Redken Yellow Shampoo and Shades EQ: How I Fixed My Brassy Hair

The brass in my blonde didn't just happen to me. I spent months growing it myself – with the wrong shampoo, the wrong timing, and a firm belief that you can somehow condition color away.

The balayage was fresh and nicely cool in mid-December. By late January there was nothing left of it: warm, gold-yellow, like the varnish on an old picture frame. I only took selfies from an angle so the kitchen light would swallow the yellow, and every morning at the mirror I told myself it was just the lighting.

What finally pulled the yellow out was pairing a Redken Shades EQ gloss at the salon with the violet Redken Color Extend Blondage purple shampoo at home. The gloss neutralizes inside the hair, the shampoo holds the cool tone. But four mistakes came first – and those are the genuinely useful part of this story.

I reached for the cheapest purple shampoo

My first instinct was the cheapest violet shampoo on the drugstore shelf. I used it at every single wash, because I assumed more would do more. The result: patchy violet spots on the lightest strands, and the yellow was back after two washes anyway. For months.

My colorist eventually explained in one sentence why that could never work: purple shampoo only lays pigment on top of the hair, while a demi gloss like Redken Shades EQ works inside the hair and corrects the undertone. So I'd spent months lathering at the brass instead of neutralizing it properly once.

The shampoo was the band-aid. The gloss was the actual reset – I really wish I'd known that sooner.

I mistook conditioning for color correction

Next I invested in a brightening treatment mask, because the packaging said so much about shine and radiance. My hair did get softer. The color changed exactly not at all. Soft and yellow is still yellow.

At the same time I simply waited it out, telling myself the next salon appointment would sort it. But warm tones don't fade on their own. They settle in. The longer I waited, the stronger the gold got.

After that round I was close to just covering it with a darker shade and giving up on blonde altogether. And the hair wasn't even damaged – it was only warm. I really didn't want to risk three hours of full color and a fresh root job for that.

I left the purple shampoo on too long

This one I only managed once the gloss was already in and I was keeping it up at home with the Blondage. One evening I got lazy and forgot it in the shower, leaving it on a good five minutes. The result: a dull grey-lilac cast on the lightest strands that only washed out at the next shampoo.

Since then I stick to two or three minutes, no more. And to the dose: the stuff is almost ink-blue-violet, and a hazelnut-sized blob is plenty for the lengths. Pile it on and leave it sitting and you don't get a cooler tone, you get a grey one.

The other side effect I earned: during the weeks of frequent purple shampoo, the ends especially feel a bit thirstier. A mask once a week catches that well – but being honest means saying it: on lightened hair this doesn't pass without a trace.

I assumed a gloss lasts forever

After the salon appointment I was so relieved that I mentally filed the whole thing under solved. Wrong. The clean cool effect holds for two to three weeks on me, then the warmth creeps back. Not all at once, but wash by wash, quietly enough that you only notice it in a photo.

Without the purple shampoo in between, the gloss would have faded far faster. This isn't a one-and-done fix – it's care on a rhythm, ongoing. If you have no appetite for that, the fading will frustrate you no matter how good the toning was.

What my routine actually looks like now

Shades EQ is an acidic, ammonia-free demi-permanent gloss. It doesn't lift, it neutralizes. To cancel yellow you use the violet and blue tones – in my case the colorist mixed a cool platinum violet and applied it with the matching Processing Solution.

I have it done at the salon because mixing it takes real experience; booked as a toning-only service it costs far less than a full color appointment. The gloss smells faintly sour, almost like diluted vinegar – that's just how Shades EQ is. After about twenty minutes it gets rinsed out, and the difference is already there on wet hair: the warm gold is gone, the blonde looks clean and calm, almost a little pearly. No purple cast, just cooler.

At home I hold the result with Color Extend Blondage. My rhythm, ever since I stopped overshooting it:

• Purple shampoo every second or third wash, no more often than that.
• A hazelnut-sized blob, two to three minutes, then rinse thoroughly.
• A treatment mask once a week for the dryness in the ends.

The morning after that first gloss I stood in the same bathroom light that had bugged me for weeks. I turned my head – and the warm shimmer was gone. For the first time in weeks I didn't have to angle the photo.

What the cool tone really costs

The running cost is the purple shampoo: about 22 euros a bottle, and at my rhythm one lasts a good three months. On top of that comes the toning appointment every few weeks – still a fraction of what a full re-color with a fresh root job would have cost.

The other price is attention. Two to three minutes per wash, a mask per week, an appointment in the calendar. It isn't a product you buy and tick off, it's a rhythm you keep. That's exactly where I failed before.

And who it isn't worth it for: if your hair is more strongly orange-brass than yellow, a violet toner often isn't enough – you'll need blue tones or a pro. On dark, un-lightened natural hair, basically nothing happens. And if regular upkeep sounds like too much, skip the gloss entirely.

What I'd do first if I started over

I'd skip the months of cheap shampoo and treatment masks completely and go straight to the gloss. My blonde is cool again for the first time since winter, exactly the way I wanted it – without a full re-color, without a fresh root job, and without having to give it up.

If you only grab one thing, make it the violet Blondage purple shampoo. It's the cheap part that stretches the expensive salon gloss by weeks – provided you dose it sparingly and don't leave it sitting. That's why the bottle lives in my shower permanently.

Frequently asked questions about Redken Shades EQ and purple shampoo