Yes, gray hair can turn brassy and dull—but a purple shampoo can easily brighten up the silver strands. If you're looking for ways to enhance your platinum locks, Brown would consider this one of her top tips.
Using a purple shampoo on grey hair can help to remove brassy yellow shades, leaving you with a flattering silver undertone.
To keep your gray hair bright and shiny, switch out your hydrating shampoo for a clarifying shampoo once a week. This helps to remove impurities and product build-up. Follow the clarifying shampoo with a purple-based conditioner (more on this in a minute).
If you have naturally white or grey hair, purple shampoo can be used in the same way as with bleached hair to remove yellow tones and revive vibrant color. It can also be used on red hair to counteract brassy tones for color that stays fresh week after week.
It's important to note that the pigment in purple shampoo isn't a lightener or hair dye but a gentle toner that works overtime. So it can't darken your hair or make it any lighter. For this reason, if your hair tone is too dark, it won't make it any brighter.
This is were the over using it can cause problems. "You want to stop using it two weeks before any lightening service. The purple shampoo can cause build up making the hair look dull and darker if overused." This makes the lightening process more difficult to create a seamless blend.
If anything, purple shampoo may make your hair temporarily slightly darker. This is because the inky purple pigments found in purple shampoo are a darker color than the shades of yellow in blonde hair.
Purple shampoo uses purple pigments to neutralize yellow tones and keeps blondes brighter and ashier. Purple shampoo is also great for silver/white hair as well. Blue shampoo uses blue pigments to neutralize brassy orange tones in the hair.
Because purple shampoos leave hair with an ultra-cool finish and can be used on silver hair, the names silver shampoo and purple shampoo are frequently interchanged.
All you need to do is apply a demi-permanent colour all over your head. Say for example you're naturally a brunette, go with a golden blonde shade. It will only deposit the blonde colour on the grey hairs, turning them into golden highlights.
If you are a natural brunette, you'll want to blend your greys with darker lowlights. For natural blondes, you should add highlights and lowlights ranging from pearl to medium blonde. And if you are a natural redhead, a range of brown and blonde highlights and lowlights will enhance your grey locks best.
Purple and Blue Shampoo
Celebrity hairstylist Peter Butler says violet- and purple-based shampoos, such as Kérastase Blond Absolu Bain Ultra-Violet Shampoo and L'Oréal EverPure Sulfate Free Brass Toning Purple Shampoo, are super helpful in keeping gray, silver, white, and blonde hair bright and manageable.
If you leave purple shampoo on for too long, you may find yourself with a little lilac hue. This color is not permanent and is more likely to happen if you have very light blonde hair or if your hair is dry and damaged. To remove the purple hue, switch to regular shampoo for your next few washes.
You want to avoid shades that are too similar to your natural coloring; beiges, creams, off-whites, stone grays, taupes, etc. These colors will only wash you out and emphasize your gray tones.
The best way to combat unwanted yellow tones is by using purple shampoo. This product may be a blonde's best friend, but those with gray hair can use this too. Purple shampoo is a toning shampoo that contains violet pigments and deposits them onto the hair to get rid of yellow tones.
Using a clarifying shampoo in addition to an everyday shampoo like those above will help keep gray hair looking bright by removing yellowing pollutants and preventing the buildup of products and minerals found in water, all of which can dull hair.
“Gray can tend to have a yellowish cast and if you use a blue shampoo it really brightens it up.”
Keep in mind that purple shampoo does not replace your regular shampoo and should only be used once or twice a week. Doss warns that there is such a thing as too much purple. “When you eliminate too much yellow, it visually ends up darker and a lot of people don't want it to look darker,” she says.
This gentle purple shampoo can be used on color-treated or natural white, grey or blonde hair. Infused with violet micro-pigments, its formula neutralizes unwanted yellow tones and returns hair color back to its natural and beautiful cool tone.
Just remember that if you use too much purple shampoo and remove too much of the yellow tones in your blonde, you could end up with a shade darker than what you want. You should be washing your hair regularly with a blonde shampoo to keep the colour vivid but not brassy.
Purple shampoo is meant to only be used weekly or when your hair is looking brassy — not every day. Generally, you'll want to incorporate it into your hair care routine one to three times a week in place of your usual shampoo for color-treated hair.
Purple shampoo only works on light-colored hair, so anything from an ashy blonde, to grey/white hair.