Being blonde is a commitment and an investment. This shade needs regular upkeep to stay vibrant and shiny, where purple shampoo comes into play to help banish that brassiness between salon visits. Here are the tips and products to keep your colour on point this summer, says editor Trudi Brewer.
Image BeautyEQ
The lighter your hair is, the more you need to consider the condition. Here are the tips and best purple shampoos for keeping your blonde looking creamy and cool rather than brassy. Read on to learn more.
What does happen to hair during the lightening process?
When hair is bleached, the colour pigments are lifted from your natural hair colour to leave behind lighter strands. During this chemical process, your hair goes through several colour stages. From red and orange and then yellow, essentially, it gets warmer as it gets blonder. Add external factors that work against blonde hair, like damaging UV rays, environmental pollutants, and unwanted minerals in harsh water. This is why blonde hair needs more maintenance than most other colours.
Schwarzkopf BLONDME Cool Blondes - Neutralizing Shampoo, $38.
It’s our go-to, cooling, blonde-boosting shampoo; why? It blends a high-tech advanced bonding system, using a velvet flower protein complex, that helps mend broken hair bonds and split ends after that harsh bleaching colour process - and the violet hues in this shampoo remove brassiness and neutralise those yellow undertones in blonde locks.
Oribe Bright Blonde Shampoo for Beautiful Colour, $78.
This is an investment, but a little goes a long way. Yes, it cleanses hair beautifully, while visibly brightening every strand by eliminating that brassy overtone in blonde hair. It also offers UV protection, which coming into summer, is essential. And like all Orbie products, it provides that signature floral scent which is addictive.
How does PURPLE SHAMPOO work on blonde hair?
Stylists refer to the colour wheel theory when changing and toning your natural hair colour. The wheel features 12 shades, contrasting hues opposite each other. On that wheel, violet sits opposite yellow. So a purple-tinted shampoo contains violet-rich pigments that help neutralise unwanted yellow or brassy tones and brighten the overall look of your blonde colour. Purple shampoo offers a temporary dose of toning pigment to your hair, neutralising any yellow tones and reviving it back to its brighter self. So, whether you’ve gone for an ice-white or honey blonde, silver or grey, a good purple shampoo should refresh your hair shade in minutes.
UMBERTO GIANNINI PURE BLONDE SHAMPOO, $25.
According to Umberto Giannini’s founder, modern life can cause blonde or grey hair to dull and yellow. To counter that, this shampoo offers a formula that is 93 per cent natural. Along with violet pigments, chamomile flower orange, lemon, peel oils, geranium flower oil, and lavender extracts will not only keep the brassine3ss at bay, it will hydrate and protect every strand.
Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo, $52.
The latest from Moroccanoil is their answer to correcting and hydrating your expensive colour. Bold violet pigments correct unwanted yellow and orange tones in blonde, and grey hair, infused with that famous antioxidant-rich argan oil, that repairs dry hair and seals cuticles to banish frizz - and we all want that, right?
HOW LONG SHOULD You LEAVE PURPLE SHAMPOO on the hair, and how often should I use purple shampoo?
Each brand has different instructions: some suggest leaving the product in your hair for 10 minutes. Cleanse first with a repair or nourishing shampoo formulation. This will remove styling product residue and oils from the scalp; then, the second shampoo uses the purple formula to amplify the effects: the first lather tones and corrects your blonde weekly.
Olaplex No 4P Blonde Enhancer Toning Shampoo, $60.
Everything Olaplex launches address your coloured hair concerns. Now there is specific toning shampoo for blondes. With hair strengthening qualities the famous bond-building technology, to help strengthen bleached hair, the rich, sulfate-free formula lathers up to neutralise brassiness and boost brightness.
Fudge Clean Blonde Damage Rewind Violet-Toning Shampoo, $30.
This is perhaps the most potent blonde shampoo we have tried. It is ideal for keeping your icy blonde hair looking white, thanks to the potent violet pigments that knock out the yellowing. But it does more than correct your colour. It is packed with hair-strengthening, hydrating guarana protein, as well as Opti-PLEX™ and HairGuard technology, which smoothes frizz and repairs, split ends and breakage.
How to save your hair from the sun, surf and sand.