Purple shampoo for gray hair

Matrix So Silver Purple Shampoo has the best record for gray hair: 20 of 21 shoppers said it removed yellow without turning their hair purple. Each record counts just shoppers who said they have gray, silver or white hair. Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo has the highest share at 9 of 9 but rests on a small group, and Olaplex No. 4P Purple Shampoo has the weakest record here at 12 of 15.

  • 114 store reviews counted
  • Ulta and Sephora shoppers
  • Dec 2017 to Aug 2026

Updated . How we count

Did it remove yellow without turning gray hair purple? What shoppers said
  1. Matrix So Silver Purple Shampoo 21 said either way
  2. Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo 9 said either way
  3. Redken Blondage Purple Shampoo 11 said either way
  4. Olaplex No. 4P Purple Shampoo 15 said either way

Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for yellowing or a purple tint. Ranked by the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval, so a product needs both a good share and enough reports to rank high.

Matrix So Silver Purple Shampoo Best record Matrix So Silver Purple Shampoo 20 of 21 say it removed yellow from gray hair without turning it purple See price & reviews on Amazon
What stands out

A purple tint is the thing to watch with gray hair. It comes up in 29% of Olaplex reviews and 12% of Redken reviews, and those shares count all of each shampoo's reviews, not just the gray-hair results.

The ranking, product by product

Praise and complaints are the points reviewers repeat most, shown as a share of each product's counted store reviews.

1 Matrix So Silver Purple Shampoo

Matrix

So Silver Purple Shampoo

Best for keeping gray hair bright

20/21 say it removed yellow from gray hair without turning it purple

20 of 21 said it removed yellow without turning their hair purple, and more shoppers weighed in on it than on any other shampoo here (21). 44% of its reviews say it keeps gray hair bright and 20% say it leaves hair soft. Dryness draws complaints at 8%.

What buyers praise

  • Leaves hair soft 20%
  • Brighter blonde or silver 8%

What buyers complain about

  • Dries hair 8%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 20 of 21
  • Brand site 2 of 3 shown, not counted
2 Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo

Moroccanoil

Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo

Best for a soft feel and nice scent

9/9 say it removed yellow from gray hair without turning it purple

9 of 9 said it removed yellow without turning their hair purple, the highest share here, but that is a small group. Across all 30 reviews we counted, 27% say it leaves hair soft and 23% like the scent, while 10% find it drying and 7% call it too expensive.

What buyers praise

  • Leaves hair soft 27%
  • Smells good 23%

What buyers complain about

  • Dries hair 10%
  • Too expensive 7%
  • Turns hair purple 7%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 9 of 9
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light4 of 4
  • Light-medium to medium4 of 4
3 Redken Blondage Purple Shampoo

Redken

Blondage Purple Shampoo

10/11 say it removed yellow from gray hair without turning it purple

10 of 11 said it removed yellow without turning their hair purple. Across all 24 reviews we counted, 38% say it keeps gray hair bright, while 12% mention a purple tint and 12% mention stained hands or tub.

What buyers praise

  • Smells good 8%

What buyers complain about

  • Turns hair purple 12%
  • Stains hands or tub 12%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 10 of 11
4 Olaplex No. 4P Purple Shampoo

Olaplex

No. 4P Purple Shampoo

12/15 say it removed yellow from gray hair without turning it purple

It has the weakest record here at 12 of 15, with 3 of 15 saying it didn't remove yellow, turned their hair purple or left it dull. A purple tint still comes up in 29% of all 35 reviews we counted for it, including reviews from shoppers who didn't say how it worked on gray hair. 20% say it leaves hair soft and 11% mention dryness.

What buyers praise

  • Leaves hair soft 20%
  • Smells good 11%
  • Brighter blonde or silver 6%

What buyers complain about

  • Turns hair purple 29%
  • Dries hair 11%
  • Stains hands or tub 9%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 7 of 10
  • Sephora 5 of 5

Where these numbers come from

The 4 products ranked here carry 8,970 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for yellowing or a purple tint and read the newest matching reviews, up to 40 per product and store, posted between Dec 2017 and Aug 2026.

A review counts only when the reviewer used the product themselves. We drop reviews written in exchange for a free product or a sweepstakes entry (0 on this page), and products that are no longer sold.

Ulta also shows reviews first posted on brands' own websites. They run much more positive than store reviews of the same products (across 19 products with both, 76% of brand-site reviewers said the product solved the problem, against 55% of Ulta shoppers), so we show them on product cards but never count them.

Because we searched for the problem, people who had it are overrepresented. Compare products with each other rather than reading a share as your own odds.

Skin type, skin tone and age splits use what reviewers chose on Sephora's review form (and age on Ulta's when given). We only show a split when enough reviewers fall on each side.

Amazon buttons appear only on products that most reviewers here say fix the problem (at least 60%, with enough reviews to trust it). Everything else gets no buy link.

An AI model labels each review against a fixed list of points, and we spot-check the labels before publishing. We publish counts, never the reviews themselves.

Read the full method

Product pages we read

  1. Matrix So Silver Purple Shampoo Ulta (25 reviews counted)
  2. Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo Sephora (30 reviews counted)
  3. Redken Blondage Purple Shampoo Ulta (24 reviews counted)
  4. Olaplex No. 4P Purple Shampoo Ulta and Sephora (35 reviews counted)

Questions buyers ask

Which purple shampoo is good for gray hair?

Matrix So Silver Purple Shampoo has the best record (20 of 21), followed by Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo (9 of 9) and Redken Blondage Purple Shampoo (10 of 11). Just four shampoos cleared the bar for gray hair, and Olaplex No. 4P Purple Shampoo has the weakest record at 12 of 15.

Can purple shampoo turn gray hair purple?

It can. Leaving purple shampoo on longer than the label says can tint light hair purple or lilac, so start with the time on the label. In all the reviews we counted, a purple tint comes up in 29% of Olaplex reviews and 12% of Redken reviews.

Does Moroccanoil Blonde Perfecting Purple Shampoo work on gray hair?

Shoppers with gray hair were positive, with 9 of 9 saying it removed yellow without turning their hair purple. That is a small group. Matrix So Silver Purple Shampoo has 21 shoppers behind its record.

Is Olaplex No. 4P Purple Shampoo good for gray hair?

It is a mixed pick. It has the weakest record here at 12 of 15, and a purple tint comes up in 29% of all 35 reviews we counted, including reviews from shoppers who didn't say how it worked on gray hair. On the plus side, 20% say it leaves hair soft.

Related problems

Purple shampoo Purple shampoo for brassy hair Top pick: Dae Violet Hour Purple Shampoo 197 buyer reports Root touch-up Root touch-up that covers gray Top pick: Everpro Gray Away Quick Stick 179 buyer reports Shampoo Shampoo for color-treated hair Top pick: Pureology Nanoworks Gold Hydrating Shampoo 256 buyer reports Hair oil Hair oil for frizz Top pick: Verb Ghost Weightless Hair Oil 179 buyer reports

HiveTried earns a commission when you buy through the "See price & reviews on Amazon" buttons. It never changes the ranking: the order comes from buyer reports only, and a product gets an Amazon button only when buyers here say it works.