The 7 Best Shampoos for Red Hair in 2024

Many shampoos claim the top spot for ‘best shampoo for red hair’ title, but most of these options cannot put their money where their mouth is.

So, to separate the wheat from the chaff, here are our top picks, their features, and things to consider to choose the best shampoo for red hair.

What Is the Best Shampoo for Red Hair?

Are you a natural redhead or a redhead by choice? Whichever side you fall on, one thing’s for sure; it’s hard to maintain your lustrous tresses to look bouncy, shiny, and vibrant all day for weeks.

But what if the solution to all your woes lies in the type of shampoo you use? Maintaining a clean and healthy red mane is no easy feat. A good shampoo for red hair is essential if you want to keep your hair vibrant.

Our Top 7 Picks for the Best Shampoo for Red Hair:

1. Best Overall: Joico Color Infuse Red Shampoo
2. Best Moisturizing: Davines Alchemic Shampoo Copper
3. Best for Long-Lasting Color: Shikai Color Reflect Shampoo Warm
4. Best Shine Enhancement: CHI Color Illuminate Shampoo – Red Auburn
5. Best Sulfate-Free: Kerastase Bain Chromatique Reflection
6. Best Anti-Fade: John Frieda Radiant Red Red Boosting Shampoo
7. Best Color-Replenishing Formula: Quantum Riveting Reds Color-Replenishing Shampoo

Renowned hair colorists and stylists have mastered the art of keeping your hair healthy. Whether they are working with natural or color-treated hair, one thing’s for sure, investing in the right products, is the difference between damaged hair and healthy hair.

Color-safe shampoos are fundamental in your quest to keep your hair color from fading. The best shampoos for red hair eliminate excess oils, dirt, and product build-up.

Why You Need the Best Shampoo for Red Hair

No doubt, there’s nothing more intriguing than colored hair. Especially when it’s an unusual color that makes your hair look super bouncy and attractive, you turn heads everywhere.

On the flip side, your hair can stand out for all the wrong reasons. It all begins with a poor understanding of your hair’s needs. Unlike natural darker colored hair, colored hair has a unique set of needs.

Using the wrong shampoo leaves your strands looking stringy and dull and strips the color off. Using the right shampoo, on the other hand, keeps your tresses fiery.

Sulfate and salt-free shampoos are easy on the hair and tough on impurities. These shampoos will remove all the dirt while preserving the freshness of your hair color. Some shampoos have revitalizing properties that can revamp the red to look fresh and vibrant.

Whether you are a natural redhead or one by choice, you probably know how fast your hair dries and breaks. While you want a shampoo that preserves the red hue, you also want one with hydrating properties.

Your hair is one of the first things people look at when they first meet you. You want to ensure that you look presentable enough to give a good impression. No doubt, clean, colorful, healthy hair will do the trick.

Best Shampoo for Red Hair: Top 7 Picks

Lackluster hair is the result of using the wrong shampoo. Choosing the best shampoo for red hair in a saturated market is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Here are the top 7 picks to point you in the right direction.

1. Best Overall: Joico Color Infuse Red Shampoo

The fact that the Joico Brand has been around for decades means they must have a good idea of what’s good or bad for colored hair. The Joico Color Infuse Red Shampoo is excellent if you want to refresh your red shade and boost hair health.

This shampoo also has damage control properties. It strengthens your hair strands and protects them from other damaging factors like heat, environmental pollution, and prolonged UV exposure.

The red shampoo comes together with a conditioner for all-around color care at home or the salon. This product formulation aims to prevent breakage, enhance shine, and offer shade protection.

2. Best Moisturizing: Davines Alchemic Shampoo

Without moisture, your hair will appear flakey, your scalp will itch, and you will experience more damage. Moisture is a critical factor in overall hair health. Colored hair tends to experience more dryness than natural hair.

The Davines Alchemic Shampoo has moisturizing properties that maintain your hair pattern and revive parched strands. The secret to this shampoo’s success is the rich, enhanced formula that infuses vitamin B to moisturize dyed or natural red hair.

After each wash using this shampoo, your hair will look shinier, bouncier, and more robust. Bid good riddance to breakage induced by dryness.

3. Best for Long-Lasting Color: Shikai Color Reflect Shampoo

The Shikai Color Reflect Shampoo is a plant-based shampoo for red hair that’s non-depleting and super gentle on the hair. Each wash will be delightful as you imagine the inevitable excellent result.

This product contains water soluble red henna to revamp the red shade on your hair and stabilize your scalp’s pH balance. This non-greasy red hair shampoo has ingredients like natural sunflower extracts which work to relieve dry-scalp irritation and is ideal for sensitive/allergic skin.

Not to forget, this product has excellent UV filters that not only protect your hair from sun damage but also keep the red color fresher for longer. While this shampoo has a low detergent formula, you’ll need an additional product to keep your hair fully moisturized.

4. Best Shine Enhancement: CHI Color Illuminate Shampoo

Not everyone wants to go to the salon daily to get their colored hair cleaned. So, how do you maintain your hair color for longer? Use CHI Color Illuminate Shampoo.

This high-quality red hair shampoo can clean your hair and scalp, stripping you of all unwanted substances while preserving hair color.

One wash coats your strands with red auburn tones that adjust to your hair’s red shade. This one-of-a-kind shampoo has a hair-friendly formula infusing ingredients like silk, ceramic, and amino acids.

It leaves your hair clean, nourished, and well moisturized. If you are looking for a sulfate-free, paraben-free, gluten-free product, the CHI Color Illuminate Shampoo is your best bet.

5. Best Sulfate-Free: Kerastase Bain Chromatique Reflection

Finding a product you can trust when cleaning colored hair is tricky. Most products clean your hair well but can strip the shade of your hair or vice versa. Vitamin E, UV filter protection, linseed oil, and Zinc gluconate are a few crucial ingredients infused in this shampoo.

Such ingredients make part of an advanced formula that prevents color fading. The fact that you can trust this product to guarantee up to 40 days of hair protection and color preservation makes all the difference.

Softness and shine result from using a quality shampoo specifically crafted for color-treated hair. Owing to how fast colored hair gets dry, you need a product that keeps your hair soft and supple even when you go for a few days without washing your hair.

6. Best Anti-Fade: John Frieda Radiant Red, Red Boosting Shampoo

It’s something about the color red that people find irresistible. Red outfit, red jewelry, red hair, you name it. Anything red will undoubtedly transform your look and get you the attention you seek.

What better than the John Frieda Radiant Red, Red Boosting Shampoo to keep your hair radiant? The John Freida brand is a recognized hair care contender with glistening reviews in the hair care market.

This shampoo stands out because of its color-boosting, anti-fade technology. The John Freida shampoo is excellent for color-treated hair and natural redheads.

The innovative formula is enriched with vitamin E and pomegranate extract for added shine and softness. Using this shampoo at least once a week will preserve your hair color and keep your scalp clean.

7. Best Color-Replenishing Formula: Quantum Riveting Reds Color-Replenishing Shampoo

The Quantum Riveting Reds Color-Replenishing Shampoo is unmatched regarding quality results. This shampoo is ideal for daily use, unlike anything you’ve seen. Most shampoos will damage and dry your hair if you use them daily — but not this product.

If anything, you reap more benefits with each wash. To refresh and brighten is the sole aim most people want to achieve when using this product.

It matters not which shade of red you are or whether or not you are a natural redhead, trust that this shampoo has what it takes to maintain your hair color and clean your strands.

The formula has out-of-the-box ingredients like wheat protein, sunflower seed extract, vitamin E, and silicone. These ingredients guarantee all-around hair protection and keep your hair color from fading.

Finding the Best Shampoo for Red Hair for You

It’s hardly surprising that many people have the wrong hair care products sitting pretty in their bathroom cabinets. But when you have colored hair, there’s no room for mistakes — otherwise, the effects can be devastating.

What do you look for when shopping for the best shampoo for red hair? Read on.

Natural Ingredients

Colored hair craves moisturizing, strengthening, and color-replenishing ingredients like argan oil, Moringa, sunflower seed extracts, coconut oil, and so on. Look out for natural anti-bacterial ingredients like Tea-tree, which is excellent for dandruff prevention and general scalp care.

Nourishing Formula

It’s one thing for your shampoo to clean your hair properly. But, it’s a game changer when you can find a shampoo that not only cleans but also repairs, protects, and enhances your hair color.

Find a specially formulated shampoo to care for color-treated hair while guaranteeing ultimate hair strength and hydration.

Ideal Formula for Your Hair Type

What works for someone else’s hair may not work well for yours. The secret lies in the shampoo formula. It’s prudent to find a shampoo that works with your hair.

Color-treated hair, for instance, requires specially formulated shampoos that keep your hair soft, moisturized, and color vibrant.

If you have curly, straight, or coarse hair, be keen on finding a shampoo that can support your hair type while, at the same time, preventing damage and guaranteeing freshness.

Free from Damaging Ingredients and Substances

Sulfates and parabens are your hair’s number one enemy. These two are the most common nasty ingredients most brands use in their hair care products to enhance the results.

The only problem is that the same ingredients can harm your body and damage your hair with prolonged use. You are safer choosing cruelty-free shampoos with organic ingredients.

Read Next: 10 Commonly Damaging Shampoo Ingredients to Avoid

Multi-System Is Better

If you find a shampoo that satisfies all your hair’s needs, aim to use a hair conditioner and treatment from the same line.

Most brands create a line of hair care products that work together to support overall hair health. Choosing different hair care products from different companies may undermine the results you are trying to achieve.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the commonly asked questions regarding the best shampoo for red hair.

What ingredients should people with red hair look for in their shampoo?

Natural red hair requires ingredients that will keep your hair vibrant, nourished, and moisturized. Ingredients to look for in the best shampoos for red hair include sunflower seed extracts, plum seed oil, and Edelweiss flower extract.

Go for shampoos without silicones, sulfates, and parabens. In place of sulfates, check for safe, hair-friendly ingredients like Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate and other organic ingredients.

Do you need special shampoo for red hair?

Yes. The best shampoo for red hair is specially formulated to support the needs of color-treated or natural red hair. Such shampoos are protective, mild, and can preserve your hair color for longer.

How often should redheads wash their hair?

Washing your hair daily is unnecessary unless you work in a physically intensive, highly polluted area. Red-haired people should wash their hair at least once a week or three times per week max.

Using the right shampoo protects your hair color and prevents hair damage irrespective of how many times you wash your hair.

Read Next: Take our “How Often Should I Wash My Hair?” quiz!

How can I prevent red hair from fading?

If you’re not a natural redhead, the only way to keep your hair color intact is to go for your scheduled color treatments. However, to keep your hair vibrant between appointments, you can use some tips to keep your hair color on for longer.

These tips include avoiding washing your hair too often, using the right shampoo and conditioner, being gentle when your hair is wet, using products specially formulated for color-treated hair, and using cold water to wash your hair.

Can you use regular shampoo on colored hair?

Yes, but you will lose your color because it will fade faster. Regular shampoo aims to clean your scalp and nourish your hair strands. On the other hand, the best shampoos for red hair prevent brassiness, moisturize, and preserve hair color.

So, What Is the Best Shampoo for Red Hair?

Red hair is the most likely to fade faster. The main culprits behind fading are sun damage, harsh styling treatments, water quality, and the wrong products. To maintain the color of your hair, you must choose quality products that are safe for color-treated manes.

Above is a comprehensive hair care guide and a list of the seven best shampoos for red hair. Decide which product suits your needs best and get well on your way to magazine-worthy hair!