Redken is a popular shampoo brand with a flagship store in New York City that claims to make hair “7x smoother, instantly.” The brand describes their product line as "nourishing, strengthening and repairing shampoos for damaged hair."

But is Redken really better than drugstore shampoo? Does it have research-backed ingredients for improving hair quality? Does it have any unhealthy ingredients? And how does Redken compare to other luxury shampoo brands?

In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in two of Redken’s most popular products (All Soft Shampoo and Purple Shampoo) to give our take on whether or not these products are likely to improve hair quality, and whether or not they're healthy.

We’ll also compare Redken to other luxury shampoo brands to pick our winners.

Key takeaways:

• Both shampoos reviewed contain ingredients we consider unhealthy
• Purple Shampoo contains no active ingredients we consider effective
• We do not currently recommend Redken Shampoo

All Soft Shampoo Ingredient Analysis

The ingredients in Redken All Soft Shampoo are shown below:

Arginine is an amino acid that has a hair-protecting effect.

A clinical trial published in the Journal of Cosmetic Science found that topical arginine reduces hair damage after coloring or bleaching.

Hydrolyzed soy protein is included in many shampoo products, but we cannot identify any research studies suggesting it improves hair quality.

Sodium cocoyl amino acids and potassium dimethicone PEG-7 panthenyl phosphate is a patented blend called "Sepicap."

The manufacturer of Sepicap lists on its website that this blend has “benefits on hair fiber,” but fails to provide any evidence.

There are many inactive ingredients in this shampoo that we consider unhealthy.

Benzoic acid, benzyl alcohol, potassium sorbate and phenoxyethanol are preservatives, and phenoxyethanol was shown to be toxic to human cells in a 2020 clinical trial.

Coumarin is a fragrance ingredient that was shown in clinical research to be toxic to lung tissue, as we documented in our review of Touchland hand sanitizer (another brand containing this ingredient). 

Fragrance is a broad ingredient descriptor, and a 2016 medical review concluded that “everyday fragranced products can pose serious risks to human health.”

Overall, we do not currently recommend Redken All Soft Shampoo due to the inactive ingredients highlighted above, which we consider to be unhealthy.

To the credit of the brand, they removed two artificial dyes since our initial publication of this review, which improved the healthiness.

Redken vs. L'Oreal

A beauty influencer named Abbey Yung compared Redken shapmoo to L'Oreal shampoo:

Purple Shampoo Ingredient Analysis

The ingredients in Redken Purple Shampoo, also called Blondage Shampoo, are shown below:

We are unable to identify any ingredients in this shampoo shown in clinical studies to improve hair quality.

Fragrance, sodium benzoate, coumarin and phenoxyethanol are all included in this shampoo, and we outlined in the previous Ingredient Analysis section why we consider these ingredients to be unhealthy.

This shampoo contains other inactive ingredients we consider unhealthy..

Acid violet 43 is the artificial colorant that gives this product its purple color, and according to a medical review is prohibited for use in eye products and any cosmetic that comes into contact with mucous membranes.

BHT has a metabolite that was shown to be a “tumor promoter” in clinical research, as we documented in our Plantur 39 reviews article on another shampoo that contains this ingredient.

Overall, we do not consider Redken Purple Shampoo likely to improve hair quality, and we do not currently recommend this shampoo because we consider it unhealthy due to the ingredients higlighted above.

Redken vs. Popular Shampoo Brands

Here's how Redken compares to other popular shampoo brands in terms of ingredient quality, in our opinion:

Hairitage

Both Hairitage shampoo products we reviewed contained at least one active ingredient we consider likely to be effective for supporting optimal hair health.

Brand uses fewer unhealthy additives.

Winner: Hairitage

Raw Sugar Shampoo

Contains natural active ingredients like coconut oil which is clinically shown to protect hair from damage.

Contains inactive ingredients we consider unhealthy, but not as many as Redken.

Winner: Raw Sugar Shampoo

Harklinikken

Fragrance-free, and only contains one inactive ingredient we consider unhealthy (as we documented in our Harklinikken review article).

We found multiple in both Redken products reviewed.

Winner: Harklinikken

Our Clean Hair Care Picks

Acure Vivacious Volume Shampoo is our top shampoo pick.

It contains argan oil which is clinically shown to help protect hair from damage.

Ritual HyaCera is our top hair growth supplement.

This supplement contains wheat oil extract, and a 2024 clinical trial reported that a wheat lipid complex had "a reducing effect on hair shedding and a stimulating effect on hair reappearance and growth."

Both of the products recommended in this section are free of ingredients we consider to be unhealthy.

Redken Shampoo Pros and Cons

Pros:

• All Soft Shampoo may have hair-protective effects
• Highly positive Amazon reviews

Cons:

• Contains fragrance ingredients
• Contains synthetic preservatives
• Contains synthetic dye in some cases
• Brand website charges for shipping
• Products we reviewed don't appear clinically tested

Conclusion

Overall, we're disappointed in the two Redken Shampoo formulations that we analyzed in this article.

This brand is priced like a luxury shampoo, but the formulations are not luxury-standard in regard to efficacy and safety in our opinion. We do not consider Redken Shampoo to be superior to an average drugstore shampoo.

Redken All Soft shampoo contains an amino acid that's clinically shown to protect hair from damage, while we're unable to identify any active ingredients in Redken Purple Shampoo that we consider likely to improve hair quality or apperance.

Both Redken shampoos that we reviewed contained a number of questionable inactive ingredients like synthetic dye and fragrance, that may be harmful to human health.

We consider Redken to be inferior from a health and safety perspective to other popular shampoo brands like Raw Sugar Shampoo, Hairitage and Harklinikken.