What Does Purple Shampoo Do?

Have you heard about purple shampoo? If your color treated hair tends to have a bit too much yellow, or brassiness, for your liking, you might find that purple shampoo is your new best friend. Now that you’re intrigued, you probably have some questions about this amazing color safe shampoo for blonde locks. Read on to learn more about how purple shampoo is formulated, how it works, and whether it’s a good fit for your hair.‌‌

What is Purple Shampoo?

As the name suggests, purple shampoo can have a purple or violet pigment. But what does purple shampoo do? How does this product help banish brassy undertones from your hair? Let’s circle back to elementary school when we first learned about the color wheel in art class.

Purple is on the opposite side of the wheel from yellow, which means they are complementary colors. You might remember from school that complimentary colors cancel each other out. This means that purple shampoo neutralizes any yellow tones in your hair. The result is that your tresses look clean and bright.

Thanks to the color wheel, we know that purple neutralizes the color yellow. However, you might still have questions about how a purple shampoo can diminish yellow or brassy undertones. Does it dye your hair or does it do something else entirely?

Purple shampoo is what’s known as a toning shampoo. It deposits pigments of purple color into the hair to balance out any unwanted yellow or brassy tones.

What is Purple Shampoo Used For?

Purple shampoo is a beneficial product for those who have blonde hair. However, blondes aren’t the only ones who can benefit from it. This hair care product is also a powerful tool for anyone with silver, gray, white, pastel, or platinum hair. Best of all, purple shampoo works regardless of whether you’re rocking your natural hair color or a salon helped you transform your tresses.‌

While all types of light hair can benefit from purple toning shampoo, it’s a must-have if you have bleached blonde locks and want to avoid a brassy tone from developing.

How Does Blonde Hair Get Brassy?

At this point after scanning through a variety of hair products online, you might be wondering what causes brassiness in blonde or light-colored hair. It turns out that multiple factors can lead to a brassy tone. Here are three of the most common ones:

Your environment

You likely know that your surroundings can affect your skin, but you might not realize they can also contribute to brassy hair. Everything from pollution and smoke to chlorine in swimming pools and mineral deposits in your shower water from the faucet can lead to unwanted yellow tones in your hair.‌

Your styling products and tools

Haircare products that aren’t formulated for color care, including shampoos, conditioners, hairsprays, and aerosols, can leave behind yellowish deposits that are easy to detect on lightened hair. Additionally, using hairdryers and straighteners without a heat protectant can also cause a yellow tone.

Your natural underlying hair pigment

If you have light hair that has been color-treated, you’ll have an underlying pigment of pale yellow that has been exposed. This color is controlled by applying a gloss or a salon treatment. If you go too long in between color treatments, your hair can take on a yellow tone. Brassiness can also occur with white hair or gray hair, as there can be a residual yellow tone when the hair loses its melanin.

Benefits of Purple Shampoo

Aside from neutralizing the brassiness in light-colored hair, purple color shampoo has a few other benefits. As we mentioned above, this shampoo can work wonders if you have bleached hair and want to maintain that platinum or white blonde hair color. These shades of blonde are prone to yellowing, which isn’t what people are aiming for when they go platinum. Purple shampoo pushes these yellow tones aside to reveal a perfect platinum hair color.

Another benefit of purple toning shampoo is its ability to do away with dull hair. A hair toner can give hair back its luster and natural sheen. Rather than going to a salon to tone your hair, you can learn how to use purple shampoo in the comfort of your own home, saving time and money.

Color Care Products That Address All Concerns

If you are considering whether to incorporate a blue vs purple shampoo into your hair care routine, know that both blondes and brunettes can benefit from something better— our breakthrough Color Care system. Our Color Care Shampoo isn’t purple because it was specially formulated to address the universal factors (color washout, damage, UV rays, and hard water) that can cause color fading, making it the ultimate multi-tasker for color preservation. Check out our line of color safe shampoo and conditioner for more hair care products formulated to protect color-treated hair.

If you’re completely blonde or have blonde highlights and are looking for more vibrancy, the Color Care Whipped Glaze Light is your best bet. This whipped glaze deposits temporary hair dye to add vibrancy and counterbalance color fading and the dreaded brassiness. These advanced Color Care products truly make a difference in blonde hair, and you are the living proof.