What You Need to Know About Colour Depositing Shampoo

When you first walk out of the salon, your hair looks funky and fresh after a colour service. Your hairdresser would have styled your hair in the way that best accentuates the colour and style to turn your hair into an overall masterpiece.

Everyone showers you with compliments like "Wow, I love your hair! This colour looks great on you, it really suits you!" But after a while, the colour starts to fade and your hair feels as limp as the colour. This is all due to reasons beyond your control, like colour fading from washing, heat damage from your blow dryer or straightener, and other environmental factors like exposure to UV and visible light, salt and chlorine water.

A Quick Story About My Hair

At the time of writing this (October), I haven't had my hair coloured in months, but I seem to receive comments about my hair colour quite regularly, like Sam, did you lighten your hair again? Actually, no.

The trick is knowing the correct ways to maintain your hair colour and quality. I'm fortunate enough to be in the presence of some super-skilled hairdressers and have access to some of the best products on the market when it comes to hair colour maintenance.

There is a special way of keeping your hair colour bright, radiant and shiny. Restore your hair true to the colour you intended with the ultimate secret (well, maybe not so secret): colour-depositing shampoo and mask.

Pictured above is a side-by-side comparison of my hair from May until now. The first image was a result of toning with Blue Shampoo and Mask by 18 in 1. The second image was taken in August and I may have had my balayage taken up a bit higher to the roots which created an orange band at the top of my hair. The final image was taken on 30 October (please excuse my unimpressed facial expression, clearly, I am not the queen of selfies). I get asked every 2nd week if I have had my hair lightened - I haven't had my hair lightened since August, only used colour-depositing shampoo. Such a dramatic difference!

What is Colour Depositing Shampoo?

Colour-depositing shampoo is essentially shampoo that has pigments for tinting or toning your hair within the shampoo. The colour pigments in the shampoo are not as strong as hair dye, but they can replenish the amount of colour lost in your hair during a wash or as a result of heating tools.

No Yellow Shampoo

You have probably heard of "No Yellow" shampoo such as Dumb Blonde No Yellow Shampoo stocked at AMR. This is an example of a colour-depositing shampoo as it has violet pigments used to counteract unwanted yellow tones in your hair. As a result, you get a blonde that is closer to grey or platinum blonde.

Blue Shampoo (No Orange)

Because I have very difficult and stubborn Asian hair, some blonde sections closer to my roots are orange and brassy, meaning that I also have to use blue shampoo for my hair to counteract the orange. My choice for this is the 18-in-1 Blue Shampoo as it eliminates the brassiness and tones it to a beautiful blonde, so I don't have an orange band around my hair. It is also a bit more nourishing on my hair compared to other colour-depositing shampoos.

Blue shampoos are great for helping take away the brassiness from your hair. It is best to find out whether your hair is more on the yellow or orange side and select your shampoo accordingly.

Purple Shampoo

Purple shampoo is a blonde toning shampoo that is made out of a violet dye pigment that counteracts unwanted yellow tones in blonde hair. It also works by colour-correcting the yellow tones in the hair.

This shampoo is most effective on lightened hair, whether bleached, highlighted, or natural blondes. It will help make your blonde hair brighter and shinier. The term “lightened” is quite vague, so let us break down for you what lightened hair consists of:

• Blonde
• Platinum blonde
• Ashy blonde
• Silver or grey
• White

Purple shampoo will only work on your hair if it has been lightened, this means it does not apply to brunette hair. It will do nothing to brunette hair as it is too dark to achieve an effect.

Colour Depositing Shampoo Product Recommendations

Here are some of my favourite options for colour-depositing shampoo and masks to help you maintain your hair colour and let it shine!

The Blonde and the Beautiful

If you have blonde hair, then no worries. I have you covered. As a fellow wannabe blondie myself, I can vouch for Fanola No Yellow Vegan Shampoo and Inebrya No Yellow. These two shampoos work wonders on my tresses as they have strong violet pigments that deposit onto my hair. I just leave it on for 5 to 10 minutes and it leaves a purple tinge that makes my hair look silver-grey.

These products can definitely get rid of the yellow, especially used in conjunction with a mask to leave your hair toned and nourished!

However, as I mentioned before, I still have a band of orange around my hair near the roots. What I use to combat the orange is 18-in-1 Blue Shampoo and 18-in-1 Blue Mask. For me, I don't do my whole head as it might overtone the bottom blonde bits of my hair. I just do the half of my head that needs it. Works a charm!

Brunette Bombshell

Brunettes are hot, hot, hot! The only thing that can make your hair lack that lustre Is the dulling of the colour which can leave the hair looking a bit dead and lifeless. No worries, simply use the brown colour depositing shampoo. This should refresh your brunette and make it look livelier.

Another interesting note, if you have found yourself having a colour service resulting in allergies and want to stay away from permanent hair colours, colour-depositing shampoos will work wonders as they are ammonia free.

Although they will not achieve the same result as permanent hair colour, they will gradually deposit on the hair and build up over time. This is if you are wanting to maintain an existing natural colour or you have previously had the colour done. You can even add brown to blonde hair to achieve a build-up into a caramel colour.

And don't forget, you can also nourish with your desired brown mask.

Fiery Redhead

For all the redheads out there, whatever your shade - burgundy, copper or raging red, there is a colour-depositing shampoo for you. Find one that best suits your shade and just go with it! You went through all the effort of getting your hair coloured that you want to make it look delicious, not dry and dull. Again, De Lorenzo has a great range and variety of colour-depositing shampoos for redhead shades. Then go out blazing red, set the streets on fire with your glorious hair.

Add in a Nourishing Mask

I hope this blog has helped you find the right colour-depositing shampoo shade for you. Another way to lock in colour is using a good colour lock-in mask if you don't want to overdo it with the toning.

You will find that colour-depositing shampoos generally are not as moisturising and conditioning as their sole purpose is to cleanse and deposit colour.

One way to combat this is to match your colour shampoo with a nourishing colour mask that will balance this out. I can't stress enough how important it is to replenish your hair with a mask, it makes a world of difference, especially if your hair has been stripped like mine. People are often left surprised at how soft my hair is for hair that has been bleached. And my ultimate secret is a colour-depositing mask - or just a simple colour-protecting mask.