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When cooling hues are added to mask these warm tones, the result feels fresher to the eye, and therefore brighter and more desirable. We generally perceive these colors as being more undesirable and less fresh. Yellowing causes the crisp, cold white of clothing to become warmer, and appear darker and more used.īy adding trace amounts of fluorescent blue colors to detergents, laundry products are able to re-introduce a cool tone to these fabrics, and make them appear lighter, colder, and less yellow, which translates to looking fresher and newer.Īs humans, we have learned to associate certain yellowy warm tones (such as the faded yellow color of old white clothing) on certain surfaces (like hair or fabric) with environmental grime, sweat, and general icky-ness.
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Like grey or blonde hair, white clothing can acquire a yellow color after continuous use. If you've purchased a bleach-free laundry product to whiten white clothes, you're probably more familiar with this phenomenon than you may think. This is pretty complicated, so let's use an example. While your hair might be very slightly darker than before, it will not look darker, because of the ways our eyes perceive color. It happens because of an effect called bluing. The brightening effect caused by purple shampoo is actually illusionary. With all that being said, how is it possible that purple shampoo makes hair appear brighter?
#SHAMPOO TO LIGHTEN HAIR FREE#
Feel free to test this out for yourself at home to see for yourself. Think about it this way if you've ever drawn on a piece of paper with a yellow colored pencil, the result is pretty light right? Now, If you color over that yellow with a purple pencil, no matter how light the purple may be, the end result will be darker than the yellow you started with. Even when a very small amount of purple shampoo is applied to blonde hair, the result will likely be at least a little bit darker than before. This is because the inky purple pigments found in purple shampoo are a darker color than the shades of yellow in blonde hair. If anything, purple shampoo may make your hair temporarily slightly darker. However, it can create an illusion of brightness.īecause it does not contain an ingredient that will chemically change the color of your hair, purple shampoo cannot truly lighten hair. Purple shampoo can't actually lighten your hair. When a little purple dye is combined with a lot of yellow hair, the saturation of the yellow is decreased, leaving a more desirable ashy hue as the final result. Using this logic, you can start to understand how purple shampoo works its magic on yellow-blonde hair. Similarly, if you mix a lot of pure purple with a little bit of pure yellow, you'll get a less intense purple. If you mix a lot of pure yellow with a little bit of pure purple, you'll get a less intense yellow. A different effect is created when complementary colors are combined in unequal proportions. If you mix a pure purple with a pure yellow in completely equal amounts, the result will be neither purple nor yellow, but a dark grey or ashy-brown color. When complementary colors are combined in equal proportions, they effectively cancel each other out. This means that they are directly opposite from one another on the color wheel.
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If you're familiar with color theory, you'll know that purple and yellow are complementary colors. The effects are temporary, so regular usage of purple shampoo is a must in order to see results. Think of it as an at-home toning system to help you hide brassy undertones in blonde hair. When purple dye (in particular, Ext Violet #2), interacts with a yellow-y head of blonde hair, it makes the hair appear less yellow. Purple shampoo is a type of shampoo that was formulated to contain teeny-tiny molecules of purple dye.
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