Quick answer: the best shampoo and conditioner for coloured hair are made specifically for colour-treated hair, gentle enough for regular washing, and designed to protect against fading. Pair them with a weekly colour-care mask, wash in lukewarm water, use heat protection before styling, and protect your hair from sun and chlorine. Insight's Protective Shampoo and Protective Hair Conditioner won Best Shampoo & Conditioner for Colour Care at the HAIR Awards 2025.
You've spent time and money on your colour, so it's frustrating when it looks dull a few weeks later. Fading is normal, but how fast it happens depends a lot on what you do at home. Here's how to choose the right products and build a routine that helps your colour last between salon visits.
Why hair colour fades
Every wash, every hot styling session and every day in the sun takes a little colour out of your hair. The most common causes are:
- Washing with the wrong shampoo. A shampoo that isn't made for coloured hair can strip colour faster.
- Hot water. Very hot water opens the hair cuticle, which makes it easier for colour to escape.
- Heat styling. Hairdryers, straighteners and curling tongs all stress the hair, especially without heat protection.
- Sun, sea and chlorine. UV light, salt water and pool water are all hard on colour.
- Everyday environmental stress. Pollution and free radicals dull colour over time.
You can't stop fading completely, but you can slow it down.
How to choose a shampoo for coloured hair
- Made for colour-treated hair. Look for a shampoo specifically designed to protect against fading, not a general everyday shampoo.
- Gentle enough for regular use. It should cleanse properly without compromising your colour, so you don't have to choose between clean hair and lasting colour.
- Nourishing ingredients. Coloured hair often feels drier, so oils and butters that soften and add shine help it look healthier.
- Antioxidant protection. Antioxidants help defend colour against the everyday aggressors that dull it.
- Match it with a conditioner from the same range. A shampoo and conditioner designed to work together give you the most consistent results.
How to choose a conditioner for coloured hair
Conditioner matters as much as shampoo. After washing, a good coloured hair conditioner should detangle, soften and help seal in colour so hair looks glossy and vibrant. Apply it to your lengths and ends, where hair is oldest and colour fades first, rather than at the roots.
Our colour care routine
1. Protective Shampoo
The Protective Shampoo is an award-winning colour protection shampoo that helps keep colour vibrant for longer, with a glossy, conditioned finish. Its professional formula protects against fading, so tone and highlights look truer for longer. Organic macadamia oil, mango butter and grape-seed oil soften and add shine, while henna extract brings antioxidant protection. It's gentle enough for regular use.
2. Protective Hair Conditioner
The Protective Hair Conditioner detangles, softens and seals in colour for glossy, vibrant hair between salon visits. It shares the same nourishing blend of organic macadamia oil, mango butter, grape-seed oil and henna extract. Together, the shampoo and conditioner won Best Shampoo & Conditioner for Colour Care at the HAIR Awards 2025.
3. Protective Hair Mask (once or twice a week)
The Protective Hair Mask is a weekly coloured hair mask with an acidic formula that seals the hair cuticle to lock in tone and shine. After shampooing, squeeze out as much water as you can, apply to your lengths and ends, leave for 5 to 10 minutes, rinse, then follow with conditioner. It's ideal for colour-treated, highlighted and balayage hair.
4. Heat protection before styling
If you blow-dry, straighten or curl, use a heat protectant every time. The Heat Protection Shield forms an invisible protective layer on the hair to help prevent the damage caused by hot styling tools, without weighing hair down. Read our guide on how to use heat protectant spray.
5. Sun protection for holidays
Sun, sea salt and chlorine are tough on colour. The Protective Hair Spray is a lightweight leave-in that helps protect hair from the sun, sea salt and chlorine, with antioxidants that help neutralise the free radicals that fade colour. Spray it on before and during sun exposure, and reapply after swimming.
Shop the full Colored Hair range.
If you're blonde or highlighted
Blonde, highlighted and grey hair has a different problem: instead of fading, it can turn yellow or brassy. For this, you need a toning shampoo or mask with violet pigment, which helps neutralise unwanted yellow and orange tones.
- Cold Reflections Brightening Shampoo: a brightening toning shampoo for natural, highlighted and bleached blonde hair.
- Cold Reflections Hair Mask: a nourishing, hydrating toning mask for natural and bleached blonde hair.
- Anti-yellow Shampoo: for white, grey, silver and blonde hair, natural or coloured.
You can use a toning product alongside your colour care routine, for example once or twice a week in place of your usual shampoo. Browse the Brassy Blonde collection.
More ways to stop colour fading
The right products are only part of it. Water temperature, how often you wash and how you style all make a difference too. Read our 7 tips from the salon to make hair colour last longer.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best shampoo for coloured hair in the UK?
Choose a shampoo made specifically for colour-treated hair that protects against fading and is gentle enough for regular use. Insight's Protective Shampoo won Best Shampoo & Conditioner for Colour Care at the HAIR Awards 2025, alongside the Protective Hair Conditioner.
Do I need a special conditioner for coloured hair?
It helps. A coloured hair conditioner is designed to detangle, soften and seal in colour, so it supports what your shampoo is doing rather than working against it.
How often should I use a hair mask on coloured hair?
Once or twice a week. Apply the Protective Hair Mask after shampooing, leave it for 5 to 10 minutes, rinse, then use conditioner.
Can I use purple shampoo on coloured hair?
Purple (violet) shampoo is for blonde, highlighted, grey or white hair that's turning yellow or brassy. If your colour is darker, a colour protection shampoo is a better everyday choice.
Does heat make hair colour fade?
Heat styling stresses the hair, so always use a heat protectant before blow-drying, straightening or curling.
Are Insight's colour care products vegan?
Yes. The Protective Shampoo and Protective Hair Conditioner are vegan, cruelty-free and made in Italy.
About the author
Charlotte Read has spent six years in the hair industry with Insight Professional and holds a First Class BSc in Business Management and Marketing. She writes with reference to real salons across social media and the wider Insight community, and draws on the Insight office team, who between them bring over 100 years of combined experience on salon floors.
Where technical expertise is needed, Charlotte consults Lorraine Matic, Head of Insight UK Education, who brings over 38 years of global experience in colour, technique and hair science.