Ready to move onto a new color? If you’re going for a drastic change, fading your hair is a necessary step!

Here’s how to safely speed up the process of fading, and what to expect.

1. Pick up The Fader

Our new pH-balanced shampoo is your go-to for removing color! In addition to helping you gradually fade your shade, it’s formulated to gently remove impurities and buildup from your scalp, creating an ideal environment for healthy hair growth. It’s safe for all hair types and textures and it’s also sulfate- and paraben-free, so your strands shouldn’t get that dried-out feeling you get from other, traditional clarifying shampoos! Learn more about The Fader Shampoo.

2. Follow up with a colorless deep conditioner

The point of fading is to get color out of your hair, not add any more in, so when it comes to conditioning, put our pigmented products aside. Leave anything that has “Daily Conditioner” or “Coloring Conditioner” out of your wash-day routine! For now, go colorless. 

Our Allure Best In Beauty award-winning colorless hair mask, The Remedy for Fine Hair, will keep your strands healthy and hydrated as you fade! If you have thicker or coarser hair, reach for our OG formula, The Remedy, instead.

3. Fade while you shower, swim, and stroll

Pro tip: there are plenty of everyday activities that will naturally fade hair color. We created pigmented products like our Daily Conditioners to combat that fading, but if you’re trying to get color out, you can totally use these to your advantage: 

Frequent, Hot Showers — A healthy head of hair usually doesn’t require washing it every day, and by washing less, you preserve more color. Wash your hair as often as possible: any time your hair gets wet you should see a little color loss, and hot water should help it along. Hard water will make color fade even faster because it contains a higher level of minerals that contribute to color loss.

Swimming — A dip in the pool can be your secret weapon! Chlorine is known to strip color out of hair. It may also dry your strands out, so keep some Remedy handy for a post-swim wash!

Getting some sun— Long periods of time spent in direct sunlight can cause your shade to fade faster; if you’re going for a walk, leave your hat at home and let your strands soak up some rays! On its own, exposure to the sun may not fade your hair as quickly as these other options, but in addition to The Fader, hot showers, and pool time, it’ll definitely help.

4. If there’s just a trace of color left, tone it out

We’ve got you covered with our Toning Conditioners — you can use the opposite color on the color wheel to neutralize any small trace of color that’s left on your head! For instance, if there’s a little red or pink left in your hair, our Green Toning Conditioner will tone it out. 

Our Blue Toning Conditioner will tone out traces of orange, and so on around the color wheel. Be sure to start off with a strand test. If color isn’t uniform and only certain pieces of your hair need to be toned, you focus application solely on the areas that need correcting. 

Want to learn more? Check out this video about our Toning Conditioners to see how it’s done!

5. If/when to see your stylist

If you’re still seeing a tint of color in your hair after fading and toning, your best bet is to see your stylist and let them know you’re looking to get oVertone removed from your hair — a professional direct pigment or dye remover should be used prior to any bleach or lighteners.

6. Skip the bleach

If you need to lift your hair, we highly recommend seeing a stylist, especially because bleach can actually drive pigment further into your cuticle, making color impossible to remove from your hair.

How fast will my color fade?

How quickly your color fades depends on several different factors. We’ve discussed some already — how often you’re washing your hair, the type of water you’re washing your hair in, and how much sun you’re regularly getting. 

Another major factor that affects fading is the porosity of your hair. The more porous your hair, the easier it is to take in and lose color. This depends on several things — the texture of your hair, how much you’ve processed it in the past, etc.

The intensity of the color you’re trying to fade out also matters, as well as how frequently you’ve used it. For example, a single application of Pastel Blue will most likely fade out of your hair faster and more completely than an Extreme Orange color you’ve been maintaining with regular Daily and Coloring Conditioner washes for the past few months!

The truth is, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer; you can learn more about how long oVertone lasts here. 

Still have questions? Our Color Consultants have the answers! Get in touch at help.overtone.co.