This In-Salon Treatment Made My Hair Look and Feel Like a Million Bucks

A few months ago, I decided to colour my hair for the first time in almost two years. Overall, the look is fairly low maintenance, but I've noticed ever since lightening it that it's been much harder to manage. I get it glossed every couple of months to keep the brassy tones at bay, which helps, but it has felt drier and frizzier than normal since dyeing it. A few weeks ago, when I realised I was due for a hair gloss, I started researching whether there were any products or treatments that would help.

Just as I was about to give up, hair-care brand K18 reached out to me about testing out its new professional-only hair mist, which was developed specifically to improve colour-treated hair during salon appointments. (To find out whether your salon offers the service, give them a call and ask about K18's Prep + Repair.) Later, when I learned the service would be completed by Crane Salon owner and celebrity colourist Cassondra Kaeding, who has touched the heads of celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Hailee Steinfeld, I booked the appointment faster than you can say "bible."

When I got to the salon early on a Friday morning, Kaeding and I discussed my current hair colour and what my goals were, and ultimately, we decided on a gloss to cancel out the red tones and warmth in my hair, as well as demi-permanent colour on my roots to cover up a few greys. Then, we went over the entire process and how she would be using the K18 products on my hair.

What to Expect During a K18 Prep + Repair Service

Kaeding started out by sectioning off my hair into four quadrants. Next, she sprayed each section liberally with the professional-use-only K18 Peptide Prep Pro Chelating Hair Complex, which is a demineralizing treatment. "The chemicals in our water end up drying out your hair, and it discolors because the sodium and chlorine strip everything out," Kaeding says. "The Peptide Prep removes seven different metals and chemicals in your hair and stops it from drying out."

After letting it sit for four minutes, she went in with the professional-use-only K18 Professional Molecular Repair Mist, which helps to restore elasticity, and repeated the same steps — 10 to 20 sprays on each section, then let it sit for four minutes. "What the Repair Mist does is repair any prior damage from past colour services and heat styling, and it also preps your hair for whatever service you're about to do, as well as holds the colour in, which is great," Kaeding says.

Next, we went right into the colouring — Kaeding applied a dark shade to my roots, then I sat under heat for 20 minutes. After washing everything out, she applied the gloss, let it sit, then rinsed and shampooed my hair. We skipped conditioner altogether in favour of the K18 Molecular Repair Hair Mask ($75) (an editor-loved product; read the full review here), which Kaeding let sit for four minutes before taking me back to the salon chair and giving me a bouncy blowout.

Once my hair was styled, the look was finished off with the K18 Molecular Repair Hair Oil ($28) .

Results From the K18 Prep + Repair Service

I typically associate colouring my hair with damageing it, especially when going lighter, but that wasn't the case after this treatment. When all was said and done, we got rid of all of the brassiness and the greys, and my hair looked shiny and felt soft to the touch. I was worried that the dry, straw-like feeling would come back after washing it, but I washed my hair just yesterday and was surprised to find that it was more manageable than I remember it being in months. It wasn't knotted or hard to brush through, and even after I blow-dried it, it still had a nice shine to it.

I'm impressed with what a difference the products made in my hair during my colour treatment, and I absolutely plan on asking for the K18 products to be used on my hair prior to any colour treatments in the future.