If you have blonde hair, gray hair, or blonde highlights and you don’t use purple shampoo, prepare to have your world rocked. Don’t be put off by the violet hue – purple shampoo is an absolute must for blonde hair, whether your blonde hair is natural or from the bottle.
Keep reading to learn all about purple and silver shampoo for blonde hair! We’ve got all the tips and tricks for how to use a special color-safe shampoo for blonde hair without turning your hair a startling shade of violet. Plus, we’ll tell you how to find the best purple shampoo for blondes.
Index
What is Purple or Silver Shampoo for Blonde Hair?
Before we talk about purple and silver shampoo, we need to talk about brassiness. If you have blonde hair, you’re probably already familiar with how your hair can sometimes take on a yellow or even an orange color in between hair appointments. This is known as brassiness, and it’s caused by exposure to water, UV rays, and air pollution.
Purple shampoo, also known as silver shampoo, is a cleansing product formulated to neutralise those unwanted brassy tones in your hair. This shampoo is made for anyone with light hair (including blonde, platinum, gray, white, pastel, or highlighted), whether your hair is naturally light or colored in a salon. The secret to its magic is the addition of purple pigment.
So, why is purple shampoo purple? The idea is based on classic color theory. Think back to the color wheel that you learned about in primary school art class. If you look at a color wheel, purple is directly across from yellow. Since the shades are opposites, this means that purple cancels out yellow tones. So when you apply purple shampoo to blonde hair, it removes those brassy tones and brightens the hair.
Blue, Silver vs. Purple Shampoo - What is the Difference?
Spoiler alert: there is no difference between silver shampoo and purple shampoo for blonde hair. Both contain purple pigments, which neutralise yellow shades in light-colored hair. That’s why we use the terms purple shampoo and silver shampoo interchangeably in this article!
Blue shampoo works like purple shampoo, but for brunettes. Since blue is opposite orange in the color wheel, it cancels out red and orange tones. Hairstyles usually recommend that brunettes use blue shampoo to remove unwanted red and orange tones from their hair.
How Often Should I Use Purple Shampoo for Blonde Hair?
We recommend using purple or silver shampoo for blondes like Enriched Blonde™ Silver Shampoo one to two times per week. If you wash your hair more, you can alternate the purple shampoo for blonde hair with another color-safe shampoo like Split Fix™ Shampoo.
However, everyone’s hair is different. If you are still noticing brassy tones in your hair, you can use silver shampoo for blonde hair more often. Likewise, if you start to notice purple tones in your hair, switch to a pigment-free shampoo until your hair color neutralises again.
You can also dilute silver shampoo with another color-safe shampoo if you find that the silver shampoo is leaving too much pigment in your hair.
Is Purple Shampoo Only for Blondes?
While you typically see silver shampoo for blonde hair, brunettes who have blonde highlights can also benefit from using a silver shampoo.
Purple shampoo for blonde hair also works well to eliminate brassy tones in silver, white, or gray hair. That’s another reason why purple shampoo is sometimes called silver shampoo!
How To Choose the Best Purple Shampoo for Blonde Hair
With so many choices in the beauty aisle, it can be difficult to choose the best purple shampoo for blonde hair. When shopping, you’ll find the best one by choosing one with these ingredients:
Protein
Blonde hair – especially bleached hair – requires extra protein. You see, hair gets its structure from a protein called keratin. But when you color your hair, this structure can become damaged. As a result, the individual hair strands become more brittle and prone to breakage. You can avoid this by applying protein hair treatments, or use hair products rich in proteins. So according to us, the best purple shampoo for blonde hair should include proteins that help to repair bleach damaged hair.
Hairlust Enriched Blonde™ Shampoo contains Protectagen, which is a rice protein. Since these proteins are so small, they can penetrate the hair shaft and rebuild damaged strands of hair from the outside in.
Moisturizing Ingredients
Hair damaged by bleaching treatments also requires plenty of moisturizing ingredients. The best purple shampoos contain humectants, which draw environmental moisture into the hair. This helps hair to retain moisture, leaving it shiny and healthy-looking all day long. Common humectant ingredients in silver shampoos for blonde hair include glycerin, propylene glycol, and panthenol.
Hairlust Enriched Blonde™ Silver Shampoo is formulated with AQUAXYL™, a natural, plant-derived humectant that keeps hair hydrated.
Antioxidants
Antioxidants like plant extracts help to protect your strands by neutralising environmental aggressors like UV rays and air pollution. This can help to prevent brassiness from occurring in the first place!
Hairlust Enriched Blonde™ Silver Shampoo contains powerful natural antioxidants like organic cloudberry extract and organic mango extract that protect hair from damage and those unwanted brassy tones.
Purple Pigment
And of course, the best purple shampoos contain purple color pigment! Our Enriched Blonde™ Silver Shampoo is formulated with a purple pigment called CI 60730.
Additionally, the best purple shampoos have a thicker consistency than traditional shampoos. This thick consistency allows the product to fully coat your strands while it works its magic.
How to Use a Purple or Silver Shampoo for Blonde Hair: Step by Step
To get the perfect result, follow these steps:
- First, fully saturate your hair with warm water. The warm temperature of the water helps to open up the hair cuticle and allow the purple pigment of the silver shampoo to penetrate the hair shaft.
- Massage the silver shampoo into your scalp, then rinse with warm water. Note: during the first wash, the silver shampoo will not produce much foam.
- Next, wash your hair with silver shampoo a second time, thoroughly massaging the silver shampoo from the scalp to the tips of your hair. Then rinse with warm water. This second wash removes grime and product residue more efficiently, allowing oxygen to access the roots of your hair. It also better prepares your hair to receive the healthy nutrients in the conditioner.
- After washing your hair with a silver shampoo apply deep conditioning and repairing Enriched Blonde™ Silver Hair Mask that reduces brassy tones while effectively repairing and nourishing damaged hair. This might seem like an unnecessary extra step but believe me - your hair will thank you for it!
- Follow with a color-safe conditioner formulated for blonde hair, like Hairlust Enriched Blonde™ Silver Conditioner. Apply the conditioner to your hair from the roots to the tips, then gently massage the conditioner into your hair to cover every surface. Allow the conditioner to work its magic for 1 to 3 minutes, then rinse thoroughly.
For best results, we recommend using silver shampoo for blonde hair one to two times per week or anytime you notice unwanted brassy tones in your hair.
Hint: the sun can bring unwanted warmth to the hair. For blondes in particular, the sun can make the color fade faster and create serious dryness. Using hot tools like hairdryers, straighteners, and curling irons can also contribute to brassiness. To keep yellow tones at bay, always wear a heat protectant, like Thermal Shield™ Heat Protectant before styling. In the summer opt for a UV protection spray like Sun Defense Hair Mist. Not only will this prevent your blonde hair from turning brassy, but it will also help you to avoid additional hair damage!
5 Extra Must-Haves for Blonde Hair
Besides using the best purple shampoo for blondes, we recommend adding the following to your hair care routine:
1. Moisture Hero™ Pre-shampoo Hair Balm
This innovative moisture-boosting treatment is formulated for use on dry and frizzy hair before shampoo. This nourishing mask contains heavy moisturizing oils, such as olive oil extract and shea butter that infuse parched strands with moisture, vitamins, and antioxidants leaving blonde hair moisturized and frizz-free. Plus, it contains 100% naturally-derived ingredients!
2. Protein Repair™ Hair Mask
If you have bleached hair that’s damaged, we also recommend using Protein Repair™ Hair Mask. This strengthening mask is loaded with vegan micro-proteins like Gluadin® Kera-P LM and Dynagen™ that strengthen hair from the outside in, leaving your hair visibly healthier and more resilient.
Dynagen™ also helps to reduce hair loss (which is common with damaged hair), with studies indicating a significant improvement in hair’s fullness and shine after 90 days use!
3. Hair Supplements
Anyone who wants healthy hair can benefit from taking a hair supplement. Why? Because hair supplements contain all the vitamins and minerals that your hair follicles need to grow healthy and strong hair. Our Hair Formula Gummies for Women are both vegan and sugar-free, so you know they’re good for you. Plus they taste delicious, so it’s easy to remember to take them regularly!
4. Bamboo Pillowcase
Believe it or not, your pillowcase can also make a big difference to the health of your hair. Most people sleep on cotton bedding, but cotton fibers are bad for your hair! Cotton fibers are rough, and they rub on your hair in the night. All of that friction can leave your hair frizzy, dry, and brittle in the morning.
Instead, we recommend opting for a bamboo pillowcase and a matching duvet cover. Bamboo is much smoother than cotton, so your hair glides over the pillowcase easily. As a result, you wake up with smoother, healthier-looking hair. With bamboo bedding, bedhead is a thing of the past!
5. Bamboo Hair Towel Wrap
Likewise, it’s a smart move to swap out your cotton bath towel for a bamboo hair towel. Hair is at its most delicate when it’s wet. So if you rub a rough cotton towel on your hair after you step out of the shower, you’re not doing your hair any favors. As we mentioned before, bamboo has much smoother fibers than cotton. It’s also more absorbent, which means that your hair will dry more quickly when you use a bamboo hair towel.
What to Avoid When Using a Purple Shampoo
It’s easy to get carried away when trying a new hair product like a silver shampoo and conditioner. But to avoid making any hair disasters, here's a few things to keep in mind:
Avoid over-toning
Remember sometimes more is less! Leaving the purple shampoo in for too long, it doesn’t just cause the hair to get a purple hue, but it can also dry out the hair! That’s why we recommend to start out slowly and test what works for your hair type. And if you suffer from dry hair or skin, use products that combine organic vegetable oils and gentle cleansing detergents.
Use the right tone
As we mentioned before, there are different types of color pigmented shampoos. For blonde, gray or bleached hair, choose a purple shampoo. If on the other hand you have darker blonde hair, or you’re a brunette, then choose a blue shampoo. The blue shampoo is best suited for the red tones that often appear in brown hair.
If you have any doubts, then choose a purple shampoo over a blue one, because a blue shampoo can make blonde hair turn green.
We hope you’ve found this article about silver shampoo to be useful! If you take any purple shampoo before and after picture, tag us! We love to see how our customers use our products.
