If you’ve been anywhere near a beauty blogger in the past year you’ve probably heard of K-18 mask. I first saw this product being used by the amazing colorist Jack Martin, who well known for his amazing hair color transformations. One of the most impressive things about his work is that his clients hair often looks even healthier than it did before he took them from dark brown to silvery grey. This is unusual, after such a dramatic color transformation, so when I saw that he was using K-18 I immediately took notice.

The science behind K-18 goes something like this:

• Hair is made up of millions of polypeptide chains that are linked together by 3 types of bonds, hydrogen, salt, and disulfide. Picture a ladder, where the sides are the polypeptide chains, and the bonds are the rungs of the ladder.
• Hydrogen and Salt bonds are weak, physical side bonds that are easily broken and reformed. Disulfide bonds are much stronger, and are responsible for much of the strength of each individual strand of hair. Disulfide bonds can be broken and reformed on purpose, through a permanent wave or relaxer. They can also be broken through heat styling and color treatments. When too many disulfide bonds are broken (the polypeptide chains are no longer connected) the hair looses strength, becoming weak and damaged.
• K-18’s claim is that it works by rebuilding not only the broken polypeptide chains, but also the disulfide bonds, so that the hair’s structure is completely repaired.

Okay, so the science adds up. I actually broke out one of my old textbooks from cosmetology school to double check some of these facts. I have been using this product for a few months now and I have definitely noticed a difference in the quality of my hair. My hair has been color treated for as long as I can remember and I lost a lot of hair while undergoing chemotherapy. Below is a picture of what my hair looked like on the day of my last chemotherapy treatment.

This next photo was taken 1 month ago. My hair has grown back and filled in significantly, almost a year and a half later, and the overall strength and integrity of my hair looks and feels completely different. K-18 has improved the condition of my hair tremendously over the past 6 months. I want to be clear that it did not help with hair regrowth, but it did help repair and strengthen the hair that was left.

Have you tried K-18 yet? I would love to hear your thoughts on K-18 if you have!