How Does Purple Shampoo Work?

Maintaining your perfect shade of blonde year-round can be tricky at the best of times. If you have blonde hair, you’ll know that regular salon visits to maintain your ideal blonde tone can really add up! Enter purple shampoo. Working with every wash to eliminate the brassy (orange and yellow tones) from blonde hair, purple shampoo is a must-have for all blondes. Here’s all you need to know about how purple shampoo works. 

What does purple shampoo do? 

Purple shampoo is a multitasking essential for blondes. As the name suggests, purple shampoo has a vibrant violet pigment that is used to cancel out unwanted warm tones in blonde hair. To avoid these unwanted tones, hairdressers place toner in your hair after dyeing. However, as time goes on, this toner fades.  

These warm tones, which often appear brassy or yellow, also build up over time from a variety of external factors, including UV damage and chlorine, as well as your hair’s natural pigmentation. Purple shampoo works to cleanse hair while simultaneously dispersing its purple pigment throughout strands. When you wash it out, the purple colour rinses away leaving hair clean, bright and beautifully toned.  

Why is it purple? 

The reason why purple shampoo is purple is actually quite simple! Yellow and purple (violet) are complementary colours—meaning they sit opposite each other on the colour wheel. When combined, complementary colours cancel out the other’s saturation due to their contrast. This means that when applied to blonde hair, the violet pigment in purple shampoo cancels out the yellow tones in hair—leaving behind a ‘cooler’, brighter blonde.  

Did you know? Purple shampoo works for natural blondes, too! 

That’s right—purple shampoo can also work wonders for naturally blonde hair. In fact, it can be just as important for natural blondes to use purple shampoo—especially if your hair naturally leans towards a brassier blonde tone (and you want to go for a cooler shade). For natural blondes, purple shampoo works to eliminate the brassy tones caused by environmental factors.  

Which purple shampoo should I use? 

The key to a really good purple shampoo is that it not only neutralises brassy tones but also works to nourish and hydrate your hair. This is especially important for colour-treated blondes, whose hair can often become damaged from bleach. The new HASK Blonde Care Purple Toning Shampoo and Conditioner is packed with powerful moisturising and repairing ingredients, like elderberry oil, coconut oil and vitamin C, which add nutrients back into colour-treated hair and maximise your hair’s health.  

Keep your blonde hair bright, free from brassy tones and hydrated. SHOP the new HASK Blonde Care Collection now at our Amazon Australia E-store.