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.
Using a purple shampoo on grey hair can help to remove brassy yellow shades, leaving you with a flattering silver undertone.
Everyone's hair is different, but we recommend using it once every week or two, then building it up from there until you find your own cadence. Just know that it is possible to overdo it—especially if you have high porosity hair—which results in a (temporary!) purple tinge.
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.
If you have naturally white or grey hair, purple shampoo can be used in the same way as with bleached hair to remove yellow tones and revive vibrant color. It can also be used on red hair to counteract brassy tones for color that stays fresh week after week.
Don't overuse the purple shampoo, or you'll dry out your hair. Once a week should be more than enough.
Purple shampoo neutralises brassiness but enhances blonde pigmentation. To maintain a silver shade, your shampoo requires a stronger colour neutralisation. Silver shampoo is formulated with deeper purple pigments to target yellow tones in a much stronger way.
Purple shampoo doesn't remove the yellow color but is designed to tone down the yellow in gray and white hair. It tones the color in your hair from warm tones (yellow) to cool (silver). Purple shampoo is only a temporary solution for yellows in your gray hair.
Lastly, purple shampoo will only work for gray hair that is a level 8 or higher (which in this case, means lighter), so if you have darker gray hair or dark hair with just a few grays, purple shampoo may not work for you.
Who should use purple shampoo? Purple shampoo is for those with light hair, salon achieved or natural, such as blonde, platinum, silver / gray, white, or pastel. Because it is made for light colored hair, if you're brunette you wont see any results.
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.
If you have unwanted yellow tones (generally found in dyed blonde hair, or naturally grey hair), purple shampoo is recommended since yellow is the opposite of purple on the color wheel. Some blondes DO use blue shampoo to make their hair look more “ashy”, but most turn to purple shampoo for best results.
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.
Just remember that if you use too much purple shampoo and remove too much of the yellow tones in your blonde, you could end up with a shade darker than what you want. You should be washing your hair regularly with a blonde shampoo to keep the colour vivid but not brassy.
That's where purple toning shampoo comes in. Summer can be particularly harsh on blondes thanks to environmental factors like the sun, chlorine, salt water and more. In order to keep your blonde looking cool while preventing brassy hair, purple shampoo is an absolute necessity.
Purple shampoos are the best shampoos for gray hair turning yellow, as purple is the opposite of yellow on the color wheel. A great purple option is BTWCo's purple shampoo & conditioner. It's very gentle, has a light fragrance, and really makes silver hair shine.
A small amount goes a long way. Use two teaspoons of baking soda to two teaspoons of shampoo for long hair. Mix and coat your hair gently from root to tips, leave on hair for around 3 minutes and then rinse thoroughly, you can shampoo again if you feel you want to get all the baking soda out, and then do the QSH mask.
Herbishh color shampoo is formulated to provide up to 100% grey Coverage even for stubborn greys without DAMAGING hair strands & thus it is "100% ammonia-free now & already launching PPD color shampoo in the next 30 days.
And since gray hair is more likely to turn yellow or brassy, folks should use purple and blue shampoos to correct these undertones. If you want more advice on using purple shampoo, check out our guide to the product.
Zoe's answer: Leaving purple shampoo in your hair for longer than the recommended time is not always a good idea. The longer you leave it, the more pigments will be deposited on your hair and they could even stain it permanently.