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Making your hair dye last is a struggle many women know. Whether you’re able to go to the salon every few months or prefer the at-home DIY route, every woman wants to see her color stay for more than a month. Unfortunately, a lot of shampoos strip the hair — and its color — but showering isn’t something you can ignore.
While you can’t control losing the color over time, you can control how much color is lost every time you wash it. Certain shampoos are designed to be “color safe” and are gentler on color molecules, but they also cleanse your hair to keep it healthy and beautifully vibrant.
We’ve made a list of the best shampoos for color-treated hair — from the brightest platinum blondes to the darkest blacks — while not sacrificing the overall beauty and health of your hair.
The Best Shampoo for Colored Hair You Can Buy
The Best Overall Color-Safe Shampoo: Biolage Colorlast Shampoo
Price: $32.00
The overall best shampoo for colored hair is a product designed by the widely known hair care company, Biolage. This shampoo is designed to be color-safe, paraben-free, and comes with a sweet orchid scent. It also keeps your color preserved for up to 9 weeks when using the full Colorlast shampoo/conditioner combo.
Not only is it specifically designed to protect colored hair and nourish the hair around the applied color, it’s also vegan (extra points!). It comes with an impressive 5-star rating from over 20,000 satisfied customers who can vouch for it being the best shampoo for color hair they’ve used and prefer.
Stats
Rating: 5 stars
# of reviews: +21,000
Free of: Parabens
Benefit Ingredients: Vegan, only need a small amount, safe for bleached hair
Scent: Orchid
The Best Color-Safe Shampoo for Anti-Breakage: Tigi Bed Head Color Goddess Duo Pack
Price: $36.42
Voted as the best shampoo and conditioner combo for color-treated hair, it comes packed with pro-vitamin B5 and vitamin E for shiny hair nourishment. It also comes infused with sweet almond oil, strong coconut oil, and keratin (a critical protein for hair health) to ensure your hair’s health and avoid breakage.
All of these ingredients act as health supplements for strong and glowing hair. However, instead of taking actual physical supplements to gain their benefits, you can just use one of the best shampoo and conditioners for colored hair! After using these, your hair is left smooth, frizz-free, color shining, and tangle-free — meaning less chance of split ends while maintaining its vibrant color.
Stats
Rating: 4 ½ stars
# of reviews: +9,000
Free of: N/A
Benefit Ingredients: Coconut and almond oil infused, vitamin E, pro-vitamin B5, keratin
Scent: Almond and coconut
The Best Color-Safe Shampoo for Damaged Hair: L’Oreal Paris EverPure Moisture Sulfate-Free Shampoo and Conditioner
Price: $10.97
This shampoo and conditioner have been given high ratings from customers who confirm it works wonders for their colored hair. This is the best beauty hair duo for damaged hair and you’re now looking for the best shampoo for colored hair to improve it. As further reassurance, it’s been validated by a team of expert hair colorists with in-person testing of its positive hair effect.
While healing your damaged hair, it also works to not strip the desired color from your hair as its added rosemary supplement gently cleanses your hair while removing any dryness. With an added aroma of jasmine and juniper fragrance, you get to experience a gentle cleansing and lathering of one of the best kinds of shampoo for colored hair. If you need a good formula that will heal your dull or damaged hair to give it life again, this would be a good place to start!
Stats
Rating: 4 ½ stars
# of reviews: +8,000
Free of: Sulfate, parabens, harsh salts, gluten
Benefit Ingredients: Rosemary
The Best Color-Safe Shampoo for Color Vibrancy: L’Oreal Paris EverPure Color Vibrancy Protecting Shampoo
Price: $6.59
This shampoo has been rated as the best shampoo for colored hair if you want to enhance the color vibrancy. L’Oreal’s shampoo hydrates and conditions the color-treated hair to shine brilliantly. It’s aimed at normal and color-treated hair and protects it against color fade for up to 60 days.
Infused with antioxidants and UV filters, these help protect and restore hair health and color. For best results and the best shine, it’s recommended you use L’Oreal Color Vibrancy shampoo and conditioner together.
Stats
Rating: 4 ½ stars
# of reviews: +6,000
Free of: N/A
Benefit Ingredients: Linseed elixir, formulated with antioxidants and UV filters to help restore hair
The Best Color-Safe Shampoo for Hair Protein: Nexxus Color Assure Shampoo and Conditioner
Price: $26.98
This shampoo has been specifically designed for hair protein while providing salon-quality color protection. The shampoo and conditioner help moisturize and work to enhance a nice shine for your colored hair. But, in addition to protecting your hair color, it’s also been designed to add essential proteins to your hair’s health to boot!
Infused with quality ingredients color-treated hair, it’s been formulated with elastin protein and quinoa to enhance your color while keeping your hair strong and healthy. The Nexus Color Assure hair conditioner also creates a strong yet invisible layer to protect critical proteins in your hair fiber to make it shine and strong.
Stats
Rating: 4 ½ stars
# of reviews: +4,000
Free of: Silicones and sulfates
Benefit Ingredients: Elastin protein, quinoa
The Best Color-Safe Shampoo for the Health Lover: Aveeno Blackberry Quinoa Protein Blend Shampoo
Price: $6.97
This best shampoo for colored hair has the first ingredient of oat as a scalp-soothing farm-fresh-inspired blend for your hair’s comfort. Aveeno has been a trusted brand since 1945 for its health-based products that are free of nasty chemicals and safe for your hair body. In this specific product, oat is a primary factor to ensure your hair’s precious health while maintaining color.
This healthy color-safe shampoo has a special blend infused with blackberry and quinoa protein to preserve color and ensure heat styling protection. This shampoo helps prevent fading, strengthens your hair, and is free of gross sulfates, dyes, and parabens.
Stats
Rating: 4 ½ stars
# of reviews: +1,000
Free of: Sulfates, dyes, parabens,
Benefit Ingredients: Elastin protein, quinoa
The Best Color-Safe Shampoo for the Coconut Oil Lover: Love Beauty and Planet Shampoo and Conditioner for Color
Price: $13.83
This shampoo and conditioner combo is rated one of the best choices for being healthy and wanting the best treatment for your colored and damaged hair. The Love Beauty and Planet shampoo and conditioner are created and designed with the purpose of creating a healthy shine to hair. On top of delivering health to your roots, your dye and color are also protected.
This shampoo formula gently cleanses while the conditioner softly detangles your hair. Infused with natural coconut oil for hair, it helps maintain vibrant hair color while protecting colored hair and giving a healthy-looking gloss. Free of animal cruelty, parabens, silicones, dyes, and formulated without phthalates, this is one of the best shampoo and conditioners for colored hair around.
Stats
Rating: 4 ½ stars
# of reviews: +5,000
Free of: Parabens, silicones, dyes, phthalates
Benefit Ingredients: Vegan, cruelty-free, coconut oil, murumuru oil, rosa flower extract, plant-based ingredients
The Best Color-Safe Shampoo for Hair Cleansing: Redken Color Extend Shampoo
Price: $20.00
This shampoo for color protection comes from Redken and offers a pH-balanced formula as a benefit. This formula is also designed to treat all colors and prevent the color from fading, while also adding a healthy glow to your hair’s appearance. With over 4,000 positive ratings to boot for its quality, this is by far one of the best shampoos for colored hair.
Redken’s Color Extend gentle hair care system features nourishing formulas to promote lasting hair color and prevent your desired color from fading. Redken’s product also features cranberry oil to maximize your hair color vibrancy along with ceramides to strengthen hair. This is one of the best choices for your hair if you wish to maintain color along with considering your hair’s overall health.
Stats
Rating: 4 ½ stars
# of reviews: +4,000
Free of: N/A,
Benefit ingredients: Cruelty-free, cranberry oil, ceramides
The Best Color-Safe Shampoo for Silky Hair: Color Wow Color Security Shampoo and Conditioner Duo
Price: $43.20
This quality shampoo to protect colored hair is not only formulated without gross sulfates, it has no silicones, conditioning agents, thickening resins, and no pearlized agents. These unwanted items are normally found in almost every available shampoo and leave behind residues that damage the hair and prevent healthy hair growth. But, this quality shampoo and conditioner for colored hair has kept them out.
In a nutshell, it’s a lightweight, anti-flattening formula for thin and color-treated hair. The formula also features detangling, moisturizing, and conditioning agents to restore a healthy formula without fading your color tone and vibrancy.
Stats
Rating: 4 ½ stars
# of reviews: +1,000
Free of: Residues, sulfates, parabens, gluten
Benefit Ingredients: Cruelty-free, heat protectant, Keratin-safe, extension safe, safe for thin hair
The Best Color-Safe Shampoo for the Girl on a Budget: Herbal Essences Shampoo for Colored Hair
Price: $5.97
This shampoo for color-treated hair protects your strands from damage while letting you look fresh and radiant. Herbal Essences Color Me happy shampoo is not only color-safe, but it’s also pH balanced as a benefit. It’s one of the best shampoos for colored hair if you’re also living on a budget.
It’s also been mindfully created with being free of parabens and mineral oils. What’s more, it’s dermatologist tested and certified cruelty-free by PETA themselves. You also get to enjoy the lush aromas of Moroccan Rose essences as you lather and rinse.
Stats
Rating: 5 stars
# of reviews: +500
Free of: Parabens, mineral oils,
Benefit Ingredients: Dermatologist tested, certified Cruelty free by PETA
Which Color-Safe Shampoo is best for your Life & Style?
Believe it or not, yes, you can keep hair both vibrantly colored and healthy! It doesn’t have to be a choice between one or the other. Biolage is definitely the top overall choice as the best shampoo for colored hair, however, so many others also are high-quality options for other hair and lifestyle needs.
The best choices are the ones without chemicals, parabens, sulfates, and other nasty little agents that rob your hair of its beautiful luster. Everyone has a shampoo and conditioner preference — whether for the ingredients, a delicious scent, or its price — but you don’t have to sacrifice its bold color anymore. Once you learn what makes your hair look and feel its best while maintaining its color, you’ll find the perfect choice for yourself in no time.