Bleaching your hair can transform your look, but it also requires a commitment to proper hair care to maintain its health and vibrancy. This article delves into the best shampoos and conditioners specifically designed for bleached hair, drawing on expert advice and product reviews to help you make informed decisions.
Introducing color to your hair means your hair will require far more care. Bleached hair is more susceptible to dryness, damage, and brassiness. The bleaching process can weaken the hair's structure, making it crucial to use products that replenish moisture, strengthen the strands, and protect the color.
As with a lot of hair care, hydration is key. “Your colors are going to fade if you have dry hair, because your hair will be porous, so it’s going to spit out the color,” says stylist and salon owner Christine Bellemare.
Using one of the best shampoos for color-treated hair is a foundational step for ensuring your pricey bleach-and-dye treatments-or complicated at-home color jobs-stay salon-fresh. Color-safe shampoos provide a cleanse to get rid of buildup, flakes, and oil, but these gentle formulations won’t strip your faux pigments away.
Sulfates are essentially detergents that give a shampoo that satisfying lather. Unless you have an easily irritated scalp, they’re completely safe to use - but they’re strong and can be stripping. That’s why I would advise most people with treated hair to avoid them as they can cause color to fade faster. Instead of sulfates, I have been hunting for ingredients that will prolong color, repair damage, reinstate some shine, and, of course, keep your hair clean.
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However, the case against sulfates is still pretty valid - especially if you want to err on the side of caution. Not only are they irritating to the skin, but they are also capable of "stripping the [scalp] of its natural oils" a little too well, Aanand Geria, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Rutherford, NJ previously explained to Allure. In other words: Sulfates are a pretty slippery slope, leading to dryness and flaking.
Here's a curated list of shampoos and conditioners that cater to the specific needs of bleached hair, with insights from experts and user reviews.
“It adds a lot of shine and hydration to the hair, which is what you need,” says Bellemare. “That hydration closes the cuticle. And the two types - one for thinner hair and one for thicker hair - means the right amount of moisture will be in there for you.” As they’re all-rounders with a great ingredient list.
Introducing color to your hair means your hair will require far more care, so I prefer using a salon-professional brand. I like Kérastase (and so do numerous stylists I spoke to). I suggest Bain Chroma Respect or Bain Riche Chroma Respect: Both options contain largely the same formula, but the first is for fine to medium hair, and the second is for medium to thick hair. Neither option contains sulfates; instead, they cleanse with lactic acid, which is a gentle exfoliant (and it still emulsifies, so you get a nice lather). Both also contain amino acids, which are a great ingredient for strengthening hair that may feel weaker after a color treatment, as well as tartaric acid, which shields the hair against oxidative stress (free radicals).
The Kérastase Chroma Absolu Shampoo is a luxurious treat for anyone who colors their hair. It utilizes a trifecta of acids-amino, lactic, and tartaric-to target and smooth hair damage while retaining color and keeping brassy tones at bay. Its formula is surprisingly lightweight, making it a good match for fine or thinning hair, and contains Centella asiatica (also known as cica) to help your hair and scalp recover post-treatment.
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Our editors love the color-friendly formulation of the Herbal Essences Pure Grapeseed Color Nurture Shampoo so much (especially when it’s paired with the Color Nurture Conditioner) that we gave it a 2024 Allure Best of Beauty Award in our Steals category. Its sulfate-free formulation subs harsh cleansing agents for antioxidant-rich grapeseed extract and moisturizing duo of aloe vera extract and camellia oil for hair that looks freshly colored- even if it’s been a couple of weeks since your last color session.
K18’s Peptide Prep pH Maintenance Shampoo focuses on cleansing any dirt, oil, and product buildup without disturbing your hair's natural pH-and therefore improves color retention. The plant-derived surfactants acts as gentle alternatives to SLS and SLES cleaners while the brand’ star ingredient, a proprietary form of elasticity-boosting peptides, supports broken bonds along the hair shaft, minimizing bleach-, chemical-, and heat-related damage and all their unwanted effects (read: brittleness, dullness, brassiness).
Thankfully, Joico's Colorful Anti-Fade Shampoo will do most of the work for us. Nourishing ingredients like camellia oil, rosehip oil, pomegranate, and hydrolyzed keratin moisturize and strengthen each hair strand while maintaining the brilliance of your new hue for up to eight weeks. The ingredients are housed in liposomes to gradually release them throughout the day, creating a long-lasting effect.
Few formulas come close to the bond-supporting powers of this shampoo, which is why it earned an Allure Best of Beauty Award back in 2021 and, more recently, a Readers' Choice Award in 2023. Olaplex’s shampoo is spiked with the brand’s star active ingredient, bis-aminopropyl diglycol dimaleate (albeit at a much lower concentration than the No. 3 Hair Perfector treatment) to fortify broken disulfide bonds along the hair shaft. The results: shinier, smoother hair with intense color vibrancy after each and every wash.
Jenny Jacome, partner at Fox and Jane, agrees: “Olaplex No. 4 is intended to go hand in hand with the rest of the Olaplex bonding system.” (Olaplex is also a favorite of Strategist beauty columnist Rio Viera-Newton, who relies on the No.
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However, while Olaplex is great at what it does, it’s not the best option for everybody, as not all hair is damaged enough to need it. “Ninety percent of clients do not need that type of bond repair. Just because your hair is dry does not mean that you’re losing your bonds and your hair is going to snap off,” says Bellemare. “If you were severely coloring your hair, then yes: Use it. But if you’re just getting highlights, it’s probably too much.” If your bleached hair is brittle, and you’re noticing a lot of breakage, Olaplex could be a good option to rescue your hair.
If you’ve got fine, limp hair, I understand you want volume just as much as you want to preserve your color. Kevin Murphy’s Angel.Wash toes that line nicely. Instead of sulfates, it contains sodium cocoyl isethionate, a surfactant known as one of the most gentle cleansing agents. It also contains another surfactant that comes from coconuts that has thickening properties. Vitamin C and green tea provide moisture and UV protection, which shields your color from the sun, while glycerin deeply moisturizes your hair. There’s also nourishing sunflower oil, rosehip oil, and wheat and oat proteins to form a thickening film around color-damaged hair. Overall, this a great formula that has been designed with both thickening and color-preserving properties in mind.
This is my favorite shampoo for curly hair in our larger shampoo piece, and it retains its crown here. As curly hair types can trap oil at the root, the strands and tips can become dry and brittle, which is only exacerbated with color treatment. That’s why you need a balance between sulfates and hydration: The sulfates will cleanse that oil buildup, then moisturizing ingredients will prevent any dryness. This shampoo from Tracee Ellis Ross’s hair-care line has precisely those - honey, aloe vera, and ten oils including coconut and avocado.
Olaplex was the first bond builder, but new brands offering the same are emerging every month. Bondbar is unique, though, as it’s the only real budget option. “It’s cheap, and yet sort of a holy grail for what your hair needs: moisture balanced with protein,” says celebrity stylist Gregory Patterson. Unlike Olaplex which targets the covalent bonds of your hair, Bondbar penetrates hydrogen and ionic bonds. Another difference is that it’s not really suited to everyday use: it can weigh hair down, and be a bit too heavy on finer hair types.
Anyone with bleached-blonde hair knows you want to avoid brassy tones at all costs - and the solution is turning to the color wheel. Purple tones neutralize yellow and orange, and Clairol Shimmer Lights shampoo is my cheap and cheerful pick. It’s the one Mary Ann Hennings - hair-department head on Daisy Jones and the Six - used on Suki Waterhouse. She said it works fast, brightening hair with just a couple of uses. An ultra-violet shampoo does a great job of neutralizing yellow and brassy undertones on my bleached hair and makes my blonde look more natural.
Beyond choosing the right shampoo and conditioner, consider these additional tips to keep your bleached hair healthy and vibrant:
Nikki Ferrara, a New York City-based hair colorist, recommends sulfate-free options to "extend the shelf life of your hair color and prevent fading." Matt Rez, a Los Angeles-based colorist and Redken brand ambassador, emphasizes that using sulfate-free shampoo will keep hair as hydrated as possible.
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