This £110 hair serum claims to reduce shedding and grey hair regrowth - after testing it for 2 months, my verdict's in

Longevity is the latest buzzword in beauty. Until now, it’s been cornered by the skincare market, with ingredients that make your cells behave as if they’re younger. It’s about keeping your skin as healthy as possible for as long as possible. And now, it’s your hair’s turn to get in on the action.

K18 FutureIQ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum essentially extends the life of your hair. Trials found it cut shedding dramatically and even reduced the number of grey hairs. K18 is a brand known for its innovation, leveraging biotechnology to restore healthy hair. If you haven’t already used the hero K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask, get on that.

Where the mask has conquered repair, the new K18 FutureIQ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum is focused on preservation, building resilience, and reversing premature ageing of the hair and scalp. It’s not a reactionary fix, but more a wellness product that addresses scalp health and hair ageing before the outward signs accelerate.

But can a hair serum, even one that claims to reverse hair ageing in three months, justify a £110 price tag? I’ve been testing it to find out.

How does K18 FutureIQ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum work?

Since skincare ingredients for haircare is a huge trend and very relevant to this new launch, let’s think about skincare for a second. There are plenty of products out there that target skin concerns once the damage is done - hyperpigmentation treatments or the best eye creams for wrinkles, for example.

But prevention is always easier than cure, and the most effective way to stay looking fresh for longer is to get on the front foot with ingredients that support cellular health and a resilient skin barrier to future-proof your skin. This is exactly what K18 FutureIQ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum sets out to do for hair.

Your hair is subject to the ageing process, just like your skin, and accelerated by lifestyle stressors like sun exposure, pollution, hormonal fluctuations, heat styling and chemical processing. These cause inflammatory stress on the scalp and follicle, which results in premature ageing, which eventually manifests as shedding, hair thinning, early greying, and a compromised scalp barrier.

K18 FutureIQ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum essentially puts a support system in place for healthy hair, using peptides and antioxidants that mimic those in your body, and a root-anchoring complex. Together, they strengthen the follicle’s hold on the hair and bolster its natural defences against oxidative stress, as well as helping to restore pigment production to reduce the number of grey hairs.

The serum taps into the body’s recovery mode overnight, so it’s designed to be applied in the evening. It has a dropper system that measures out the perfect dose per section - apply one down the middle parting, one down each side part, and one at the hairline.

How does K18 FutureIQ™ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum perform?

During the clinical trials, testers retained as many as 19,000 hairs over 90 days. Given that most people shed between 100 and 150 hairs a day, this is a significant improvement. It’s a running joke in my household that I shed like a labrador. Since using the serum, particularly in the last fortnight of testing, I’ve noticed less hair coming off on my brush every morning, and down the plughole when I wash it.

The three-month trial also demonstrated that up to 70 per cent of participants showed fewer greys. Usually, my greys start peeking through within days of colouring - the bane of a brunette’s existence. By the two-week mark, there’s a visible silvery line along my parting and around my face. At three weeks, I’m forced to reach for the at-home hair dye.

But since I’ve been using K18 FutureIQ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum, I’ve noticed that this whole cycle has been drawn out. My colour looks darker for longer. I’m not seeing the grey creep back through as quickly, which has meant that I’ve been able to wait longer before colouring.

K18 FutureIQ Biomimetic Hair Longevity Serum: W&H verdict

I have to preface this final verdict by saying that I’ve only been using the serum for two months. K18 does say that it takes three months to start reversing hair age, and all of their clinical testing was conducted over a three-month period of nightly use.

However, they do admit that improvements can be seen in as little as one month. So where am I at after two months and two bottles? I don’t suddenly have a new head of hair, but the fall out on my brush is a good indicator that I’m not losing as much hair as I was pre-serum, and I think things look a little fuller around my hairline.

It's the grey hair reversal that has really astounded me. It's now three weeks since my last dye job, when ordinarily I'd be forced to colour it, but the regrowth is nowhere near as noticeable. My greys always made me feel tired, run-down, and unkempt, but since they're not as visible or as quick to show through, I don't feel the desperate need to re-colour my hair after three weeks now.

I’ve luckily never had any issues with my scalp, so it’s hard to say if it’s in a better state now, but if beautiful hair is a by-product of a healthy scalp, then this serum has truly made a difference. My hair has never been softer, silkier or shinier. I’m about to start my third bottle, and I hope that by the end of the 12 weeks I'll see a thicker ponytail and even fewer greys - fingers crossed!