lemon juice as hair coloring

[mel_s12]

Alright.. so ever since becoming more 'green' I've started eliminating other toxins from my life... such as hair dye. I've been a fake blonde for a long time now. So I am now letting my natural hair grow out. The roots are little ugly looking now, but I just don't feel like buying some nasty chemicals and dying it again.
Also, I'm a little sad because I like the blonde. Maybe I need to give my hair a chance as its natural color, but I recently read about lemon juice being used a natural hair lightener. Has anybody tried this?
The raw way of coloring hair! Woohoo!

[Mandie]

I find that the juice lightens the hair color by eliminating build-up. If you want a good bounce to your newly clean hair, pour a beer (I guess it's vegan, right?) over your head in the shower, and rinse after a few minutes of soaking in.

Good luck!

Mandie

[queenfluff]

Alright.. so ever since becoming more 'green' I've started eliminating other toxins from my life... such as hair dye. I've been a fake blonde for a long time now. So I am now letting my natural hair grow out. The roots are little ugly looking now, but I just don't feel like buying some nasty chemicals and dying it again.
Also, I'm a little sad because I like the blonde. Maybe I need to give my hair a chance as its natural color, but I recently read about lemon juice being used a natural hair lightener. Has anybody tried this?
The raw way of coloring hair! Woohoo!

How blonde are you wanting it? It depends on what your natural hair color is.

Lemon will only work to lighten it (and you HAVE to sit out in the sun with the lemon juice in your hair - you need the sun to lighten it) if you have light brown or lighter hair. If your hair is brunette or black, you won't go straight to blonde - in fact, you may never get there. You might end up with some brassy highlights.

Even if your hair is a light color naturally, the lemon juice isn't going to give you the same results as the bleach. It will be more like blonde highlights mixed in with natural hair color. It will take several application of lemon juice and lot of sun to get very blonde hair.

[mel_s12]

My hair is naturally brown.. not light.. not dark brown.. just brown. lol.. maybe close to a darkish mousy color!

Thanks for your advice. I live on the west coast and there is no sunshine here so I guess the lemon juice won't work! I'll just stick with the natural color for now and try the lemon juice in the summer time!:)

[Blazin'Jane]

Good choice! :D

[subbacultcha]

I too was a fake blonde...
Since going raw I stopped bleaching my hair...I've given up on being blonde again really! It's pretty damn hard to get your hair to look significantly lighter without chemicals. It might look a bit hilighted if you sit out in thesun with lemon juice on your hair.
So I decided to embrace my brown hair and started dying it red-brown with henna. It worked wonders for its condition, so if you're unhappy with your hair colour you may want to give it a go.

[spicyfull]

I am NOT a Good source..I happen to think BLEACH makes a definate Statement. But if your mind is made up and you can't deal with your Mousy look.....Try Henna....it coats the hair, usually does better in Red Shades. AND IT IS A...LA..NATURAL................

[mel_s12]

I think I might try that!! Thanks! I always wanted a more radical change!

Here is a picture of me (hosting a raw food party!). You can see my blonde and then my roots coming out.

And in the other pic my hair is a little darker, but still not natural.

[halikatak]

I used to put lemon juice in my hair when I was younger. We'd spray it in and then lay out in the sun. The problem with lemon juice is that it will dry out your hair and it will give you a brassy blonde instead of a natural blonde.

I've read in magazine that a way to cover up roots as they are growing out is to use chalk (yep you read it right!) on the roots. I've never tried it.

Or you can bite the bullet and dye your hair ONE MORE TIME to match your natural color so that it grows out more naturally.

:)

[juliebove]

Lemon juice will lighten your hair if you had lighter hair as a child. Same for chammomile tea. Both need the use of heat. The sun will work, or also a hair dryer. Lemon juice will dry out your hair very badly! The tea less so. Both will make it brassy as the other poster said.

If you want to go back to your natural hair color gradually, you should try adding some lowlights. This can be done at a beauty salon or you can do it yourself at home. Since you won't be lightening your hair, you can use vegetable based dyes.

If you want to do it yourself, go to a beauty supply store and buy a special brush/comb thingie for dying hair. You can probably find a vegetable based color at a health food store. You can also get them at a beauty supply shop but they may not come with directions and you will need those.

Mix up a small amount of the dye in a bowl. A teaspoon of each mixture is probably enough unless your hair is really long. You'll want to use a color that is close to (but perhaps slightly lighter than) your natural hair color. What you will then do is add a few streaks from root to tip, all around your head. Do them randomly.

Wait the amount of time recommended on the package, rinse out, condition or whatever else it says to do.

Every couple of weeks you'll want to add a few more lowlights until the rest of your hair has blended in.

[klomasius]

I used to use lemone juice years back, and sat in the sun covering my face.

It works well mainly for highlights, I've got dark brown hair and so would never go blonde with it, but got some pretty honey coloured streaks through it.

I still dye my hair will professional hair colour, I've found an all vegan, non petroleum based one with herbs. It still has bleach in it, though it's gentler and natural.

Also, hydrogen peroxide is a naturally occurring substance (our bodies make it as a metabolite) and bleaches the hair well. You might want to try this (in varying dilutions) to get the result you want.

[Eevie]

Hydrogen peroxide is a powerful oxidizing agent and actually labelled harmful!
It's a nasty chemical and it's definitely not gentle to your hair.
And yes, it is build in our cells too, but the cells have an extra enzyme (katalase) to eliminate it as soon as possible, because it is toxic!
So, H2O2 is NO better than any other hair dye.
Just my 2p.

Love,
Evi

[klomasius]

True, but h2o2 doesn't come directly into contact with many cells. It is harsher on hair than lemon juice and perhaps some other developers, but it is better than synthetic chemical bleaches, which have been created in a laboratory over the last 50 years and haven't had millions of years for the body to adapt to.

Just my 2 cents.

[klomasius]

p.s. ethanol is labelled harmful and a poison, so is methanol.

Both are found in fruit..

Salt is also toxic...

[queenfluff]

Hydrogen perioxide comes in varying strengths. The only way you are going to get any results if you use it is to buy a higher strength at a beauty supply place.

It is the same stuff hair stylists use when they mix your color or bleach to do your hair in the salon. With out it, the color or bleaches don't work. So if you might as well go and have your hair colored if you are going to use the higher strength of hydrogen perioxide.

The hydrogen perioxide you buy in stores like the 2% or Food grade aren't going to lighten your hair very much at all. It will take lots of applications of it and leave it in a long time(putting on lots isn't going to make it work better) and you will do alot of damage to your hair. You are better off with the lemon juice and sun.

As opposed to the lemon juice, heat isn't going to make the hyrdrogen perioxide work any better or faster. The lemon juice with give you more natural looking results.

Believe me, I used to be a hair stylist and I have tried just about EVERYTHING on my hair (yes, I tried the hydrogen perioxide). I was a big guinea big for my own hair experiments - damaging it to no end - I am surprised I have any hair left! :)

If you really want to color your hair but want to stay away from toxins, go for henna. The only thing is henna doesn't lighten hair, it can only deposit color. There is a neutral henna that just adds shine too.