Tried using purple shampoo on my blonde client's hair after a toner fade and it turned her ends green instead of brassy

So I had this client come in last Tuesday, she's been coming to me for about 6 months now. Her toner faded after 4 weeks which is normal for her hair type. I've always used purple shampoo to stretch out the time between toners and it works fine. But this time I tried something different - I applied the purple shampoo dry before washing, let it sit for 10 minutes. Big mistake. The ends went like a pale greenish color. Not full swamp green but enough that she noticed in the mirror and got upset. I had to do a quick faded blue toner to cancel it out and that worked thank goodness. So here's my debate with myself now - was the dry application the problem? Or was it her specific hair porosity? She's got high lift blonde with some old highlights underneath. I'm wondering if I should have checked her porosity first. Has anyone else had purple shampoo turn green on them? And if so what did you do to fix it?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_morgan4d ago

Oh man, I've been there and it's the worst feeling when you're just trying to help and suddenly your client's hair looks like a science experiment gone wrong... I'd blame the dry application honestly. Purple shampoo is meant to work on wet hair because the water helps distribute it evenly and keeps the pigment from grabbing onto the wrong spots. On dry porous hair that stuff can sink in too deep and mix with whatever yellow tones are left to make that weird greenish mess. You probably should have done a porosity test first but who has time for that in the middle of a busy day right? At least you saved it with the blue toner though, that's a win in my book. Next time just stick with the old wet hair method and maybe give it an extra rinse just to be safe.

nathan1002d ago

Wet hair method never failed me in 12 years of doing hair.