Who Should Use Purple Shampoo?

Why Is Purple Shampoo So Important?

To understand why purple shampoo is essential for maintaining your hair color, it’s important to first grasp the concept of brassiness.

  • Brassiness Explained: Brassiness refers to the unwanted warm, yellow tones that often appear in lightened hair, particularly in blonde strands. Factors such as UV rays from the sun, chlorine, and mineral impurities in water can all contribute to this discoloration, dulling your hair color.
  • How Purple Shampoo Works: Purple shampoo is designed to combat brassiness. As it cleanses your hair, it deposits purple pigments that help neutralize those yellow tones, bringing your hair color back to a cooler, more balanced shade.
  • Why Purple?: If you remember the color wheel from your art class, purple is directly opposite yellow. This means that purple pigments are ideal for counteracting and neutralizing the yellow tones that cool or icy blondes want to avoid.
  • Regular Use Benefits: Incorporating purple shampoo into your regular hair care routine is a simple yet effective way to keep brassiness under control. Regular use will help refresh your hair color, ensuring it stays vibrant, cool-toned, and free from unwanted warmth.

Who Should Use Purple Shampoo?

Purple shampoo is a versatile and essential product for anyone looking to maintain cool-toned hair. Whether you’re a natural blonde, embracing your gray, or have lightened dark hair, purple shampoo can make a significant difference in keeping your hair color vibrant and free of unwanted warm tones. Let’s break down who can benefit the most from using purple shampoo:

Blondes

  • Natural Blondes: If you’re naturally blonde, your hair is more susceptible to developing yellow or brassy tones due to environmental factors like sun exposure, pollution, and mineral buildup from water. Purple shampoo helps neutralize these tones, ensuring your blonde hair remains bright, fresh, and cool-toned.
  • Dyed Blondes: For those who have lightened their hair to a blonde shade, purple shampoo is crucial in maintaining the desired color. Over time, even salon-toned hair can begin to show signs of brassiness. Regular use of purple shampoo will help extend the life of your color and keep it looking salon-fresh between visits.

Gray and Silver Hair

  • Combatting Yellowing: Gray and silver hair can be particularly prone to yellowing due to environmental factors like UV rays and pollution. Purple shampoo effectively counteracts these yellow tones, helping to maintain a clean, bright silver or gray hue.
  • Maintaining Vibrancy: If you’re embracing your natural gray or have dyed your hair silver, purple shampoo is key to keeping your hair vibrant. It enhances the cool undertones in gray and silver hair, preventing it from looking dull or lifeless.

Lightened Dark Hair

  • Managing Brassiness: Those with dark hair that has been lightened, whether through highlights, balayage, or a full color change, can also benefit from purple shampoo. Lightening dark hair often reveals warm, brassy undertones. Purple shampoo helps neutralize these tones, ensuring your hair maintains the cool look you desire.
  • Highlight Maintenance: If you have dark hair with blonde or lighter highlights, purple shampoo is an excellent way to keep your highlights bright and free from brassiness, blending seamlessly with your darker base color.

Anyone Looking to Maintain a Cool Tone

  • Cool-Toned Looks: Even if your hair isn’t blonde or gray, purple shampoo can be a valuable tool if you’re aiming for a cool-toned look. It’s effective at neutralizing any unwanted warm, brassy undertones in various hair colors, helping you achieve the icy, cool tones that are currently on-trend.

Can everyone use purple shampoo?
Yes, purple shampoo isn’t just for blondes! While it's most commonly associated with blonde hair, brunettes who have lightened their hair, such as with balayage or ombré, can also benefit. Purple shampoo helps tone down brassiness and color changes in both lightened and highlighted dark hair.

How do I know if I need purple shampoo?
You’ll know you need purple shampoo if you start noticing unwanted yellow tones in your blonde or light-colored hair. The purple pigments in the shampoo counteract these yellow hues, while blue shampoo is better for removing orange tones in brunette or darker hair.

Is purple shampoo only for gray hair?
No, purple shampoo isn’t just for gray hair. It’s designed to neutralize yellow and brassy tones in blonde, silver, and gray hair. The bright purple hue in the shampoo helps maintain a cool, vibrant tone across a variety of light hair colors.

Does purple shampoo darken hair?
No, purple shampoo doesn’t darken or lighten your hair. It’s a toning product that helps maintain the vibrancy of your hair color by neutralizing brassiness. While it can’t change your hair color, it does help keep your color looking fresh and cool-toned for longer.


Purple shampoo is a game-changer for anyone looking to maintain cool, vibrant hair tones, whether you're rocking blonde, gray, or lightened dark hair. It’s not just a product for blondes—anyone dealing with unwanted brassiness can benefit from adding purple shampoo to their hair care routine. By neutralizing those pesky yellow and orange tones, purple shampoo helps keep your hair looking fresh, cool-toned, and salon-perfect.

Consider trying the Parrotfish Purple Shampoo. Not only does it offer the toning benefits you need, but it's also eco-friendly and packed with nourishing ingredients that leave your hair feeling as good as it looks.

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Discover Key Ingredients

  • aloe extract

    Removes excess sebum and product residue without damaging hair strands. Unlike harsh chemicals, aloe vera is gentle, preserving hair integrity.

  • acai oil

    Rich in healthy fatty acids, acai oil tames frizzy, dry, and damaged hair, leaving curls smoother, shinier and moisturized. 

  • gentian violet

    Helps remove the yellow, brassy or dull tones and highlights from blonde or silver hair.

  • sodium coco sulfate

    Derived from coconuts, and milder than Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, while still producing a sudsy lather. It is safe for colored hair and helps the transition period from liquid to bar seamless.

Read Press Coverage

  • "Parrotfish's Argan Shampoo Bar wins the spot for best shampoo bar due to its ability to hydrate and heal several hair types."

  • "Parrotfish's cocoa butter and coconut-based shampoo bars are rich with argan oil or peppermint to cleanse hair and feed it essential minerals to keep locks healthy."

  • "Parrotfish shampoo bars convinced me to ditch my plastic shampoo and conditioner, and I’m never looking back."

Customer Reviews

Based on 84 reviews
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N
Naomi H.
Actually Works!

This is the only purple Shampoo I have tried that’s actually able to lighten my hair! I have thick hair in a darker blonde color, and normally after using purple shampoo it looks the same as before. With this one, my hair stylist noticed my hair was lighter, and I didn’t even bring it up! And yes, I follow instructions!

M
Mary

argan oil shampoo and conditioner

S
Susan T.
Good product

I purchased the purple shampoo and conditioner bars & am very pleased with the results. It has definitely toned down the yellowing of my gray hair and does not dry my hair out. I will be ordering again for sure.

J
JENNIFER B.

purple shampoo and conditioner

D
Dorothy C.
Great product

I color my hair and have tried many products that deal with toning down the orange, but nothing has worked as well as the purple bars for shampoo and conditioner. My hair has never looked or felt better. I love this product.