Overtone sent me products for review. There are affiliate links in this article. All opinions are my own.
I hadn’t dyed my hair in over a decade. I’d never tried “unnatural” colors. I’ve been pretty obsessed with the color purple since I was about 14, and have thought about trying purple hair for a long time. I had always decided against it, though. Part of me was afraid of being unable to do it at home on my own, and I struggled to justify the cost of having it done at a salon. Another part of me was afraid people would be judgmental or would think it looked immature. I had a deep realization a while back that I don’t want to live my life based on what other people think anymore. I want to live for ME. And I love purple, and I like the idea of purple hair. So, I decided to give it a try!
After bleaching and using Overtone Royal Plum
Overtone’s Royal Plum line is specifically designed for use on brown hair. However, my natural hair color is quite dark. It’s not truly black, but it’s definitely a darker brown. In lower lighting, it can look black. Still, I wanted to try Overtone without bleaching. You apply the Overtone mask to dry hair, which means it doesn’t spread very far. My hair was so dark that I wasn’t really confident about how well I was (or wasn’t) covering my hair with the product. I used a little over half of the container, though. When I was done, you just leave it sit for the specified amount of time, and then get in the shower and rinse it out using cool water until the water runs clean. Pretty simple!
My fully natural, dark brown hair prior to overtone (above). My hair after directly using Overtone Royal Plum (below).
I found that I could barely see the purple on my hair at all, even in the best sunlight. It wasn’t the result I was hoping for, but I wasn’t terribly surprised given how dark my hair is. I decided to go ahead and lighten my hair so that I could get a more obvious purple result. I bought some bleach powder and developer, and had my husband help. This is where we realized that my hairstylist’s saying “you have SO much hair!” was not an exaggeration. My hair is ridiculously thick. Not in terms of individual hair strands being thick, but in terms of the amount of actual hairs that I have. Getting bleach to my roots thoroughly took a LONG time and definitely wasn’t something I could do without help.
The results from the bleach weren’t as orange as I was expecting based on the one other time I had bleached my hair (in my teens). It had spots that looked more pink, which I thought was quite cool. I think the pink appearance was probably the result of the Overtone staining some of my hair a little bit. I left my hair in this bleached-with-pink look for a little while due to having a few days of migraines and not having the energy to go purple. However, I thought this look was kind of cool and I got a lot of compliments on it!
But, then I was ready to go for purple. I tried using the remainder of the mask that I had left. I had divided my hair in 1/4 sections and realized part way through the first 1/4 that we definitely didn’t have enough product left to cover my whole head. So, I sort of randomly applied what was left, and waited on a new mask to arrive. Here is my super weird results from that first attempt. My takeaway? Definitely make sure you have enough product! The mask is a generous size. For someone with really thick hair that is about armpit length like mine, you can get almost two full-head uses out of a container.
My initial results from Overtone Royal Plum.
When the new mask arrived, my husband helped me again. It was far easier to apply this time because my hair was light, and the mask is dark purple so it’s much easier to see if you’ve effectively covered everything or not, versus trying to apply a dark mask onto dark hair. My advice is to be careful around your roots and the edges of your face, because it’s easy to not get those areas covered well. to get them well-covered, I ended up staining my skin a little bit, but it will wash off if you stain your skin so I’d suggest erring on the side of staining your skin over not getting good coverage to your hairline.
About 3-weeks after dying (I was using the color depositing conditioner about once a week still)
I LOVED the results. It was a little odd to catch myself in the mirror the first few days, but I really like how it looks. I continued to wash my hair in lukewarm or only slightly warm water, because using hotter water can cause the color to fade quickly. I was also sent Overtone color depositing conditioner in the matching color (royal plum). The conditioner tube is on the smaller side, and again my hair i sreally thick, so I only get about 2.5 uses of the conditioner per tube. It calls itself a daily conditioner, and if you want the boldest possible color then using it each time you wash your hair would be ideal. However, I found that I was happy with the results of using the conditioner about once a week. It is quite dark and pigmented so using it in the shower with your bare hands may stain your fingers. I opted to use plastic gloves while using it.
About one month after first dyeing. I took this to send to my husband while complaining about how tired and bored I was while stuck in a waiting room, lol. I hadn’t quite run out of color depositing conditioner at this time, but my roots were starting to show.
It’s been two months now since I dyed my hair purple and my roots are growing out a lot so I need to bleach the roots and then re-dye. I ran out of color depositing conditioner and haven’t purchased more so the color has definitely faded quite a bit, but it’s unquestionably still purple and I still like it. I’ve liked it at a whole range of different fade levels, honestly! So, if you’re okay with a slow fading process, you don’t absolutely have to have the color-depositing conditioner for touch-ups. It just depends on how bold you want your hair to stay. If you want your hair to stay bolder, you’ll want to plan to keep buying the color-depositing conditioner regularly.
Where i’m at now, 2 months after dyeing and about a month since using color-depositing conditioner.
Overall, I’ve been really pleased with my experience. I made multiple mistakes early on due to not fully knowing what I was doing, but I hope other newbies can learn from my mistakes. Once I got my whole head purple, I was really happy with the results.
Tips for Using Overtone Semi-Permanent Dye For The First Time
- If your hair is moderate to dark, lighten it first if you want bold results.
- Plan to have someone help you, even if you do other hair-things independently. I cut my own hair, for example. There is just no way to get your roots well covered without help.
- Make sure you have enough product. The 8oz tub is more than enough for a single use, but they also make 2oz tubes that may not be enough if your hair is long and/or thick.
- Plan to routinely use color-depositing conditioner if you want the boldness to last long-term. For my long and thick hair, this would require at least 2 tubes of conditioner per month (roughly a $25 expense monthly).
Semi-permanent dyes like this do fade fairly quickly if you don’t use color depositing conditioner to upkeep the boldness, so do factor in that expense if you want to maintain the intensity. However, I have enjoyed watching it fade as well, it’s a little bit of an adventure to see what it will look like at each phase.
I like how the overtone mask comes in a pot that does not have to be used all at once. Unlike many box dyes, it’s not a “use it all today or toss it” scenario. So if you wanted to do a money piece or if you have short or thin hair, you could use one container of an Overtone mask over several months without any going to waste. I also wanted to note that the smell of the mask and of the conditioner is somewhat minty? It’s a little bit strong, but is not a bad scent like a lot of dyes are.
If you’ve wanted to try a unique hair color and have been scared, I suggest you give it a try with Overtone. They have lots of color options! If your hair is darker, I would suggest lightening it first.
Buy it: You can buy Overtone products on Amazon, or at lots of drugstores and some grocery stores.
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Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.
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