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You are thinking of dying your hair red, and you may be wondering how you can keep your dyed hair looking great without having to worry about brassiness. Of course, you know that purple shampoo is there to keep blonde hair looking great, even if it is natural. In addition, purple shampoo can be good in some cases with brown hair. That is if there are lighter-colored highlights in the brown hair. However, the neutralizing shampoo would be blue instead of purple for brown hair because blue is the opposite of brown on the color wheel. However, what about using purple shampoo for red hair? Does that work? Let’s talk about that a little more.
Can You Use Purple Shampoo On Red Hair?
The short answer to that is, yes, you can. If you are wondering if it is safe, the other answer is, yes, it is. That means purple shampoo will not fade the red color of your hair. Instead, it will help to tone the hair, which will work in your favor. That is because the purple shampoo will help to tone down the unwanted yellow strands in your red hair, which is known as brassiness. Brassiness in your hair will cause your red hair to fade and appear dull. Therefore, if you don’t use purple shampoo, you can risk it to fade and appear dull and have unwanted yellow strands.
How Does Purple Shampoo Work On Red Hair?
As mentioned previously, the purple shampoo helps neutralize the brassiness, which is the unwanted yellow strands that show up when the red hair begins to fade. Brassiness occurs when you spend too much time in the sun, exposed to the UV rays, and use hot or chemical hair treatments and swimming. Therefore, exposure to UV rays, heat, and chemicals will damage the hair and fade the coloring while strands of unattractive yellow or light orange begin to show up as a result of that. Therefore, purple shampoo is there to combat that so you don’t have to deal with the effects of brassiness.
The purple shampoo will also work if you have natural red hair but have dyed blonde streaks. Therefore, you will also want to use shampoo to eliminate the brassiness caused by exposure to heat, UV rays, and chemicals. Your hairstylist will also provide you instructions on how to use the purple shampoo in addition to the frequency of using it. You want to ensure that you use the shampoo correctly and follow the instructions very nicely, or else it will not have the desired effects. If you are dying your hair red at home, you will also want to know how to use the purple shampoo and when and how often to use it. However, if you notice red streaks caused by brassiness, purple shampoo, unfortunately, cannot help with that.
Why Does Purple Shampoo Not Work For Red Streaks Caused By Brassiness?
With dyed red hair, brassiness consists of unsightly yellow and light-orange streaks, which purple shampoo can quickly neutralize most of the time. However, sometimes unsightly red streaks show up, too, and if you want to use purple shampoo to offset those, unfortunately, it will not work. The reason for that is when you look at the color wheel, or when you think back to the time you learned about it back in high school art, you may recall that purple is the opposite of yellow, but not of red.
The neutral color is the opposite of the color you want to balance on the color wheel. Therefore, purple neutralizes yellow, but it will not work since red is not the opposite of purple. The color that is the opposite of red on the color wheel is green. Therefore, if you have some pesky red spots showing up, you will need to use a green shampoo for that.
Can You Use Green And Purple Shampoo Simultaneously?
The short answer to that is no. When you use a shampoo that is not the color opposite of the color wheel – or that does not neutralize the color, you will only end up with pigmentation. In other words, you will end up with green hues in your hair which is not what you want. So depending on the color you are struggling with, you have to use one shampoo or the other, involving brassiness.
When it comes to brassiness, you may have yellow or light-orange, which you commonly see among red and blonde dyed hair, or you will have more unsightly red strands. Therefore, if you have more red strands that are the culprit, you will want to use green shampoo instead. If you have predominantly yellow strands, then the purple shampoo will be the solution. You cannot use both. You wouldn’t need to use both anyway.
How Do You Use Purple Shampoo For Red Hair?
The best advice is always to follow the instructions given by the brand of shampoo. Your stylist will also provide you with what you need to know as well. However, as a rule of thumb, you do not need to use the purple shampoo daily. Only when you begin to notice brassiness. You may want to use it once a week until you see the brassiness disappearing, and you will also like to receive guidance from your stylist. Ensure that you slather the shampoo from the top of your scalp to the bottom of your hair strands. You want your hair to receive the benefit of purple pigmentation. Then allow the shampoo to sit in your hair for about five to ten minutes.
After that, apply your conditioner and allow it to seep in for several minutes before washing it. Then you can wash it out, and then in no time, you will appreciate your beautiful red hair!
Conclusion
You may have heard that purple shampoo works for blonde hair because that color can neutralize the brassiness of blonde dye jobs. However, you will end up with brassiness that results from heat, chemicals, and treatments in dyed hair regardless of the color. That is because the exposure to those elements will end up dulling the hair and causing unsightly strands to show up. The remedy is to use the shampoo‘ that contains pigments of the color that neutralizes the brassiness. For example, since primarily yellow strands result from red hair becoming dull and unhealthy because of the exposure to those elements, the solution is using purple shampoo to neutralize those strands.
