Oooh Chicoro are you thinking about buying it? If you do buy it what will your strategy be for the no conditioning beforehand bit? I'm hearing that some BW are washing their hair, applying the K18, leave it on for the time needed, rinse out and then condition.
It actually conditions my hair fine, I just use a good moisture rich shampoo, apply the K18 then afterwards my leave ins. Makes my wash day nice and easy when it's a K18 wash day!
@LushLox, I'm so glad to hear that this product works for you!
I never heard of K18 until about 5 hours ago.
The name reminds me of K9, as in dog, but I digress...
I am not going to buy it right now.
BUT, I love the purported technology.
That creature climbing up the ladder is placing his hands and feet and touching what are called the
rungs [of the ladder]. The outer parts in which the rungs are inserted, are called the
rails of the ladder. The rungs are horizontal to the ground and the rails are perpendicular to the ground.
The rungs represent the 'side' bonds of hair, such as sulfur disulfide bonds, water bonds and salt bonds.
The rails represent peptide bonds of the hair which are large molecules.
K18 fortifies the rails or large peptide bonds by bonding with them. The result is that the broken peptide bonds are bonded together. K18 reconnects peptide bonds but also as re-bonds disulfide bonds, too, at the same time.
K18 rebonds and fortifies the rail of the ladder. Olaplex rebonds the rungs of the ladder.
Based upon the little bit I know, it seems like K18 is like a 'rescue' bonding. You see, when the peptide bonds are damaged, the hair dissolves. Depilatories dissolve the hair. A depilatory is something like Nair or Magic Shave. K18 would probably have the biggest effect on hair that has been severely damaged. That would be hair that has been bleached and dyed to the point of straw, or hair that has moderate to severe heat damage. Thus, I am not sure how or even IF it would have a huge noticeable impact on relatively healthy, undamaged afro-textured hair. In addition, the K18 product includes hydrolyzed protein and alcohols. Although the protein content is minimal, it STILL has protein in it. This product seems to be able to bring hair on the brink of disintegration, but not yet disintegrated, back to keep the hair strand intact and on the head. This product may be able give the hair or make it look like it saves the hair. I say look like, because once you damage your hair strand, you can never truly repair it.
In contrast, Olapex fortifies damaged hair but it may work as a PREVENTER or MINIMIZER of damage. Meaning, you use Olaplex before a service with the intention of trying to minimize the effect of chemical and thermal services. Unlike the K18, it has NO protein in its formulation.
As a conclusion, it seems to me that these two products K18 and Olaplex complement one another. I think the ideal head of hair where one would see a radical change in the 'health' of the hair would be a head of hair that is bleached and dyed root to tip, on a regular basis.
I think afro hair would benefit from both these products as well, as stated by the ladies within this thread. Afro textured hair that is color treated or relaxed or where heat is used frequently would be helped by this product. I also think natural afro textured hair would benefit too because of the shape of the hair strand. Afro textured hair has an elliptical shape. At the thinnest part, the hair is vulnerable to breakage. In addition, at the point afro-textured hair curls and changes direction to form a natural spiral, the hair is more fragile there, too. So the K18 could also serve to fortify natural, afro-textured hair at these two very vulnerable and fragile points.