Lemon juice can be used to make hair color lighter?
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free skin care · Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:19 pm

Hi,
I have fine blond hair and I have never tried to color it with a chemical hair color. I have allergies to many products and I'm not sure if I can use a hair color. I also don't want to burn or make my hair too dry. I just want to make it a little lighter. I read in some forum that lemon juice (1 table spoon) should be added to water (1 litre ), then you have to rinse your hair with it. After you dry hair you have to go under the sun for 1 or more hours to get it lighter.
Is this method really works? How safe it is for a hair in terms of comparing it to a regular hair color method?
Thanks

free skin care · Thu Jul 26, 2007 11:22 am

I tried the lemon juice trick when I was 13 years old because my mom wouldn't let me color my hair. I was blond to begin with and think I probably thought the results were more noticeable than they actually were-- you see what you want to see when you're 13. I don't remember it messing up my hair at all, but that was also before I was a fanatic about keeping it healthy.

free skin care · Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:22 pm

Lemon juice does work somewhat for this, though I think SnowWhite is right about perception, hahaha. Chamomile tea also works and you can add some of that to your mixture. However, lemon juice can be quite drying and stripping, whereas that's not true for chamomile. So if you're concerned at all about drying out your hair, just use the chamomile.

Not sure if you'd be too sensitive for it, but Lush makes a semi-natural product called Marilyn that contains both lemon and chamomile, but it also has SLS and parabens in it so you might not be too keen. It's meant to be left on while you're in the sun, in the same way you described. I tried it and never noticed massive results, but I think it really varies from person to person - might be worth a shot. HTH!

free skin care · Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:50 pm

Lara1 wrote:

After you dry hair you have to go under the sun for 1 or more hours to get it lighter.

That's not going to be good to your hair, isn't it?

free skin care · Thu Jul 26, 2007 6:10 pm

lemon juice? I don't think it works.

free skin care · Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:43 pm

I used lemon juice to lighten my hair waaaaaay back when I was 12 y.o. and it most definitely worked. I used straight lemon juice...squeezed into a bowl and combed it through my damp hair after washing. Then I'd just let it dry in the sun. After a couple of weeks, my naturally light brown hair was the most beautiful shade of honey blonde...and it wasn't just my 12 year old imagination Laughing

I used the lemon juice while I was on vacation with my family, and when I came home everyone thought I had colored my hair!

ETA: My hair was very healthy back then...that was before I discovered blowdryers and curling irons! I think this could be very drying if your hair is dry to begin with, although a good deep conditioner might help.

free skin care · Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:34 am

Truth be told, the kind of stripping that lemon + sun is going to do won't be "fixed" by a conditioner, though it may help make it feel better. But any damage you do to your hair, which is dead keratin, is going to be pretty much permanent - deep and emollient conditioners will help make it more manageable after the fact, but they won't "fix" it. So definitely be sure you know what you're getting into before you do this! That's why I really recommend trying the chamomile first - it's so much gentler, and if you get results from that, you won't need to bother with the lemon. HTH, good luck either way!

free skin care · Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:38 am

Thank you, everyone, for all your suggestions!
I tried the lemon method for two days. I spend at least two hours each day under the sun. As someone already said, we may see the result that we want, so, I made an experiment, I didn't say to anyone about lightening my hair. I decided to see if people will see the result without me saying what I did.
Actually, I didn't see any results, but my mother and two of my friends (they don't know each other) told me that my hair looks lighter and asked if I colored it.
As for a safety of the lemon juice, it is very drying and I don't think I will do it again any day soon. I want to try the chamomile, but I really not sure if I'm allergic to it. Does chamomile stains the hair or make it lighter without staining it? How long the effect? I wash my hair every day, sometimes even twice a day, will chamomile effect stay put?

free skin care · Sun Jul 29, 2007 11:23 pm

I don't think the chamomile is as "specific" as the lemon - I think if you rinsed your hair with it after every shampoo/conditioner it would help. Being in direct sunlight helps bleach hair anyway, so it would probably increase the chamomile's lightening power, but I'm not sure it makes a huge difference. I think chamomile is gentler in coloring.

The tea itself is very very pale, so I don't think it will stain your hair. As for allergy, it's easy to find out - just brew a cup of chamomile tea and do a patch test by soaking a cotton ball in (cooled!) tea and rubbing it on your skin somewhere hidden. If you don't react, it'll be fine in your hair. Chamomile is actually a very soothing, healing and calming herb, so if anything it should help your skin and scalp!

That's cool that you got independent lightening comments - must've really worked! My blonde hair has been getting darker every year and I miss my natural platinum highlights, so you may have inspired me to starte "blondening" my hair up naturally, too! Thanks and let us know how it works or if you have more questions. Smile

free skin care · Mon Jul 30, 2007 1:19 am

I have used Sun-In a few times since I've been blonde, just to lighten it up a bit more, and it really works. My hair is almost white now! And, I haven't found Sun-In to be terribly drying, so you might want to give it a go. Smile

free skin care · Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:11 pm

ginnielizz wrote:

I don't think the chamomile is as "specific" as the lemon - I think if you rinsed your hair with it after every shampoo/conditioner it would help. Being in direct sunlight helps bleach hair anyway, so it would probably increase the chamomile's lightening power, but I'm not sure it makes a huge difference. I think chamomile is gentler in coloring.

The tea itself is very very pale, so I don't think it will stain your hair. As for allergy, it's easy to find out - just brew a cup of chamomile tea and do a patch test by soaking a cotton ball in (cooled!) tea and rubbing it on your skin somewhere hidden. If you don't react, it'll be fine in your hair. Chamomile is actually a very soothing, healing and calming herb, so if anything it should help your skin and scalp!

That's cool that you got independent lightening comments - must've really worked! My blonde hair has been getting darker every year and I miss my natural platinum highlights, so you may have inspired me to starte "blondening" my hair up naturally, too! Thanks and let us know how it works or if you have more questions. Smile

Hi Ginnielizz,
thanks for the input! I am trying to find a chamomile flowers... who knew it would be that difficult! I went to two health stores in Montreal today and asked for dried chamomile flowers, at both places they have it, but there is no indication in which place or country the herb was harvested...the sales person just gave me a little bag with a tag hand written that it is a chamomile. I asked where it is from, but she said she doesn't know. It is important for me, because some places are very polluted. My friend is from China and she suggested not to buy herbs that were harvested there. Tomorrow I will check another place...I hope I will find chamomile. I will definitely check first if I'm allergic to it before I apply it to my hair. Until then, I plant to go under the sun (as I did today) and put some water on my hair instead of rinsing with lemon. May be it is my imagination, but I think it is working. I will take a photo every three days under the same light to see if my hair getting lighter.
Let me know if you started "blondening" your hair.
Thanks again
Smile

Lara

free skin care · Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:28 pm

Laral,

Can't you find chamomile tea in Montreal? If you are concerned at quality/origin, look for organic.

You can make a strong infusion/tea to rinse your hair with.

free skin care · Mon Jul 30, 2007 11:22 pm

Lunarmm, did you mean the organic chamomile tea bags that you can buy at the drug store? I bought one, but when I opened the tea bag there were flowers and also leaves.

free skin care · Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:30 am

Yes. What were you expecting when you opened the bags? This should work fine. No need to open the bags. Make a strong brew from the bags for your hair rinse.

free skin care · Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:47 am

lunarmm wrote:

Yes. What were you expecting when you opened the bags? This should work fine. No need to open the bags. Make a strong brew from the bags for your hair rinse.

To color your hair you should use only chamomile flowers, not the leaves. I will look for the other brands of chamomile tea at Costco, they, as my friend said, have only flowers in the tea bag.

free skin care · Thu Aug 02, 2007 1:04 am

Yrs ago I used chamomile powder from the Body Shop.

Bit time consuming and messy but it worked! Turned my light brown (back then it was) blonde. BUT it turned it a yellow blonde Confused

I used to put toner in it or a very light ash brown over the top and that did the trick.

Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:35 am

it never really worked for me, though my hair is a mixture of red, brown, and blonde it just made it smell good

free skin care · Sun Dec 16, 2007 4:07 pm

Before all the bleaching creams became popular and available we used Hydrogen Peroxide mostly to lighten facial hair and stood in the sun until it dryed. Some people used on the hair also. I never did and I don't know if it can damage your hair.

free skin care · Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:09 am

Lemon juice will lighten your and also dry it out! It is an acid!

free skin care · Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:33 pm

Oh nooooooooo don't try it at home Sad

I'd be worried about disappointing results coming Embarassed

I've heard beer makes hair lighter though, is it true? Anyone?

free skin care · Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:59 am

As for Hydrogen Peroxide, I'd think it would
dry ur hair.

I tried chamomile, it made my slightly red tinted
black hair, a brighter brownish-reddish color. Pretty cool results. Smile

free skin care · Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:02 am

Lemon doesn't really work for hair, it works for your skin....to lighten skin discoloration etc.

free skin care · Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:48 pm

I don't know if it's still on the market, but John Frieda used to make a highlighting cream that was lemon-based but also had a teensy bit of some kind of peroxide. I have naturally blonde hair, but I'd use this stuff in the winter to add those sunkissed highlights back in. Now I just pay for real highlights, but that stuff did work.

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