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.
If you leave purple shampoo on for too long, you may find yourself with a little lilac hue. This color is not permanent and is more likely to happen if you have very light blonde hair or if your hair is dry and damaged. To remove the purple hue, switch to regular shampoo for your next few washes.
How long you leave it in for depends on your hair type. Warm Blondes: Leave in for 1-3 minutes before rinsing. Neutral Blondes: Leave for 3-5 minutes before rinsing. Cool Blondes: Wait 5-15 minutes before rinsing.
Hair that's extremely brassy or has been color-treated (e.g., dyed blonde hair) may need extra time to absorb the purple pigments. To correct this, leave the shampoo on for up to 15 minutes. For platinum blonde, gray, or silver hair, you can leave the purple shampoo on for up to half an hour.
Purple shampoo should be applied in the shower or during a hair wash. While your hair is wet, apply the shampoo and lather it onto your hair. The amount of shampoo that you use will vary depending on your choice of product and how brassy your hair is looking.
Purple shampoo is for already bleached hair, so if you're hoping to lighten brown hair with purple shampoo, you'll be disappointed. This is all down to the fact that purple shampoo isn't lightening. Instead, it brightens blondes by canceling out yellow tones, which just happen to be opposite purple on the color wheel.
How Long Do You Need To Leave Purple Shampoo In Your Hair? Be careful how long you leave it on with each use, as leaving it too long can cause changes to your hair's color. It only needs to be on for 5-10 minutes at most.
The purple shampoo can cause build up making the hair look dull and darker if overused." This makes the lightening process more difficult to create a seamless blend.
OK, so what is the best way to use purple shampoo? Well, for starters, you want to apply it on completely wet hair. (Note: If you have especially dry or brittle ends, we'd also recommend putting a tiny amount of conditioner on just the tips to prevent them from absorbing too much pigment.)
If your hair is on the yellowish, orange end of the spectrum, purple shampoo will fix it. Like blue shampoo, purple shampoo is another at-home option that's formulated to neutralize brassy yellow and orange tones in color-treated hair. It's primarily used to tone blonde (or lightened), color-treated hair.
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.
Too Much of a Good Thing: Purple Shampoo Left On Too Long
You can, in fact, over-tone your hair. Leaving purple shampoo in your hair for an hour or more can cause your hair to look dull and lifeless. To leave purple shampoo for more than 10 minutes is already too much.
Apply purple shampoo to dry hair for a super glossy finish.
Let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then rinse it out with cold water. Applying the shampoo dry can leave your hair glossier and remove a persistent brassy hue. Try this if you have severely brassy hair or you've had limited results from washing with purple shampoo.
DON'T use purple shampoo more than once a week
“You only need to use purple shampoo once a week to see a difference. Overuse of purple shampoo can sometimes over-eliminate tones and make the blonde appear visually darker, which isn't always the desired effect.”
“Purple shampoo does not cancel out orange so if the hair has any orange or yellow orange tones in it, the purple shampoo would actually make them warmer depositing red into the hair.”
It's a once weekly treatment that works to deeply nourish your strands and neutralize brassiness in just minutes. Apply to damp hair, then leave on for five minutes before rinsing out.To avoid over-toning, try not to use a purple hair mask more than once a week.
Chlorine and other chemical residues in water, sunlight, and even oils from the scalp can also give gray or white hair a yellowish cast, says David H. Kingsley, PhD, a hair and scalp specialist in New York City.
Keep in mind that purple shampoo does not replace your regular shampoo and should only be used once or twice a week. Doss warns that there is such a thing as too much purple. “When you eliminate too much yellow, it visually ends up darker and a lot of people don't want it to look darker,” she says.
Purple is directly opposite yellow on the colour wheel and is therefore its complementary colour, so a water-soluble purple dye is applied to your teeth to cancel out any yellow undertones.
Depending on your hair's level of brassiness, you can leave blue shampoo on your hair for longer. For more intense results, leave blue shampoo on your hair for 2-3 minutes before rinsing. Follow with a blue conditioner to soften and smooth your hair.
Because it does not contain an ingredient that will chemically change the color of your hair, purple shampoo cannot truly lighten hair. If anything, purple shampoo may make your hair temporarily slightly darker.
Purple shampoo works the same way to eliminate brassiness on brown hair as it does on blonde. It helps to prevent color fade, while emphasizing shine, keeping brown hair vibrant and rich. Using purple shampoo on brown hair regularly will take out any unwanted warm tones in your strands.
While the violet tones in purple shampoos can help bring blonde back to life, it does this by adding more toner; in effect, covering up the mineral coating on the hair cuticle. The more you shampoo with tone-correcting products, the more buildup you create — and the darker your blonde looks.
Using gentle circular motions work the product around the scalp, between strands, and down the shaft. Let the product sit on your strands a bit longer than you might a traditional shampoo. About one or two minutes but not much longer than that, as it can be drying.