Your cold blonde turns yellow, your highlighted brown warms up, and the dream color from the salon fades quickly. Sun, hard water and repeated washing accelerate oxidation.
Between two salon appointments, pigmented shampoos have become real allies. Purple or blue, they neutralize certain reflections without redoing the entire color.
Understanding Oxidation and the Color Wheel
Over time, no color escapes: polar blonde, balayage or deep brown eventually warms up. External aggressions modify the pigments and bring out warmer, yellow, orange or copper tones.
To master them, colorists rely on the color wheel. Colorist Lorena M. Valdes recalls this: , she explains in . A pigment applied to the hair then neutralizes the opposite shade.
Purple or blue shampoo: who are they for?
Star of blondes’ routines, purple shampoo is for blonde, bleached, gray or silver hair. On these light bases, oxidation mainly results in yellow reflections. Purple corrects them and helps keep highlights cooler.
Blue shampoo is mainly aimed at brown, chestnut or dark hair with streaks and orange or copper highlights. , further specifies Lorena M. Valdes. She adds that. To be sure not to make a mistake, simply observe the dominant color of the reflections: yellow or orange.
Do not confuse with coloring shampoos
Purple or blue shampoos remain reflection-correcting treatments, comparable to an optical corrector applied to the hair. Their goal is to bring the shade seen in the mirror closer to that obtained when leaving the salon.
The black or brown coloring shampoos mentioned in the comparisons have another role. Some apply with an exposure time of 15 to 25 minutes and claim coverage of gray hair for 3 to 4 weeks. They are more like express coloring than a simple anti-reflective treatment.
When to use purple or blue shampoo?
Purple for blonde, bleached, gray or yellowed silver hair; blue for brown or brown hair with orange highlights.
Does purple or blue shampoo change color?
Purple corrects yellow reflections without touching the base; blue especially neutralizes copper or orange tones.
What’s the difference with a coloring shampoo?
Purples or blues temporarily correct highlights; black or brown coloring shampoos recolor gray hair more lastingly.
