Ask Bradley: What Does Purple Shampoo Do? Is Purple Shampoo Bad for Your Hair?
Purple shampoo is a bit of a mystery. Some blondes swear by it. Other blondes swear AT it. Brunettes ask - can I even use purple shampoo on brown hair?
There are a lot of questions - but thankfully, we’ve got top celebrity hair colourist, Bradley Leake to help answer them. Bradley has 10 years of salon experience and is currently one of our Color Wow social media ambassadors. Today, we’re asking him: what does purple shampoo do? And is purple shampoo bad for your hair?
SO BRADLEY, WHAT DOES PURPLE SHAMPOO DO?
"Purple shampoo is a hair care product specifically designed for those with blonde, grey, or lightened hair. It contains violet pigments that help neutralise brassy, yellow tones, maintaining the cooler, ashy or platinum shades of the hair.
The idea behind purple shampoo is based on classic colour theory. When blondes are dealing with brassy hair they want to minimise the amount of orange.So, if you look at a colour wheel, purple is opposite orange, which means the two colours neutralise or cancel each other out.
So the theory went, if you make shampoo purple, it should neutralise brassy hair,” shares Bradley.
HOW DOES PURPLE SHAMPOO WORK?
"When applied, these purple tones absorb into the hair and counteract the unwanted warm tones, restoring the hair's cooler, ashy or platinum shades.
A shampoo gets diluted with water and is eventually rinsed out of your hair. So to have any visible colour-correcting impact, the intensity of the purple in the shampoo formula has to be an inky dark dye. It stains your hair, but it’s also super messy.”
Yes, we know. It gets all over the bathroom, stains towels, and clothes. Delightful.
IS PURPLE SHAMPOO A TONER?
Purple shampoo functions similarly to a toner, but they aren’t exactly the same. A toner is typically a more concentrated, salon-applied product used immediately after bleaching or colouring to neutralise unwanted brassy tones and perfect the colour. It’s often a semi-permanent treatment that can last several weeks, depending on your hair type and how often you wash your hair.
On the other hand, purple shampoo is more of a maintenance tool. It’s designed to be used at home, on a regular basis, to keep your blonde hair looking fresh between salon visits.
BUT DOES PURPLE SHAMPOO WORK?
The effectiveness of purple shampoo hinges on how you use it. It’s all about balance. If you rinse out too much of the purple pigment, you won’t see much of a brightening effect – your hair might still appear dull or yellow.
On the flip side, if you leave the shampoo on for too long or don’t rinse it out thoroughly, those violet pigments can overstay their welcome, leaving your hair with a grungy, grayish-purple tint. Not exactly the icy blonde look you were going for, right?
DOES PURPLE SHAMPOO DAMAGE HAIR?
So, is purple shampoo bad for your hair? Well, it's not necessarily damaging, but it is definitely ruining your colour.
"Colour-treated blonde hair is super light and it shows dark stains easily. But when hair is chemically-lightened (“lifted”) it can be dehydrated and extremely porous.
When you have high porosity blonde hair, it sucks in dark purple dye easily and that’s how you end up with that unappealing shade of purple haze."
WHAT DOES PURPLE SHAMPOO DO TO BROWN HAIR?
"Purple inky dye isn’t going to help brunettes bounce back from brassiness. That’s why there’s such a thing as blue shampoo. When it comes to blue shampoo vs purple shampoo, the blue hue is better for brunettes.
But it’s still super dark, messy, and it’s hard to get the rinse out just right."
HOW TO GET RID OF BRASSY BLONDE HAIR
Our Color Wow solution to negating brassiness without the mess is to take the purple out of shampoo and put it where it makes sense… in a leave-in product.
Because you don’t rinse off a styling product, much less dye is required to make a real difference. Less dye, less mess. It’s simple and easy.
Choose a purple-tinted leave-in product that counter balances any discolouration.
We put a pale purple in our Color Wow Color Control Purple Toning + Styling Foam formula for blondes, so it cools, calms and brightens all shades of blonde… from ashy to platinum to honey to caramel…plus it gives hair incredible bounce. It’s a modern mousse with a hint of tint!
Check out how to use it below:
We hope we’ve answered some of your commonly asked questions around purple shampoo and what it really does to your hair.
Take a look at our full range of brassy hair products for more inspiration, and read more about colour care on the Color Wow blog:
