Purple Shampoo
Summer is officially blonde season. Here’s how to keep yours looking fresh
WHAT IS IT?
Shampoo containing semi-permanent purple dye, designed to keep blonde hair (particularly colour-treated) looking fresh and bright.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Through colour correction. Chemically lightened and naturally blonde hair can look yellowy thanks to mineral deposits from hard water, damage caused by UV light and heated styling tools, a build-up of old colour or styling products, or your hair’s natural warmth coming through. Cool purple tones (think violet and indigo) are opposite yellow and orange on the colour wheel, so counteract brassiness. They also help to put back lost shine, as cooler colours reflect more light than warmer ones.
WHO NEEDS IT?
Anyone struggling to keep naturally blonde or chemically lifted hair looking clean and bright, though brunettes can also use it to brighten highlights. It’s also great for grey hair that has developed a yellowish tinge, for which it’s occasionally called silver shampoo.
WHAT ELSE DO I NEED TO KNOW?
It can be drying, though new formulations are enriched with high-spec hydrators such as hyaluronic acid. Using damage-repair or colour-safe ranges and conditioning treatments between purple washes should keep dryness at bay.
HOW DO I USE IT?
Carefully. Overuse can leave hair looking dark or dull, while fine hair and more processed areas can grab on to extra pigment, creating stains. Use it once a week if you wash your hair every day, or less often if you wash it less frequently, and if the bottle suggests a window of leave-on time, start at the shorter end the first time you use it. If your hair becomes too lilac, use it less regularly or mix a little into another shampoo. And, as the tips and ends of chemically coloured hair tend to be the lightest, you may only need to apply it through the roots and mid lengths and let the lather reach the tips as you rinse.
WHAT ABOUT PURPLE CONDITIONERS?
Because conditioner doesn’t lift the cuticle of the hair in the way shampoo does, pigments sit on the outside of the hair rather than penetrating, meaning the effect only lasts until your next wash.
WHAT IF IT GOES WRONG?
If a few washes with regular shampoo don’t remove all traces of purple, try a clarifying or detox one, such as Bumble and Bumble Sunday Shampoo, £20, or any anti-dandruff formula. Use it three or four times and follow with a conditioning hair treatment.