Purple shampoo has been used for decades by hairdressers, mostly to help tone and neutralize blonde and gray hair, getting rid of brassy or yellow tones for an overall more cool-toned look.
What does purple shampoo do? Yellow is the opposite of purple on the color wheel. So when your gray or lightened hair has unwanted yellow tones, purple shampoo acts as a toner and can cancel out brassy hues. Purple shampoo works to help fix brassy tones with a pretty simple approach.
The Color Wheel
Purple is the opposite of yellow on the color spectrum, so the violet pigment in purple shampoo neutralizes yellow tones, which brightens your silver hair and makes it sparkle!
If you have platinum, gray, or silver hair, you can leave the purple shampoo on for up to 30 minutes, depending on how brassy or discolored your hair is.
How often can you use purple shampoo on gray hair? It is widely recommended only using purple shampoo on gray once a week. If you only wash your hair once a week, I'd move to only using it once a month.
Purple shampoo is the best toner to use when it comes to gray hair because it neutralizes brassiness caused by heat styling, medications, product buildup, sun, salt, chlorine and environmental pollutants.
Gloss treatments and violet toner can help keep hair shiny silver. If you don't want to visit the salon for toner, you can do a bit of toning at home. "Use a purple shampoo or conditioner to counteract the brassy undertones in your white hair," Dr. Chacon suggested.
Purple shampoo, also known as silver shampoo, is a cleansing product formulated to neutralise those unwanted brassy tones in your hair. This shampoo is made for anyone with light hair (including blonde, platinum, gray, white, pastel, or highlighted), whether your hair is naturally light or colored in a salon.
DON'T use purple shampoo on very dry hair
It's important to get the hair into a healthy condition before drenching it in purple shampoo to make it less porous.
We would recommend sticking to the instructions. Different formulas vary and can range from rinsing immediately to leaving on for 5 minutes or longer. A purple shampoo will not dye your hair but if you leave it on for too long you could find yourself with a little lilac staining.
EverPure Sulfate Free Brass Toning Purple Shampoo
For an affordable option that delivers intense results, look no further than one of our Shop TODAY Beauty Awards winners: L'Oreal's EverPure Purple Shampoo.
L'Oreal Paris EverPure Sulfate Free Brass Toning Purple Shampoo. The Everpure Sulfate-Free Brass Toning Purple Shampoo is a reliable option for maintaining gray hair and combating unwanted brassy tones. Its sulfate-free formula is gentle on the hair, leaving it feeling soft and clean.
Get a gloss treatment
A professional glossing treatment with your stylist every six to eight weeks will brighten your silver strands and keep unwanted tones away.
Who should use it? It's a must for those who have bleached their locks. If your color falls under these shades, please add purple shampoo to your hair care routine: Blonde, ash brown or ash blonde, platinum, gray, pastel, and rainbow.
Why purple shampoo is bad for your hair? Did you know that most purple shampoos can make your hair too dry? It's designed to remove brassiness from your hair, but if used incorrectly they can leave a buildup on your strands that makes them brittle and dull.
One of the main concerns is that purple shampoo can strip away natural oils from the hair, leaving it dry and brittle. This can be especially problematic for those with already dry or damaged hair. Another potential risk of using purple shampoo is that it can cause discolouration in certain situations.
If you waited 72 hours before washing your hair after it was bleached, you could use the purple shampoo the next time you shower. If it hasn't been up to 72 hours, shy away from the purple shampoo until your next wash day, so it doesn't potentially ruin your hair tone.
So, even though purple shampoo is something that's marketed towards blondes, it's something worth investing in if your hair is gray or silver. That way you can ensure your hair stays looking bright and fresh without any of the dulling brassiness or yellowing that can occur.
Both silver and purple shampoo are designed to neutralise yellow and brassy tones in blonde, silver and grey hair. If you've used either one, you'll have noticed that bright purple hue when you pop the lid and squeeze. Silver shampoo and purple shampoo use purple pigment to lighten and brighten.
Hair never turns the color gray; however, a person whose natural hair color is a light drab brown can appear to have drab grayish hair. Hair appears to be the various shade of silver when natural cool colored dark hair becomes predominately white.
Use a Clarifying Shampoo
To keep the gray hair more bright and shiny, I suggest switching your favorite hair cleanser for a clarifying shampoo like Living Proof Triple Detox Shampoo once a week. This will remove impurities and surface buildup from your gray hair which will result in a nicer tone.