So what is purple shampoo?

It’s based on the colour chart that purple is the opposite colour to yellow, so essentially the purple neutralises the yellow. Blue is the opposite of orange – so if your hair is more of an orange colour then blue shampoo would do the trick.

Either of these are going to neutralise the warm, brassy, orangey-yellow hair, and brighten it up to a cooler, silvery tone. You may need purple shampoo if –

a) You’ve been bleached in the hairdressers and the colour is more of a brassy/orangey/yellow-y tone than you wanted.

b) You have achieved the blonde look you want, however over time things such as UV rays, chemicals in hair products or the mineral impurities in the water has caused your hair to lose it’s ashy, icy tone.

When you bleach your hair it becomes a lot more porous and soaks up more unwanted products – making it more susceptible to elements that would make your hair brassy. Either way, purple shampoo can really help the appearance of your hair. But are they all the same? Lets find out…

My Ombre Journey

I used to have dark brown hair until the middle of last year when I fancied a change. I wanted to go an ashy brown ombré colour.

Question – why is ashy brown so damn hard for a hairdresser to achieve? I’ve had some absolute nightmares! After bleaching and toning my hair three times in two weeks (two different hairdressers and one refund later), my hair was now a brassy, yellow, streaky ombré colour. Great. Just what I wanted.

The hairdresser that actually knew what she was doing advised me that I would need to bleach my hair a couple more times to bleach through the brassy yellow stage. Once it was light enough I then had to dye it darker to an ash brown colour.

It turns out you can’t actually bleach your hair to an ash brown colour, it just won’t go that way. You have to dye it darker to an ash brown colour when the base is light enough.

Just an FYI if hairdressers promise you a transformation on the first attempt.

The hairdressers that say you will need a few appointments to achieve the colour you want are the ones to trust, trust me!

So with my brassy yellow hair, and an appointment booked in two months to bleach it again (my hair needed a break at this point), I was told purple shampoo will be my best friend. I was even recommended blue shampoo and a lavender toner.

Does Toner Work?

So first of all I tried the Bleach London Lavender Grey Toner Kit that my hairdresser recommended.

If I’m completely honest, it did absolutely jack all.

I mean Ok, it is aimed at people with white hair to dye their hair a violet colour. But I was also promised it would tone down the brassyness of my yellow hair.

It didn’t.

OK. onto the next thing…

Touch of Silver Purple Shampoo

The trustee purple shampoo I have used for years, the PRO:VOKE Touch of Silver Brightening Shampoo, for a bargain of £4 from Boots, has always been my go to when I’ve felt a bit brassy (this isn’t my first bleach rodeo).

I’ve thought for so long that purple shampoo is just purple shampoo, and it all does the same thing.

I do notice a difference when using this, but nothing drastic. It wouldn’t change my hair from a yellow to say, not a yellow. It would just take it from a bright yellow to maybe a mid yellow.

What about something a bit more pricey? You get what you pay for in life, and really at £4 a bottle what was I expecting?

I needed to invest if I actually want my yellow streaks to be a thing of the past.

A More Expensive Purple Shampoo

I thought I’d use my trusty discount from Harrods to try and soften the blow of buying an expensive purple shampoo.

I had a look on the Harrods website (filtered cheapest first – obvs), and the first one that came up under £100 I went for.

Ok, it wasn’t actually that expensive – £19.95 before discount.

But still, significantly more than the £4 I’m used to paying for in Boots!

It was called the Moroccan Oil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo. 

Advertised as a tone correcting treatment for blondes or lightened brunettes, with violet pigments to counteract harsh yellow tones and infused with argan oil to repair the hair.

Sounds pretty good…

Was it Worth the Investment?

The first time I used the Moroccan Oil Purple Shampoo I left it on my hair for about five minutes. I read online to leave it on your hair for at least a few minutes to actually give it a chance to work.

Any longer than 15 minutes and you will be left with a purple tinge in your hair, so be careful!

When I dried my hair I could see straightaway the glow coming from the front of my hair. There is one strand that the hairdresser dyed a bit too blonde, and that was pretty much white after this purple shampoo episode.

The rest of my hair was very noticeably a lot less brassy.

Don’t get me wrong – it doesn’t work miracles.

It didn’t change my yellow hair to ash brown, but it definitely toned it down a good few levels more then the normal purple shampoo.

It did unfortunately, even with it’s conditioning advertisement, dry out my hair.

But you know what, I’m not even gonna blame the purple shampoo for this. I think if you are trying to get rid of a certain colour from your hair, then there is no way you can expect it not to it dry out in the process.

So, I won’t sell you the dream that this gets rid of brassiness and conditions your hair to a lovely soft glistening miracle, but it does what it says on the tin. Well, half of it.