My take on fixing brassy blonde tones without over-toning

I had a customer with highlighted hair that kept turning orange between appointments. One school of thought says to use a purple shampoo every wash to neutralize it. The other side insists that's too harsh and to only tone it professionally every few weeks. I tested both on similar hair, and the shampoo dried out the ends while waiting for a pro tone left it looking uneven. I started mixing a drop of conditioner with the shampoo for a lighter effect, which worked better. But now I'm stuck on which approach is really best for hair health. What do you all think?

3 comments

3 Comments

ward.jamie1mo ago

My friend Zoe went through this whole thing with blue shampoo on her brown hair last year. She read online it would fix her brassy ends but left it on way too long in the shower. Came out with these weird green streaks near her crown, like she dunked her head in a pool. She had to use a clarifying shampoo three times in a row just to get it back to normal, and it made her scalp super dry for a week. It's the same idea, just a different color disaster.

emery1991mo ago

My own hair turned into a lavender mess last time I went overboard with purple shampoo. Ngl, I looked like I lost a fight with a grape popsicle. Mixing it with conditioner sounds way smarter, and it kept my ends from feeling like straw. For hair health, that gentle approach probably beats drying it out or letting it go uneven.

white.nathan1mo ago

Yeah mixing it with conditioner is totally the move... I read a whole thing about how purple shampoo has way more pigment than people realize, so it's easy to overdo it. The article said even leaving it on for five minutes too long can push blond hair into that weird gray-lavender zone. Their big tip was to always do a strand test first, because old color-treated hair soaks up toner differently than new growth... ends up looking patchy. So your method probably avoids that whole mess by diluting it and protecting your ends. Smart call.