Understanding Purple Shampoo: A Guide for Aspiring Hair Stylists

Maintaining and enhancing hair color is a crucial skill among aspiring stylists, particularly when you or your hairstyling clients are dealing with blonde, silver, or grey hair.

In recent years, purple shampoo has been getting a lot of buzz. If you’ve been on social media, in particular, there’s been more than a few videos going around showing some pretty starting before and after clips of people’s hair.

While these shampoos and related conditioners aren’t necessarily miraculous, they are touted by stylists for their ability to help bring out more vibrant (but also neutralized) hair colours. 

In the following guide, we’ll dive  into the world of purple shampoo, detailing what these products are, how to use them efficiently, and why they could become an indispensable part of your hairstyling toolkit.

What is Purple Shampoo?

Purple shampoos are specialized hair care products typically made from crushed violet pigments. Using the colour theory principle where purple is the opposite of yellow on the colour wheel, these pigments act to counteract unwanted warm hues that might creep up in paler hair tones. They also work to balance and offset natural brassiness that can also develop over time.

Finding the Right Purple Shampoo

There’s a lot of purple shampoos on offering out there and not all of them necessarily work towards the same results. As such, selecting the right purple shampoo is crucial for achieving the best results in color correction and maintenance in hair care routines. 

For aspiring hairstylists like yourself, understanding the key factors in choosing and recommending purple shampoos will enhance your ability to deliver optimal outcomes for your clients or anyone in need of a treatment (including yourself).

Here are some considerations to keep in mind when choosing purple shampoos:

• Pigmentation: The primary purpose of purple shampoo is pigment correction. As such, too much of a good thing might lead to the opposite results. So keep in mind that a higher concentration of purple can be really effective at neutralizing brassiness but overuse could also lead to over-toning. You might want to start with a more balanced option and then adjust based on the results.
• Benefits: Many purple shampoos also include ingredients that provide additional hair care benefits, such as moisturizing agents (typically glycerin or panthenol), strengthening proteins ( keratin or silk amino acids), or even UV protectants. Depending on what your or your client’s hair needs, you might be able to find bottles of purple shampoo that offer all-in-one benefits for particular hair care needs.
• Scalp Sensitivity: A lot of people suffer from overly sensitive scalps. Fortunately, some purple shampoos come sulfate-free which often means that they are gentler and less likely to cause irritation.

If you’re still not sure where to begin, before making a final recommendation or sticking with a particular product for the long term, see if there are smaller bottles or sample sizes available. Test products one at a time to see how they perform in terms of colour protection and overall hydration before going with one longer term.

Best Practices for Using Purple Shampoo

Using purple shampoo effectively is key to achieving the best results for maintaining hair color and neutralizing brassiness. There’s no one-size fits all approach as everyone has different hair types, colours, and degrees of brassiness. 

Below are some tips for using these products to their full potential.

• Frequency of Use:  For most people, using purple shampoo once or twice a week is sufficient for maintaining color balance without the risk of over-toning. Still, it’s always best to monitor how your hair responds to the shampoo. If it seems too cool or purple-toned, reduce the frequency. If it’s still brassy, consider using it more often.
• Application Technique: When applying purple shampoo, like other shampoos, you’ll want to make sure you work it evenly into your hair and across your scalp. Work the shampoo into a lather and distribute it from the roots to the tips to achieve the best results.
• Length of Application: Shampoo manufacturers put instructions on their labels, but how many of us actually read those? In this case, it may depend on the bottle, but know that most purple shampoo should be left in your hair for between one to five minutes. Of course, the longer you leave it in, the more the purple pigments will affect your colour.

Other Tips for Purple Shampoo

Below are a few more tips to help you get the most out of purple shampoo hair care routines.

• Pair with Conditioners: After using purple shampoo, complement its effects with a purple conditioner or even a toning mask. These additional products help to further neutralize brassy tones while providing additional conditioning benefits, such as helping scalps feel moisturized long into the day.
• Storage: If you can, try to store purple shampoo in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. Of course, a lot of us leave our bottles in the shower or by the window sill, but since this product is more specialized it’s worth it to pay special attention to where you store it.
• Handling: Avoid getting purple shampoo on porous surfaces or clothing because the violet pigments in most of them can easily cause staining. It’s also not a terrible idea to apply it with gloves if you’re worried about the pigments getting on your hands or under your nails. 

Final Thoughts

Purple shampoo is a valuable addition in the hairstylist’s arsenal. As far as products go, few are as effective at maintaining and enhancing color in blonde, silver, and grey hair. 

For aspiring hair stylists, mastering the use of purple shampoo and understanding its applications will elevate your skill set and professional expertise, allowing you to better work with a variety of hair types and tones!

Are you passionate about hair care and styling? At Modern College, we offer an accelerated hairstyling training program at three campuses (Barrie, Sudbury, and North Bay). If you’re curious about the world of hair styling and are looking to make your big break into the beauty industry, reach out using our contact form or by email at [email protected].