The purple shampoo for blondes that banishes brassy tones and protects your dry hair.

Being blonde is fun, they say, conveniently omitting the brassy tones, dry ends and almost impossible upkeep that come with a lifetime of pretending you were born with a much nicer hair colour than the one the universe awarded you.

I’ve been blonde(ish) for, on and off, about six years now. That period has been a yo-yo between having totally bleached locks, to balayaged (a word? I’ll make it one) ones, to more subtle highlights because of course, I chase the trends, not considering how ridiculous certain hair colours look on my head until, well, five years after the fact.

ALAS, each hair colour, like the most quintessential first world problem, has come with its own unique set of issues.

Namely, the balance between ridding my hair of brassy tones, but finding a purple shampoo that won’t strip my hair of all its moisture in the process.

You can imagine, then, how excited I was to get my hands on the Fanola No Yellow purple shampoo that promised to rid my hair of brassy tones for good. The reviews online were strong, so I gave it a crack to see if it really does live up to the hype.

How I used it

At the moment, my hair is a more caramel kind of blonde, and because of this, I didn’t want too much of a purple or grey hue sprinkled through it after the shampoo’s use. The bottle says to leave in wet hair for anywhere between one and five minutes, so I settled on two minutes.

This was my before product, for reference:

The minute it had been one for two minutes, I washed it out as normal and conditioned as normal.

How I found it

I was wary about the hype around this product and in fact, I have found brilliant purple shampoos in the past, for cheaper, that strip my hair of its brassy tones brilliantly. The problem is, after years using them, my hair has become a birds nest made up thin, dry hair.

So, let it be known: I bloody loved this shampoo. Sure, it got rid of my brassy tones well, but more importantly it washed my hair beautifully. My hair hasn't felt that clean and shiny and full of moisture almost since before I began dyeing it.

Fanola No Yellow is a tad more expensive than its cheaper rip-offs (although, if you nab it on Mamamia Shopping, it'll only cost you about $21.99 for 350ml), in my mind, it's absolutely worth it.

What I spend on the product is, I assume, what I'll save running back to the hairdresser for a haircut every time my hair gets a bit dry and the ends split.

I've found myself a new shampoo staple.