Purple shampoo serves one major purpose: keeping blonde strands toned between coloring appointments so they don’t look brassy. But using it too often can make your hair look ashy. To reap the color-correcting benefits without overdoing it, celebrity hairstylist and colorist Amanda Lee says to just mix a drop of the purple stuff into your fave shampoo.
“If you overtone your hair when it’s not yellow it can become over-saturated with the purple pigment and turn a more silver, lavender hue, and the blonde can lose its brightness,” says Lee. Mixing in a drop of purple shampoo with your go-to is great “if you’re someone who wants to maintain the color in a very gradual way and not notice a big change after one wash.”
Even if you only use purple shampoo every once in a while it can be tricky to get it right, adds colorist Juliana Ohlmeyer. “Rinsing it off too quickly makes it less effective,” she says, and leaving it on too long can make the hair appear ashier than intended. Plus, purple shampoo formulations might not always agree with your hair. “Purple shampoos tend to be drying,” says Ohlmeyer.
Lee’s favorite purple shampoo is the Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo ($12 to $26). But “because it’s so effective it can almost feel like you’ve had your hair toned professionally after just one use,” says Lee, who is a Moroccanoil color ambassador.
She recommends exclusively using purple shampoo as a boost to your regular shampoo instead of using it on its own once or twice a week.
“You can customize your purple shampoo to use as much or as little as you feel necessary for each wash,” she says. “Purple shampoo is probably the best at-home treatment in my opinion. You can do it between appointments and because of how effective it is you’ll get salon-quality results.”
3 great purple formulas to mix with your regular shampoo
Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo — $12.00 to $26.00
In addition to purple pigments, this shampoo contains micro-capsules that are attracted to the negatively charged hair fiber to infuse the strands with argan oil while simultaneously helping to repair and seal the cuticle. Translation: it keeps hair strong and shiny.
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