This post will explain everything you need to know about purple vs blue shampoo.

If you’ve ever bleached your hair, dyed your hair a lighter color, or gotten highlights of any kind, you’ve probably heard about purple shampoo for its toning properties. But do you understand what it really does and when you should use it?

And what about blue shampoo? Do you know what that does and when you should use it instead of purple? Today, we’re going into the nitty gritty on both, to fully explain the differences and which one is best for you.

Here’s everything you need to know about blue vs purple shampoos, which one is best for your hair, and our favorite products from each category. Read on to learn!

Note: If you are new to toning shampoos or worried about changing the color of your hair, consult your hairstylist before using!

Table of Contents

Significant Differences

Let’s compare and contrast purple and blue shampoo. While they both serve a similar function, to cancel out unwanted tones from the hair, the two are not the same and can not be used interchangeably.

What is a Purple Shampoo?

To fully understand what purple shampoo is and how it works, it’s helpful to consult the color wheel (above).

As you may remember from art class, colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel cancel each other out. For example, green cancels red, blue cancels orange, and purple cancels yellow.

Purple shampoo adds purple pigment to your hair in order to neutralize (remove) yellow tones. So purple shampoo cancels out yellow in hair (also known as “brassiness”).