Living with Unnatural Hair Color: the truth & how to keep it vibrant

Want to know my secret to keeping my unnatural hair color vibrant? After two decades of dying my hair, here’s a list of tips including my secret weapon – oVertone tinted conditioner!

This post is not sponsored. However, this content does contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

In case you were unaware, my favorite color is purple. In fact half (or more) of the hair on my head has been purple (or other colors – currently blue) for the last 2 decades of my life.

During that time I’ve gotten countless questions about it: Do you have to bleach it first? Is it permanent? How often do you redye it? Have you ever tried mermaid hair?

I get stopped no matter where I am: the gym, the grocery, random passerbys on the sidewalk. So I’ve finally decided to write it all down for those of you searching the internet for those very questions, sprinkled with photos of my hair in different stages over the years. I hope you enjoy!

I’ve been dying my hair since I was in the 6th grade (1996 if any wants to do math). Granted, it was just with a bottle of Sun In spray hair lightener but I was almost blonde after how often I used that stuff. In fact I think it continued to lighten even after I stopped using it based on friends comments at the time – and yes I remember things said to me in 6th grade. But I digress.

Since then, I’ve tried black, black cherry, highlights, lowlights, red, blue, and most frequently purple hair (as you will notice from the photos throughout this post, I have few photos that are not purple).

Within each color I’ve done different styles of it such as highlights, tips, just the bangs and framing pieces, just the underneath, a combination of them all, or my entire head of hair.

After two decades, you could say I’ve learned quite a bit. Friends, family, and strangers who comment on and ask about my hair are often are surprised when I tell them about the maintenance.

Permanent “natural” hair dye is a much more common area and requires less discussion so I’ll be focusing solely on “unnatural” hair dyes.

First thing to know, if you have dark hair, you’re going to need to bleach it in order for the color to show. I get away with only bleaching it every 6 months if I only have color on the underneath and front. But when I have allover color I touch up my roots much more frequently, every 2 months if I’m on top of things.

If you have blonde hair, while I enjoy being a brunette, I envy the ease at which you can dye your hair fun colors, especially because when I did the entire thing it took two rounds of bleach to lighten it enough!

The first time I bleach my hair from brown it turns yellow/blonde but after it’s dyed purple and then re-bleached it is stripped down to a pink or blueish hue (depending on the type of dye I used at the time). I always joke with my hairdresser that I am going to just keep it that way and not redye it purple.

Second, even though that bottle of beautiful dye says “permanent” there’s no true permanent unnatural hair dye (if you find one please tell me).

The pigment particles of these colors are surface dyes, coating only the exterior of the hair. Meanwhile, the more natural colors are smaller and can seep into your hair, resulting in lasting color. As a result when you dye your hair bright purple (for example I like Scruples), it will slowly fade every time it is washed (see example photos below).

And due to it’s quasi-permanent behavior, it gets on everything so you better stock up on dark towels and pillows. Other things that can cause your color to fade? Heat, UV rays, sulfates in your shampoo, and chlorine from the pool are common suspects. So what do I do?

• Only wash hair every other day at most
• Always wear a hat/hood when in the sun
• Use sulfate-free shampoo, conditioner, and styling products with UV protection
• Minimize the use of hot styling tools
• Wear a cap in the pool

The biggest one for me is avoiding UV exposure.

My friends make fun of me and my constant need to have a hat or some kind of covering even if only in a the sun for a few minutes (no joke I’ve wrapped a shirt around my head). In the summer I carry a hat folded up in my purse because hello, sunny patio weather!

But seriously, I’ve watched it fade while spending a day in the sun and I had just redyed it the day before. Talk about frustrating! But after investing in a few hats and also a good spray-on UV protection for my hair I’ve minimized the effects of UV rays on my purple hair.

One obvious side effect includes pasty skin as you can kiss that tan goodbye. Although with skin cancer in my family I tended to avoid the sun already.

Which brings me to the fact that probably shocks the most people – on average I used to dye my hair every 2-3 weeks depending on diligence (picture below is how hot I look during this process).

Remember that thing I said earlier about it not being truly permanent? I wasn’t kidding, unnatural hair color is a commitment and is the only thing high maintenance about me. Oh but wait didn’t I say “used to” as in the past tense?

Yes used to, because I have a secret and no it’s not the discovery of a permanent purple hair dye (I’ve tried every brand I can get my hands on, they’re all the same just different shades of color). After I discovered the magic that is oVertone tinted conditioner, I now only dye my hair every 2-3 months!

Every time I wash my hair (only every couple days), I use a conditioner that has purple pigment in it to freshen up my color (it stains my hands a little but washes away). I let it sit while I go about the rest of my business in the shower and once I’m done, the conditioner gets rinsed out just like normal conditioner.

While the tinted conditioner is great, it only slows the fading process, it does not halt it completely. In order to do so, I supplement with tinted deep conditioner. It can also be applied to wet hair after shampooing, it just needs to sit on your hair longer just like any other deep conditioner. But this baby requires the use of gloves because it has a much higher pigment concentration and hence the longevity of my hair color.

Eventually I do dye it for real because some spots just don’t get as much conditioner as others over time – even though I comb it through, it’s just the reality. I follow this routine for maintaining a silvery-lavender color as well, mixing their less pigmented silver/purple conditioners together.

Other than my kick ass hairdresser, oVertone is the greatest thing that ever happened to my purple hair. And no they are not paying me to write this post, heck they probably don’t even know I exist beyond my order history.

And yes they have other colors besides purple. In fact, in addition to having all the colors, they have 3 shades of every color so you can get the look you want and keep it: pastel, vibrant, and extreme (which is what I use). So to recap, here’s my revised list of how I keep my purple looking bright:

• Only wash hair every other or every 2 days
• Use oVertone tinted conditioners
• Always wear a hat/hood when in the sun
• Use shampoo, conditioner, and styling products with UV protection
• Minimize the use of hot styling tools
• Wear a cap in the pool

P.S. You know all that beautiful “mermaid” and “rainbow” hair that’s all over the internet? Unless you’re prepared to go to your hairdresser every 2-3 weeks to have the color reapplied, don’t waste your time wondering if you have the balls to do it. I’ve actually talked to my hairdresser about this and she confirmed my statement. When all those beautiful colors start to fade, are you going to reapply all those colors yourself? If you’re lucky you have a really nice friend who is willing to help you separate each section of hair out to do so at home – every 2-3 weeks. I did green/blue/purple once – it was beautiful but once was enough maintenance! As magical as I think oVertone is, you still have to separate out your hair colors every time your wash and condition. oVertone actually just posted a video on how to maintain two hair colors, which could be manageable but if I want multi colors I think I’ll just stick to clip-in extensions. That being said I have dabbled with using their pink and blue deep conditioners to add a little dimension to my purple and it’s quite nice!

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post! I just genuinely love oVertone and am trying to spread the word to all my fun colored hair friends. But I do have Amazon referral links to other products embedded in this post.

Two years ago: German Chocolate Larabars

Three years ago: Peepsters Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Six years ago: Double Cake Batter Truffle Ice Cream