Brassiness, be gone.

I haven&rsquo;t seen my natural hair color in eight years. Like anyone who&rsquo;s ever chased the high of a fresh color, I&rsquo;ve long rebelled against my mom&rsquo;s wishes to keep it black. What started with secretly using a heat-activated lightening spray (shoutout to Sun In) evolved into a full-blown commitment to blonde highlights, refreshed every three months like clockwork. Well, when you feel more like yourself in a different shade, why resist it? 
The problem with having naturally dark hair, however, is that the blonde highlights I love so much are incredibly hard to maintain, let alone achieve. Even with toners and carefully chosen cool dyes, my highlights inevitably skew warm. My colorist does her best to keep things icy, but my straight, fine strands don&rsquo;t hold onto cool tones as well as I&rsquo;d like; they fade quickly, leaving that telltale brassiness behind.&nbsp;

K18 TripleBright Purple Shampoo. Photography courtesy of K18.

K18 TripleBright Purple Shampoo

Yes, I&rsquo;m well aware that the supposed fix is purple shampoo, which supposedly neutralizes yellow and orange tones. Unfortunately, it&rsquo;s always been a hit or miss for me. I&rsquo;ve cycled through everything from drugstore staples like L&rsquo;Or&eacute;al to salon favorites like Olaplex and Shu Uemura. I&rsquo;ve taken recommendations from every naturally dark-haired blonde I know. Still, nothing. At a certain point, I accepted a little warmth as a trade-off. After all, it beats going back to black.&nbsp;

Photography by Zoe Mevorah courtesy of K18.

In the name of research, a cool, sunny April day brought me to K18&rsquo;s exclusive &ldquo;Blonde Like New&rdquo; tour, held at the ever-cozy <a href="https://www.homecomingsalon.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Homecoming Salon</a> in Manhattan&rsquo;s NoMad neighborhood. The brand, known for its cult-favorite Leave-In Molecular Repair Hair Mask, officially hits the road on April 13, with selected participants receiving full blonde transformations in Miami, Nashville, Dallas, and Los Angeles&mdash;all in promotion of its new TripleBright Purple Shampoo.&nbsp;
The New York stop was everything you&rsquo;d hope for: colorist Jennifer Lashin truly worked her magic to achieve as cool a tone as possible on my dark, straight hair. I even experienced the beloved hair mask for the first time, which, for the record, is as reparative as the rave reviews suggest.

Before Using K18 Purple Shampoo. Photography by James Emmerman courtesy of K18.

After Using K18 Purple Shampoo. Photography by James Emmerman courtesy of K18.

I&rsquo;ve always maintained that the most impact comes from a well-chosen dye and toner. While that still holds true, I have to admit that K18&rsquo;s version is the only one that&rsquo;s made a noticeable difference in keeping brassiness at bay even after just one wash. I could visibly see my blonde highlights shift from the borderline yellow pre-wash to the cooler shade I was hoping for (at least more than it&rsquo;s ever been). And for something so reasonably priced&mdash;backed by patented biotech that works beyond the surface&mdash;it&rsquo;s certainly well worth it.

This Purple Shampoo Tamed the Brass on My Naturally Dark, Blonde-Dyed Hair

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