time again. I feel like it really cleans my scalp in a way a lot of natural shampoos don’t — they often leave residue, or an oily sheen because they don’t have sulphate, so Bondi Boost is a good reset and removes build-up.
One thing I will say is that it can make my hair feel quite dry if I use it for too long. It doesn’t have sulphate, but whatever else they put in it to make it lather the way it does is a little drying. Having said that, I do rotate shampoos so it’s not a huge problem for me.
verdict
On the whole, Bondi Boost is pretty expensive. At $34 for 250ml, it’s a lot for the average person to drop on a single product. However, a little does go a long way and I had my bottle for months before it ran out. I have repurchased this one, and I’ll probably do it again once my current one runs out.
I did not notice more hair growth. That’s honestly not why I bought it so I wasn’t paying too much attention to that, but I would have noticed if my hair grew faster than usual and it didn’t.
Have you tried Bondi Boost? Let me know in the comments below!
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Hairstory New Wash Review: Is it worth the hype?
New Wash promises to replace all your normal products — it cleanses, conditions, and works as a styler. It’s also formulated without detergents or foams which can damage your hair. It’s eco-friendly and cruelty-free. But does it work? Read on for my in-depth review.
Wondering whether to splash out and try New Wash by Hairstory? I tried it out so you don’t have to. Here’s what happened.
I’ve become a bit of a sucker for Instagram ads. Some are ridiculous, but others…well, I feel seen. So when I saw a woman on Instagram with very long and curly hair started talking about how New Wash was the best thing she’s ever tried, I watched that ad until the end. She said her whole family has swapped out their shampoos, conditioners, and styling products for this all-in-one miracle. Of course it’s an ad so I took it with a few grains of salt, but then I looked it up and there were thousands of really good, genuine reviews. I was sold.
My concern with every new product is that my hair will hate it, or my hair will feel amazing after the first wash and then decide it hates it from the second wash onward. It’s a constant battle, but I’ll always try something new hoping it’ll be my new holy grail. Cue: New Wash.
I was hesitant to give it a crack because, at $70 for an 8oz package — which the smallest package available — it’s really expensive. I subscribed to get the cost down by 10%, and because it came with free shipping and a free silicone scalp massager which I had never used before. It seemed like a good deal, all things considered. For that price, I wanted phenomenal results.
New Wash: A Review
According to the New Wash website, it’s not a co-wash because it has cleansing properties, but it has the consistency of a conditioner and you use it like you would co-wash. It’s supposed to replace all your normal products — it cleanses, conditions, and works as a styler. It’s also formulated without detergents or foams which can damage your hair. It’s eco-friendly and cruelty-free.
There are three versions — ‘original’ for all hair types, ‘rich’ for dry hair, and ‘deep’ for oily hair. I have a lot of hair but it’s very fine, wavy on top with coils at the bottom, and about forearm-length. It’s prone to dryness at the ends and tangles easily. I use a hair mask as my regular conditioner, but I can’t use products that are too conditioning because my hair gets over-conditioned and falls flat there’s no volume at all. That’s one of the reasons I don’t use co-washes, another is that I find they don’t cleanse my hair properly at the root and my hair feels oily and doesn’t fall right beyond day one.
For all those reasons, I was a bit skeptical about New Wash and really wanted to make sure I tried to right version. I had thought I might go with ‘original’ because any deeper conditioner at the roots could mean my hair was over-moisturised and flat. On the flip side, my hair could end up a dry mess if ‘original’ wasn’t conditioning enough. The struggle was real. Luckily, there was a very helpful quiz on the Hairstory website which helped me work out that I should probably get ‘rich’.
(Ingredients: Rich, deep, original)
Wash
New Wash comes in a bag, rather than a bottle, and smells like lavender. The product is thick and white and the instructions say to use as much of it as you would normally use of shampoo and conditioner combined. So that’s what I did.
As someone who doesn’t use co-wash, it felt pretty strange putting this thick product all over my scalp and raking it down my hair — it felt counterintuitive, really, but I stuck with it. I focused on my scalp to begin with and used the silicone scalp massager to make sure my head was cleansed. I then used a bit more product and applied it to the length, as I would with conditioner.
I was able to detangle my hair with relative ease with my fingers, before I finished it off with a brush. I then scrunched the product into my hair, like I normally would, but that step didn’t feel necessary. My hair was completely saturated with product — to the point where I probably used too much product. It felt quite heavy in my hair — a bit stiff, even, and I hoped that would go away once it was all washed out.
Some of the reviews I read suggested the product was quite difficult to wash out, and even the instructions on the packaging said to wash it out really, really well. So that’s what I did. I used the scalp massager to make sure it was all off my head, before I used my hards to really squeeze it out of my hair. Personally, I didn’t find it difficult to wash out.
Styling
I would normally apply a styling cream immediately after washing my hair, but I wanted to see if — like the woman in the ad — I could get away without additional products. She insisted that New Wash meant her hair was in perfect coils every morning. I was very skeptical, but gave it a shot.
I flipped my soaking-wet hair upside-down, as normal, and gently ran a comb through it to detangle. It was a bit harder without additional product in it for more slip, but I managed. I scrunched it and plopped with a microfibre towel. My hair still had the heavy and stiff texture that it had before I washed the product out.
I took the towel off about ten minutes later, shook my hair a bit and parted it like I normally would (I realise not everyone parts their hair after washing it, but mine doesn’t sit right if I don’t). The ease with which I can part my hair after washing is usually a pretty good indicator of how cleansed my hair is. If it’s not cleansed properly, it’s pretty difficult to part and clumps together. If it’s properly clean, this doesn’t happen and it separates at the part very easily. I didn’t find parting my hair difficult after New Wash. I scrunched my hair again, it still felt a bit heavy but I ignored it and got on with my day.
drying
My hair usually takes a few hours to air dry completely. I found plopping as usual after New Wash didn’t completely get the drip out of my hair, it really held on to the water, so my shoulders were a bit damp by the time I got to work. I find that can happen with thicker products. The smell of lavender was also quite strong when my hair was wet, but it disappeared once dry.
It probably took an extra hour to dry completely, which I didn’t really mind.
Result
The first time round, I was pretty happy with the result. That stiff and heavy feeling did disappear once my hair dried, which was a relief. My hair felt soft and mousturised, my scalp felt clean, and my hair still had volume. I wasn’t sure what to expect in the volume department so I was pretty impressed with that.
What I didn’t like was that my hair looked a bit frizzy at the ends, which I put down to not using a styling product. As a whole, I would say my hair did look a bit curlier than usual, and I think it held its curl for a bit longer than usual — into the next day. It looked okay on day two and three, but nothing amazing. It looked as I would normally expect day two and three hair to look, with a bit more curl on day two. For a product that replaced shampoo and conditioner, I was relatively pleased.
Second and third wash
This is where things went downhill. Sometimes, my hair likes a product one day and hates it the next. This is basically what happened with New Wash.
For the second go, I used less product than I did the first time and my hair detangled as easily as it had before. It still had that stiff feeling, but I knew it would go away so I wasn’t concerned. I did add a curl cream this time, and that really helped stop the frizz at the ends. My hair looked fine on day one, but it wouldn’t sit right on my scalp the following day, or the day after that. It felt a bit heavy, it lost some of its curls and waves and looked quite flat by the time I had to wash it again.
Nevertheless, I persisted and used New Wash again for a third time. Attempt three was a bit of a disaster. I repeated the process, using styling cream, and my hair did not like it. My hair wouldn’t sit on my scalp properly — it wouldn’t sit right along the crown in the way oily hair doesn’t sit right, but my hair wasn’t oily at all in this instance. The curls fell flat by day two and no amount of zhooshing would fix the way it sat on my scalp. The ends were tangled like steel wool and the knots started quite high up. Basically, I had to wash it again on day two because it looked and felt terrible. I washed it with shampoo and my usual Shea Moisture conditioner and the problem went away.
Verdict
I didn’t try it again after attempt three because I don’t want that to happen again. I probably will use it here and there, but only because I don’t want to waste it, and not on consecutive washes. Just because this did not work for me in the end, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you — it does have thousands of great reviews. My hair is very temperamental and I think that is partly to blame.
However, what I really struggle to understand is the cost.
Without the 10% subscription discount, the 8oz package costs AU$69, the 20oz package costs $155, and the 32oz package costs $236. I imagine it’s priced that way because it’s supposed to replace two other products — maybe that’s the amount you’d spend on shampoo, conditioner and stylers combined. But if the cost works out to be the same, what’s the point in replacing three products with one? Unless, of course, New Wash really worked for you and the results were significantly better than the products you would normally use.
I just feel, for that price, you’d want it to work miracles on your hair, walk the dog and do the dishes. If you had long and thick hair that required a lot of product, you’d spend a fortune.
I should say, there is is a $20 trial kit that I couldn’t access because I’m in Australia. I tested out a few countries on the website, including New Zealand, Canada, the UK, and various places in Europe and it appears this very affordable trial kit is only available for US customers…even though Hairstory ships to 34 other countries. If the trial was available to me, I definitely would have chosen it rather than a full-size package.
Have you tried New Wash? Let me know in the comments below!
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