Blonde hair goes through a lot (especially if you've recently bleached your hair!) and it can sometimes look yellow, dull or even brassy. Purple shampoo, or sometimes even silver shampoo, cools down the tone of your hair and neutralises the brassiness, keeping your blonde stronger for longer.
Purple and yellow are opposites on the color wheel, which means they can be used to counteract one another. Since blonde hair that's turned brassy looks yellow, a pigmented purple shampoo can actually neutralize the yellow hue and take you back to the ashy blonde color you wanted in the first place.
This creamy and hydrating system revitalizes, softens, and nourishes dry, color-treated hair. There's a fine line between warmth and brass. To keep your honey hue toned between appointments, invest in a purple shampoo and conditioner.
A purple shampoo can take care of the yellowish brass in your highlights. However, if your highlights have turned brassy brown, a blue shampoo can help.
But why purple pigment? Well purple falls directly opposite yellow on the color wheel, which means purple pigment can offset or neutralize yellow tones. Purple shampoo can help neutralize yellow, orange, and brassy tones in hair that is blonde, platinum, silver, pastel, beige, gray, as well as brown hair.
Purple shampoo is also referred to as toning shampoo, meaning it puts violet or purple pigments into your mane to cancel out yellow or brassy tones.
On the color wheel, purple is the opposite of yellow, which is why purple pigments cancel out brassy, yellow tones.
Taking the next step in the laws of neutralization, you can conclude that a violet or blue violet color formula will cancel out the unwanted yellow or gold tones in your blonde hair color; blue will cancel out the unwanted orange or brassy tones in your brown hair color and green will cancel out the unwanted red tones ...
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.
Seeing bright yellow where your cool blonde highlights used to be? A purple shampoo can help restore your color to cool blonde magnificence once again. Orange and red hues, on the other hand, are opposite blue on the color wheel.
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.
Purple shampoo is a toning shampoo used for all shades of blonde hair to help preserve its color and keep locks looking healthy and vibrant. The shampoo essentially acts as a color-correcting toner for your hair without you ever having to step foot in a salon.
Purple shampoo is the perfect product for anyone looking to maintain their vibrant, fresh from the salon, lightened hair for weeks. That said, purple shampoo on its own, isn't a lightener or hair dye. So it can't darken your hair or make it any lighter.
If you're blonde, you should totally should stay away from blue shampoo, because as L'Oréal Paris Creative Director of Style and Color Jonathan Colombini explains, “it won't damage [blonde hair] but it could turn your blondest blondes a little muddy or even cast a blue tint."
The difference between blue and purple shampoo is the color and the intended user. Blondes should stick to purple shampoo to neutralize brassy yellow and orange undertones. Blue shampoo for blonde hair might work, but this pigment could potentially be too aggressive. Instead, we recommend blue shampoo for brunettes.
A word of caution: while purple shampoos aren't heavily pigmented, using them too much could give your natural blonde locks a slight purple tint, especially if your hair is damaged or very light. If that happens, don't fret. Switch to regular shampoo for your next few washes.
DOES PURPLE SHAMPOO DAMAGE HAIR? The cool violet pigment in purple shampoo won't damage hair, but if you leave it on strands too long, those purple pigments will take their job a little too far and could turn tresses a purple-violet colour.
Unless you have white hair or gray hair, you shouldn't leave the purple shampoo on for longer than 15 minutes at a time. If you're already leaving the shampoo on for less than 15 minutes and you're noticing a purple tone, then try leaving the product on for even less time.
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. It's easy enough to get rid of – just wash your hair with a clarifying shampoo to reduce the tint!
Toning to balance out the warm tones
By looking at color theory and choosing the opposite color of your hair in the color wheel, such as purple or blue shades, you can neutralize the yellow and orange. This method gives the impression of cooler tones without affecting the pigments in a permanent way.
When deciding how to tone yellow hair to ash, try using a violet shampoo first. As purple is the opposite of yellow on the colour spectrum, the shampoo's purple pigment draws out the yellow brassiness from your blonde, neutralises those unwanted tones, and makes your colour look cooler, healthier and more vibrant.
"Violet is the opposite of yellow or gold," he says. "When the two meet, they neutralize and diminish the gold. The more you use the purple shampoo, the cooler the hair will get." Rago says brunettes should opt for a blue shampoo, and redheads should go for golden shampoo.
It will also lighten any natural hair, causing it to turn orange or yellow and giving highlighted hair a solid look. Too much purple tone in these products can cause the hair to look dull and over toned.
Simply put, whichever colors sit opposite one another on this wheel can cancel each other out. For example, blue neutralizes orange, green balances red, and purple tones down yellow hues.