Lightening hair with lemon juice

cazs

Has anyone here done this successfully? As per my understanding you literally squeeze the juice out of lemons and apply it to your hair, then go sit in the sun (not that that's around much these days) and then bit by bit it will lighten?

Does anyone do this successfully instead of going to the hairdresser or using at home high-light kits from Boots etc? If yes, is it as simple as the above?

jenniewb

Tried this as a teenager; results are very subtle but the damage is not! You also really need the sun to get best reults and we seem to be lacking that at the moment


Try a patch test if you are unsure, a chunk of hair behind your ear. If it goes wrong then it's not too much of a problem, unlike the haystack I ended up with when I was 14...

marrowgirl

I agree with Jenniewb, I've done the lemon thing, sitting in the sun. Yes, I did go lighter but my hair was fried.
I have tried using honey and this was better (have a look on the Long Hair Community for details) it went a bit lighter (not dramatic) but conditioned my hair too. IMHO if you want to go lighter you'd be better with a hairdresser as it is easy to damage your hair - and I'm the girl who has used Sun-in, I know!

donnac2558

Ha Ha, yes you are suppose to sit out in the sun as well.

Results in dry damaged straw like hair as said.

jenniewb

marrowgirl wrote: »

I agree with Jenniewb, I've done the lemon thing, sitting in the sun. Yes, I did go lighter but my hair was fried.
I have tried using honey and this was better (have a look on the Long Hair Community for details) it went a bit lighter (not dramatic) but conditioned my hair too. IMHO if you want to go lighter you'd be better with a hairdresser as it is easy to damage your hair - and I'm the girl who has used Sun-in, I know!

Snao! Been there, done that too... I think my hair has had a pretty traumatic live thanks to me! (Don't even get me started on the razor cutting I allowed the trainee stylist at Vidal Sassoon try a few years later; after this I started to believe hair may possibly have nerve cells...)

fairy_lights

I've tried it a few times, It didn't lighten my hair but it did attract bees.

lisa110rry

Oh the days of Sun-in! I used it on my almost-black hair as a teen, turned the most horrid orange...

robbyfine

It really works!

cazs

fairy_lights wrote: »

I've tried it a few times, It didn't lighten my hair but it did attract bees.

This post made me laugh.

By the sounds of it, it's no possible substitute for my expensive highlights at the hairdresser. Shame...

miss_independent

Seriously, it's not worth it! I can tell you a horror story and a half!

My niece had white blonde curls as a toddler but as she got older her hair starting growing mousy brown. Instead of just accepting it, my sister in law tried to lighten her hair "naturally".:cool:

I was shocked to see my niece when she came back from her summer holiday abroad because she had super short hair, shorter than most boys. She'd gone out there hair halfway down her back and being a mega girly girl and most of her seven year old friends having rapunzel hair, I couldn't imagine that this had been her choice. We tried not to make a big deal or act surprised and told her she looked like a rock star etc but she announced, "I had to have it all cut off, mummy burnt my hair because she tried to make it blonde." My brother (her Dad) was fuming. SIL had been dowsing nieces hair in lemon juice and then she'd been playing in the pool or out in the sun all day. They were away a month and within a few days my nieces hair was completely fried. SIL had given up trying to brush it because every time she did it broke off and not just at the ends, up the hair shaft too. In the end my brother took her to a local hairdressers and they said the only thing they could do was cut the whole lot off. Even her scalp was burned by the combination of the acid in the lemon juice and the sun - tbh it was practically abusive on her Mum's behalf and we are all still fuming with her. Brother was broken hearted because they had to buzz it off with the hair clippers and he was worried about the kind of psychological impact it would have on such an image conscious "princessy" little girl and if she was going to get picked on at school etc. She didn't get picked on at school because it had grown a little bit and she could spike it up a bit with gel or wear headbands and she just acted like it was her choice and she was cooler than everyone else lol but she really did hate having short hair and on the inside it affected her self-esteem.

Unfortunately, Mummy didn't quite learn her lesson and leave her hair alone because just as soon as it grew back healthy and got longer she was taken to have her hair dyed blonde :mad:.

That being said, if you do want your hair lighter DO have it done at the salon. Otherwise, you could risk having no hair at all!

choille

I used to use camomile. You had to sit with it on your head - like a cow pat affair. I had slapped it on when someone came to the door.

I don't really think it worked, but it didn't do me any harm other than embarrasment when caught.

Miss I's SIL sounds like an abusive mother. I once saw my SIL ironing her daughter's long lush slightly wavy hair as she thought it wasn't fashionable - when I said I didn't think that was healthy, she replied that she did it all the time.