When most people color their hair, they lighten it a few shades, go bleach blonde, or at least get highlights. But what if you don’t want to use bleach? What if your hair can’t handle it without getting fried?
There are a few ways to lighten your hair further if it’s already light or give it highlights if it’s dark. I mean the kind of highlights you see in the sun, not the streaks. Hey, don’t expect too much from lemon juice.
Different Ways To Lighten Hair Naturally at Home
So, yes, lemon juice is one method. But you don’t want to just go squeezing this wonderful juice all over your tresses. They will become dry and brittle and could suffer damage.
There’s a set way to use lemon juice and all the other things on this list. There are also some no-no’s we’ll talk about that can lighten your hair, but if you use them, you may as well use bleach.
Lemon Juice
Lemon juice goes inside the hair strand to oxidize melanin pigments when combined with sunlight. Lemon juice also eats up the hair cuticle, so don’t go putting it into a spray bottle with water.
It’s best to mix it with a hair conditioner instead. Yes, it will work more slowly. That’s better than damaging your hair.
Vitamin C
Using vitamin C is like getting the most powerful extract from lemon juice and putting that in your hair. Sure, it will lighten your hair, but ouch!
The damage. It’s best to dissolve the vitamin C in water and add it to your hair conditioner, just like if you were using lemon juice. Then you can sit in the sun and let the active ingredient do its work.
Honey and Cinnamon
When combined, honey and cinnamon make a natural form of hydrogen peroxide to lighten the hair. But you don’t need sunlight for this one. Mix the two and apply to wet hair.
Put it under a shower cap and leave the mask to do its stuff. Your body heat will help it to activate. The mask should stay in your hair for one to four hours.
Honey and Apple Cider Vinegar
Both honey and apple cider vinegar can work apart to lighten your tresses. Why not use them together? Besides, the humectant quality of the honey will help to offset some of the dryness apple cider vinegar can cause.
It will also help it stick to the hair without evaporating so quickly into the atmosphere. Combine the two and leave them on the hair for an hour before rinsing. Yes, sitting in the sun will aid the process.
Chamomile
Chamomile flowers contain a golden tint that looks nice on hair that’s already light in color. It probably won’t do much if you’re a dusky beauty, however.
Make a strong cup of chamomile tea. When it’s lukewarm to the touch, pour it through your hair. Leave it in for twenty minutes and rinse.
Henna
Henna is actually not a hair lightener, but it provides fantastic highlights to dark hair. You can use a red or burgundy color henna to get stunning highlights on dark hair.
Follow the instructions on the package, which usually just say to mix the pack with warm water until it’s like the consistency of mayonnaise. Then add to the hair. Cover it with a shower cap and leave it for four to six hours. Henna is very conditioning and strengthening to the hair and the hair follicles.
FAQs
The tips on this list won’t significantly lighten dark hair unless you have very fine hair strands that are dark but without an excess of melanin.
This kind of hair is relatively easy to lighten by one shade. Otherwise, these will produce highlights in your hair so that when you stand in the sun, your hair gives off a lighter aura.
If natural hair is brown to begin with and has very fine strands, yes, you can lighten it one shade with the tips on this list.
Lemon can lighten your hair without sun, but sunlight increases its effects as it does with all the DIYs on this list.
You can try to put streaks in your hair with these tips, but the reality is that they take multiple sessions to work. It might be difficult to find the exact same spots you’re attempting to highlight time after time.
The sun will permanently lighten the hair that’s already on your head, not what’s growing in–unless, of course, you’re always in the sun.
If you have brown 4c hair with very fine strands, you can lighten it at least by one shade with the tips on this list.
Generally speaking, it’s very small children who have natural highlights as their hair changes from a lighter color in infancy to a darker one in childhood.
No, lemon won’t make your hair white. It can lighten hair due to its acidic properties, but it does not turn hair white.
It depends on your texture. If your hair strands are fine and contain little melanin, you can do one or two apple cider vinegar rinses to see a difference.
When lemon is put directly into the hair, it can cause dryness and brittleness. If left in for too long it can start to corrode the hair cuticle. If used in the sunlight, it can cause skin sensitivities.
When combined with sunlight, yes, seawater can lighten the hair. The salt in seawater can bleach hair and give it a bleached effect. You should wash your hair in between swims to avoid having the salt end up damaging your hair.
Saltwater can be used in conjunction with sunlight to lighten the hair.
It depends on your original hair shade and how thin or coarse your hair strands are. If they are thin and your hair is brown or lighter, it only takes one or two applications of an apple cider vinegar rinse to show a difference.
Yes, without washing the hair in between swims, the salt can be damaging.
Saltwater can give blonde hair a bleached appearance.
Blonde is not a natural hair color in adults. The natural hair color of surfers is bleached by the sun and saltwater.
Sun-kissed hair is hair that has blonde highlights added.
You can try using natural lightening methods such as lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and chamomile tea. The problem is you’ll have to be very patient, and it will take longer to work without sunlight. Also, these methods won’t significantly lighten dark hair and can just produce highlights.
No, cold water does not lighten hair. Cold water can help lock in moisture and seal the cuticle, but it does not have any lightening effects on hair color.
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