About two months ago I decided I wanted to dye all of my hair ginger, but not with permanent dye because I’m indecisive and I wanted to be able to change it back eventually. A non-permanent ginger dye was surprisingly hard to find, so I finally decided to give in to the ridiculous amount of Instagram ads I’d seen for Overtone and investigate them. The brand advertises itself as an alternative to hair dye because it is technically a pigmented conditioner. As someone who has dyed their hair many times, but only with semi-permanent dye, this interested me enough to bite the bullet and buy some.
Below I have listed the good, bad and ugly that I experienced while using Overtone. For reference: my hair was platinum blonde at the time and severely lacking in moisture.
Pros:
Nice Rich Colour
The colour was exactly what was advertised. I was worried it might look bright orange in person because I had no brown tones to even it out, but I was pleasantly surprised. The slight tint of red really shone through and created the perfect ginger colour.
Conditioner Works Really Well
I went into using Overtone by calling it a hair dye because I thought, “what could possibly be the difference between a hair dye and a pigmented conditioner?”. I was naive. I apologize for that now. The difference is that my hair feels so much smoother. This would be amazing on natural hair alone, but my hair was bleached at least three times prior, so the product moved into miracle territory for me.
Does Not Fade Fast
I was slightly apprehensive about using Overtone because I was afraid it would fade immediately. Thankfully, I was wrong. It’s been at least three weeks since I used this colouring conditioner and my hair is definitely still ginger. The deeper tones have faded slightly, but the overall colour is going strong.
Touch-Up Conditioner is Cool
The touch-up or “daily” conditioner is pretty cool. When you feel that your hair is looking slightly less vibrant, you can use the daily conditioner and voila, within 3-5 minutes it is renewed. One unfortunate side effect of this product is that it will stain your hands, but not for long, which is why it’s still firmly in the pro category.
Staining is Minimal
Although most reviews I’ve read seem to claim that this dye will stain every item you own, my experiences were quite different. Perhaps my many years of dying my (and other’s) hair without gloves has given me high expectations for staining, but this dye has nothing on a tub of violet Manic Panic dye. Yes it will stain fabric (so will every other dye), just wear an old shirt when applying the conditioner and you probably won’t have any other problems.
Cons:
Very Thick
This stuff is much thicker than any other hair dye I’ve used. This means it’s way harder to run through your hair and much easier to miss sections. This also leads to a longer application process. Both the colouring conditioner and daily conditioner are guilty of this which means when using either of them, you’re probably gonna use way more than expected.
Expensive
Unfortunately, this stuff doesn’t come cheap. The colouring conditioner rings up at over double the price of my usual hair dye. As well, living in Canada means I have to ship it to my house because retailers don’t carry it here yet. These prices are definitely a deterrent, and if the same colour was offered in a different brand that actually sold here, I don’t know if I would shell out the cash to ship Overtone in.
Definitely Doesn’t Cover Virgin Hair That Well
Because I am lazy, and also curious, I left my roots unbleached when I applied the colouring conditioner. I mostly wanted to see how well it would cover my natural light-ish brown hair because it advertises itself to work on unbleached, dark hair. Unfortunately, it did not work. For a couple of days, my roots had a vague tint to them, but it washed away fairly quickly.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience with Overtone. The colour was exactly what I had in mind and the clean-up was generally the same as with any other dye. The only factor that might stop me from buying any more is the price. Although I liked the colour, I would opt for another dye actually sold in Canada if it had this same shade. That said, if money isn’t a problem, you should definitely check them out.
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