Kayla Young
If you’ve just dyed your hair blonde or brown, you’re probably doing everything to make that new color look as fresh as possible for as long as possible. While you can take as many preventative measures as you like, eventually, you will need to use a hair toner.
As with anything, picking out the right toner (or toning shampoo) is a tough job. And many of us are confused by color toning shampoo colors. So, can you mix blue and purple shampoo?
Sort of! While you won’t be able to mix them in the traditional sense, you can use both in conjunction with one another to revitalize your hair.
Using them consecutively, however, isn’t a good idea.
Let’s learn more about what mixing blue and purple shampoos might do for your hair.
Contents
What Does Blue Shampoo Do?
As its name suggests, blue shampoo is a toning shampoo containing blue pigments. After each wash, these pigments are deposited onto your hair and work to neutralize any underlying warm, brassy pigments to give your hair an even tone of color.
It’s beneficial if you have red or orange tones in your hair.
Contrary to a reasonably popular misconception, blue toner won’t give your hair a blue tint.
Toning shampoos work by neutralizing the opposite color on the color wheel. For example, a green toning shampoo will neutralize red tones. Similarly, a blue toning shampoo will neutralize orange tones, as they are opposite on the color wheel.
The blue shampoo will heep your hair color cool and even.
How It Works
Each color has a range of underlying warm pigments that will shine through when the hair is being lightened artificially (particularly through bleaching). Medium to light brown shades generally contain warm tones like orange and red, which always shine through when the hair is color-treated.
In this case, blue shampoo works to neutralize those warm tones and make your brunette color a little more even and neutral.
The blue pigments will have a different effect on blonde or highlighted hair, which will probably not be as appealing.
Blue shampoo is not recommended for yellow or golden hair. Blue shampoo might leave your hair with a green tint! After all, mixing blue and yellow creates green.
What Does Purple Shampoo Do?
Purple shampoo is similar to its blue counterpart in that it is a blonde toning shampoo made from violet dye pigments. It neutralizes unwanted yellow tones in blonde hair to give lighter hair a more even, natural appearance.
How It Works
Like blue and orange, purple and yellow are complementary colors, which means they’re on opposite ends of the color wheel.
So, purple will cancel mute yellow when combined,. That’s why violet pigments are used to tone yellow hair.
These violet pigments work to cool the warm tones in blonde hair, giving it a more muted, platinum appearance.
The richer and darker the pigment in the shampoo, the more powerful its toning ability, and the better it will be able to tone down those harsh yellow streaks in your hair to something more even.
Can You Mix Blue And Purple Shampoo?
Many are wondering can I mix blue and purple shampoo? What will happen?
Color-treated hair is seldom one-dimensional. Your dyed hair is made up of a range of shades that give it a natural, detailed look. And these varying shades will fade at different rates.
Some of the ending tones might be so different that you need to address them with different colors.
This means that your hair can have both orange and yellow undertones to be neutralized. Because blue and purple shampoo is excellent for neutralizing their respective problem shades, it’s not uncommon to think mixing them both will serve as a fix-all solution.
Unfortunately, mixing both shades will do you more harm than good.
Color-correcting shampoos work their best when used in their original shade and formula.
You’ll find the best results when you use blue and purple shampoos on their own.
Mixing the two compromises their ingredient makeup, but you’ll also be left with a different color shade that might not correct any problem tones.
Can You Use Blue and Purple Shampoo At the Same Time?
If you find that your hair has clearly defined areas where it looks more yellow or orange, it is possible to use both shampoos in the same hair washing session.
All you need to do is wash each chunk of hair with the appropriate shampoo to neutralize the problem tones, being careful not to mix the two shampoos.
Once you’ve given the shampoos enough time to set, rinse them out and style your hair as usual!
However, if you’ve got integrated highlights or find that the orange or yellow undertones are dispersed throughout the hair, your approach will have to be slightly different.
Neutralizing Integrated Highlights
In this case, you can alternate using a blue or purple toning shampoo throughout your wash routine. We do not recommend using blue shampoo directly after violet shampoo and vice versa.
If you do, you run the risk of stripping your hair and leaving it susceptible to dryness and damage.
Washing your hair daily can cause frizziness and split ends. While toning shampoos are more nourishing than a simple toner, they are still chemically abrasive, so you’ll want to avoid using them more than once a week.Â
For the best results, use one shampoo one day of the week, then the other shampoo the following week. This will neutralize all of the problem shades while still preserving the integrity of your hair, leaving it as healthy as possible.Â
So, you don’t actually have to choose between using purple or blue shampoo. You can use both colors, but you just have to be a little more meticulous with your wash routine!
