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What Does Purple Shampoo Do To Brown Hair? How To Get The Best Result

by Sherri Owens

Purple shampoo works to remove brassy tones from brown hair in the same way it works on blonde hair. It helps to remove yellow and orange tones in your hair, leaving you with shiny, and uniform color-treated strands.

I've used purple shampoo on my brown hair to help lighten some slight yellow undertones, with amazing results. I've also recommended the use of purple shampoo to several customers with brassy brown hair with favorable results.

Want to learn the effect of using purple shampoo on brown hair and why you should also give it a try? Then I suggest sticking around till the end to find out.

What Does Purple Shampoo Do to Brown Hair?

The purple shampoo helps cleanse your hair, toning colored and bleached hair in the process, making it look beautiful, glossy, and healthy. It works amazingly for brown hair that has a golden base or slight orange undertones. It helps to balance out the color of your hair, creating a uniform glow.

Purple shampoo doesn't make your brown hair change color because it doesn't contain any bleach that will alter the color of your hair.

Wondering if the purple pigment of the shampoo on brown hair will leave any stains or marks on your hair? It won't. The purple pigment will only help cancel out the orange and yellow undertones, giving your hair a healthy shine after. After washing and rinsing your hair, the purple pigment will be gone completely.

Applying Purple Shampoo on Golden Brown Hair

What Causes Brassy Tones In Hair?

Although not as common as can be found on dyed or bleached hair, brassy tones can be seen on brown or blonde hair and are caused by the following factors.

  • Overwashing: Excessive washing of the hair, especially using shampoos that contain ammonia will alter the color of your brown hair with time.
  • Excessive sun exposure: When the hair is exposed to excess UV rays (ultraviolet rays), and oxygen, it lightens your locks, eventually leading to unwanted brassy hair tones.
  • Dyeing your hair multiple times: Dyes contain chemicals like hydrogen peroxide. These chemicals fade the hair slowly, and if the dye is used too frequently, it will cause brassiness.
  • Hard water: Washing your hair with hard water that contains minerals like excess magnesium, iron, chlorine, and calcium is likely to cause your hair to fade.

These factors can also dry out and damage your hair, leading to brassy tones in your hair.

What Is Purple Shampoo?

Purple shampoo is a cleansing product with a purple pigment created to remove brassiness from dyed blonde hair. The only difference between purple shampoo and other hair shampoo is that purple shampoo contains purple pigments that are used to tone brassy tone on brown, bleached, or blonde hair.

Purple shampoos are primarily formulated like other shampoos, which means they not only tone the hair but also cleanse your hair, making it look fresh and brass free. It still cleans your hair and scalp like a regular shampoo, but it can add a toning factor that will balance out color-treated or brassy strands.

This shampoo deposits purple pigments into your hair, which helps to cancel out the unwanted orange and yellow tones in brown hair.

You might be wondering, why purple pigment? Why not use pink or yellow or green color pigment instead? This is because purple falls directly opposite yellow on the color wheel, which means purple pigment can offset or neutralize yellow tones in your hair. Other colored shampoo work to neutralize tones that are on opposite sides of the color wheel.

Color Wheel

How To Use Purple Shampoo To Get Effective Results?

To ensure that you get the best results from using purple shampoo on brown hair, you need to follow certain steps. I suggest taking a picture of your hair before starting so you can compare, and notice the changes in the hair after shampooing.

  • The first step is to ensure the hair is wet before applying the purple shampoo to brown hair. It's precisely the same way if you use regular shampoo.
  • After making it wet, dispense some purple shampoos into your hair. Apply it gently, ensuring that the purple shampoo gets on every part of your hair. It is advisable to focus more on the highlighted sections.
  • Massage your hair thoroughly to ensure the purple shampoo gets into your scalp. This ensures that the colored strands are entirely covered, to enable you to get effective results.
  • After massaging the purple shampoo onto your hair, wait for 3 to 5min (try as much as possible not to go above 15 minutes with the shampoo on your hair) for the shampoo to settle and work its wonders before washing it off.
  • Rinse the purple shampoo thoroughly out of your brown hair. It is advisable to rinse more than once so you can get in there and ensure that the shampoo is completely out of your hair.
  • And you're done. Now dry your hair, take a picture of your hair and compare it with the one you took before shampooing, you'll definitely be perplexed by the result.

What Purple Shampoo and Conditioner Should I Get?

To get the best results from your purple shampoo and conditioners, you have to ensure that you get good quality products. This is why I have selected some of the best purple shampoos and conditioners to serve as a guide.

  • L'oreal chroma creme shampoo (purple shade)
  • Sun bum blonde purple shampoo
  • Oribe bright blonde shampoo and conditioner
  • The blonde moment purple shampoo
  • Playa violet brightening shampoo and purple conditioner

This list is not exclusive; there are a lot of other great shampoos and conditioners to try. Just ensure that you make lots of research before you decide on getting a particular product. Also, try to stick with the selected product and use purple shampoo regularly to get the desired effect.

Hairdresser Washing Client's Hair

Things to Consider When Using Purple Shampoo

Below are some things you should consider before using purple shampoo on your brown hair to eliminate those brassy tones.

  • Purple shampoo should be used regularly to eliminate the brassy tones completely and for it to be effective. If you are using purple shampoo on brown hair for the first time, you should leave a gap of two to three weeks before using it again.
  • Before choosing a pigmented shampoo, you have to put the color wheel into consideration to ensure you get an outstanding result. Blue shampoo is excellent for brunettes, but purple shampoo also works well.
  • After using the shampoo, avoid exposing your hair to excessive sunlight to prevent the formation of brassy tones.

How Long Do I Leave The Purple Shampoo On My Brown Hair?

Do not leave purple shampoo on your hair for more than 15 minutes because if you leave purple shampoo for more than 15 minutes, you might end up getting lilac hues on your hair.

After applying the shampoo, ensure that you rinse it off entirely before using a conditioner to get an effective result.

Can Purple Shampoo Work on Other Hair Colors?

Since most purple shampoos are infused with keratin, which is helpful in restoring bleached hair, they can work on other hair colors. If you have red, grey, or blonde dyed hair, you can use purple shampoo to prevent the dye from fading and to avoid the formation of brassy tones. Thus ensuring that your color stays fresh for several weeks.

Can I Use Purple Shampoo on Brunette Hair?

Yes, purple shampoo can be used on brunette hair because they work well to keep highlighted and dark-colored hair from fading quickly. The purple shampoos make dull-looking strands shine.

They also tone down brassiness from hair, which is gotten from the exposure of the hair to excessive sunlight, and the use of dyes that contain chemicals like hydrogen peroxide and ammonium.

Does Purple Shampoo Lighten Hair?

Purple shampoo is a shampoo made for bleached and brassy brown hair. So, if you are planning on using purple shampoo to lighten your dark hair, you might not get the desired outcome. This is because purple shampoo doesn't contain bleach, it only cancels out yellow tones, since the colors cancel out each other on the color wheel.

Woman with Curly Brown Hair

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Using Purple Shampoo on Brown Hair Lighten It?

No, the purple shampoo will not lighten your brown hair. Instead, it makes the brown hair shine and helps to remove those warm brass colors or highlights found in your brunette hair.

Will Purple Shampoo Damage Brown hair?

No, purple shampoo won't damage dark brown hair because the shampoo only cleanses, brightens, and eliminates unwanted brassy tones from the hair.

Does purple Shampoo Work on Brown Hair with Blonde Highlights?

Yes, the purple shampoo works on brown hair with blonde highlights. The shampoo lightens your brown hair and also helps the blonde hair stay vibrant for a longer time by neutralizing the brassiness. It also helps tone your lightened strands, giving them a natural-looking and lovely shine.

What Is The Difference Between Purple Shampoo and Blue Shampoo?

Blue shampoo is made with blue pigments that work to counteract orange tones from brunette hair. It is designed for brunettes who have ombre hair, balayage, foils, streaks, hair lightening, or highlights. While purple shampoo is made using purple pigment and they are used to banish brass from blonde hair, blonde highlights, or grey hair.

Thus brunettes with blonde or bright highlights cal also use purple shampoo to maintain their highlights. Purple and blue shampoo have toning properties that help deal with brassy tones. Both work well to remove brassy tones, so you should select a particular shampoo based on the nature of the brassiness you would like to treat.

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