What Does Clarifying Shampoo Do to Colored Hair? | A Lot!

Using a clarifying shampoo is an important part of your hair care routine. To promote hair growth and a healthy scalp, you need to remove the excess oils, dirt build-up, and styling product residue from your hair.

But, you may be wondering, what does clarifying shampoo do to colored hair? The good news is that you can still use a clarifying shampoo on colored hair as long as you wait until your color has set and take some precautions.

Read on for all the details!

What Is Clarifying Shampoo?

Clarifying shampoos are stronger than regular shampoos and contain surfactants like ammonium-sodium lauryl sulfate, chlorides, bromides, and cetyl-fatty alcohol. These chemicals work to break down the oils, dirt, and styling product residue on your scalp.

Can you use a clarifying shampoo on colored hair?

Yes, you can use a clarifying shampoo on your colored hair. But you should wait at least a week after your dye treatment to ensure the color fully sets, or else the shampoo will remove the hair dye.

Why Do I Need Clarifying Shampoo?

It’s important for your hair and scalp health to cleanse regularly, especially if you have an oily scalp or hair. The removal of buildup promotes hair growth and a healthy scalp.

The common types of hair buildup include:

• Sebum oil from your scalp
• Styling product residue like silicone
• Mineral deposits found in hard water
• Debris and dirt

Using Clarifying Shampoo on Colored Hair

The good news is that you can use a clarifying shampoo on colored hair — and we’ll tell you how to do it without fading your color. First, you’ll need to find a color-safe clarifying shampoo for your hair type.

The bottle will tell you whether the shampoo is safe for color-treated hair or not, but typically sulfate-free shampoos are best. Once you have a clarifying shampoo marked as safe for color-treated hair, it’s time to cleanse!

Follow the directions below for a clean, healthy scalp and vibrant hair color:

1. Use lukewarm water to wet your hair.
2. Work a small amount of the clarifying shampoo directly onto your scalp.
3. Gently massage the shampoo in circular motions. Since the scalp is the focus, you don’t need to work the product to your ends; the water will carry it down the hair strands.
4. Rinse the shampoo out with lukewarm water, and apply your deep conditioner.

How to Remove Toner Using Clarifying Shampoo

On the flip side, if you’re not feeling your toned hair anymore, you can use a clarifying shampoo to fade it over several washes. For this process, you don’t want to use a clarifying shampoo marked color-safe.

Follow these steps to remove toner with a clarifying shampoo:

1. Use lukewarm water to wet your hair.
2. Work a small amount of the clarifying shampoo onto your scalp.
3. Gently massage the shampoo in circular motions, moving from root to tip. It’s important to fully cover your hair.
4. Leave the product on, and gently wring the water out of your hair. Put a plastic cap on and let the shampoo sit on your hair for at least ten minutes.
5. When the time is up, rinse your hair with lukewarm water until all the product is out.
6. Apply your deep conditioner to prevent dryness and damage from the clarifying shampoo.
7. Repeat the clarifying process as needed to achieve your desired results.

Note: don’t wash your hair more than twice a day as the clarifying shampoo can lead to dryness and damage.

Read Next: How to Easily Get Toner Out of Hair

Alternative Method: Add Baking Soda

For a quicker way to remove the toner or fade hair dye, you can add baking soda to your clarifying shampoo:

1. Add half a teaspoon of baking soda to your clarifying shampoo.
2. Wet your hair and generously apply the mixture, ensuring your hair is covered from root to tip.
3. Cover your hair and let it sit for at least ten minutes.
4. Rinse your hair and apply your deep conditioner.

How to Remove Hair Dye Using Clarifying Shampoo

If you’re no longer fond of your colored hair, or it didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to, you can use a clarifying shampoo to remove it.

Clarifying shampoo removes hair dye more gently than a color stripper and will save you some money and a trip to the salon. You’ll need a clarifying shampoo, shower cap, and a blow dryer (or hooded, if you have one).

Follow these steps to remove hair dye with a clarifying shampoo:

1. Use warm water to saturate your hair.
2. Work a generous amount of clarifying shampoo onto your hair, starting with the scalp and working your way down.
3. Once your hair is completely saturated, put a shower cap on your hair.
4. Use a blow dryer (or sit under your hooded dryer) to evenly disperse the heat across your head. (This step is optional but will allow you to remove even more color as the shampoo penetrates your hair more deeply.)
5. Do this for 10–20 minutes and then rinse all the shampoo out of your hair with warm water.
6. Use your deep conditioner or hair mask to prevent dryness.
7. Repeat this process one to two times a week as needed until you achieve your desired results.

Read Next: How to Remove Hair Dye From Your Hair

Frequently Asked Questions

Dyeing your hair can be a time and money-consuming process, so ensuring you can preserve the color as long as possible is important. We hear you — we’ve answered some of the most commonly asked questions about using a clarifying shampoo on colored hair below.

Does clarifying shampoo make hair look brassy?

For blonde, silver, or white colored hair, using clarifying shampoo may lead to brassy-looking hair. Clarifying shampoo strips all the color from your hair, making light shades more visible which can result in a yellow color.

Take care to choose a color-safe clarifying shampoo, wait at least 5–7 days from your color treatment, and don’t use it more than once or twice a month to prevent this.

So, What Does Clarifying Shampoo Do to Colored Hair?

Hopefully, we’ve answered your question, “what does clarifying shampoo do to hair,” and you feel more confident in using the product.

Whether you wish to use a clarifying shampoo to maintain your color and improve hair and scalp health or remove the toner or dye completely, it’s important to use it properly to achieve your desired results. Happy shampooing!