There are many different natural bleaching agents available. But can you lighten hair with lemon juice and a blow dryer?
Lemon juice is one of the best ways to lighten hair as a result of its interaction with the sun. But you cannot lighten your hair using lemon juice and a blow dryer – it just won’t work.
Benefits Of Lemon For Hair
You’ll have had lemon in your food, and maybe even as a delicious addition to a refreshing beverage, but did you know that lemon also has many benefits for your hair?
1. Rich In Minerals And Vitamins
Lemon is full of vitamins like vitamin C and B, contains folic acid, and naturally has plenty of minerals such as magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus.
As a result, your hair will be receiving plenty of nutritious benefits from using lemon juice to lighten it.
In fact, vitamin C has been linked to collagen production, which is vital in hair growth, so lemon juice may help to strengthen your hair follicle and minimize hair loss.
2. Reduces Oil And Dandruff
If you suffer from an inflamed, sensitive scalp and dandruff, lemon juice might just be a solution thanks to its anti-inflammatory qualities.
Massage the juice into your scalp and strands for maximum benefit – just be sure that you don’t have any open cuts or scrapes!
3. Deeply Cleansing
Lemon juice is naturally acidic, which helps to deeply cleanse your scalp and strands. By removing product build-up, it might help support hair growth.
The lemon juice can help to absorb excess oils and build-up (which in turn makes the underlying causes of dandruff more manageable).
Can Lemon Juice Lighten Hair With a Blow Dryer?
The short answer is no: lemon juice does not need a blow dryer in order to lighten your hair.
Lemon juice lightens your hair because of its interaction with the sun’s UV rays.
Although you may feel like you’re imitating the effects of the sun with a blow dryer, it won’t work in the same way.
Lemon juice has a high acidity content and is therefore prone to oxidizing.
The acidity of the lemon juice works as a natural bleach, whitening hair by penetrating into your hair’s natural melanin, or color pigmentation.
The sun causes the lemon juice to interact with this melanin and deteriorates it, which is why the pigment lightens.
How Long Should It Take For Your Hair To Lighten?
If you’re planning on using lemon juice to lighten your hair, you’ll likely need to repeat the process a few times – around three to four.
You also need to bear in mind that the lemon is interacting with your hair’s melanin, and may result in very dry strands, so you need to not overdo the applications.
Can Lemon Juice Lighten Dark Hair too?
Lemon juice can lighten dark hair, but as it has a less strong bleaching effect than chemicals, it will only somewhat lighten darker tones.
People with dark hair tend to have a high amount of melanin pigmentation.
If you use lemon juice to lighten it, it will lift by a few shades, becoming a lighter brown color, but you’re unlikely to get it to turn blonde using lemon juice.
You may actually notice it turn more red or orange in tone and look quite brassy – particularly if your hair is more black than brown to start with.
If your hair is blonde, strawberry blonde, or red, lemon juice will better lighten it, adding vibrancy and brightness.
How to Use Lemon Juice for Hair Lightening
Below, we list a recipe that you can follow for using lemon juice to lighten hair. It’s very adaptable depending on your hair length, type, porosity, and texture.
Our recipe uses lemon juice as the lightening agent, but you can use a number of others in combination.
The key is to choose your main lightening ingredient – lemon, raw honey, cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, and chamomile tea all combine well.
You then want to choose a distribution agent.
If your strands are prone to dryness, using olive oil or your regular conditioner is great, but you can also use warm or hot water as well as apple cider vinegar.
Remember, too, that after using lemon juice to lighten your hair, you need to be conditioning it.
Look for a really hydrating, deep conditioning treatment in order to restore some of the damage caused by both the sun and the lemon juice.
Recipe
- Take the juice of one lemon – if your hair is long or thick, one cup is ideal. If you can’t access fresh lemon juice, use store bought.
- Brew some chamomile tea, and ensure that it’s as strong as possible. Let it cool.
- Mix the chamomile tea and lemon juice – you want two-parts of cooled chamomile tea water to one part of lemon juice. Add this to a spray bottle.
- Cover your shoulders with a towel and spritz the mix over your strands – be sure to saturate them, so that your hair feels damp.
- You then need to head into the sun. Be sure to apply sunscreen before you do so! You want to spend a minimum of an hour in the sun, and then be sure to wash the lemon juice from your hair.
- Follow up with a conditioner or intense moisturizing treatment – particularly if your hair is fine, thin, or prone to brittleness.
As we’ve mentioned, if your hair is naturally dry, you can add a teaspoon or so of olive oil to this recipe. This will act as a moisturizer, helping to mitigate the drying impact of the lemon.
How Long Will the Effect Last?
Lemon juice actually has a fairly permanent lightening effect on your hair. This is because it breaks up your hair’s natural pigmentation, so it does alter its composition.
As a result, you will notice your new highlights becoming duller as time goes on, and probably more brassy looking.
If you dislike the new tones of your hair, you can apply a color that is the opposite of its underlying pigment.
So, for example, if your hair is red or orange in tone, use green color in order to counteract brassiness.
Things You Should Consider When Using Lemon Juice on Hair
Lemon juice can be seriously damaging for your hair if you overuse it, or if you over-expose your hair to the sun over consecutive days.
Repeating the spritzing process for a few days whilst away on vacation is fine, but you don’t want to be overdoing it.
You’ll notice your hair feeling dry and brittle if you do so, and its tone will look dull because the lemon has damaged your hair cuticle.
Remember to rinse the lemon juice out of your hair after about an hour as this will help to mitigate these damaging effects.
So will using a deep conditioner after rinsing out the lemon juice. You’ll be helping to reduce the risk of breakage and frizz by restoring hydration levels.
Lemon juice is highly acidic, and if you have cuts or scrapes on your scalp, it may irritate them. Be sure to never apply it to open wounds.
Similarly, you want to avoid using lemon juice in your hair if you regularly swim in a chlorinated pool.
Lemon juice reacts with chlorine and may turn your hair green, which is a seriously bad look and can be difficult to counter-act. You may even need to apply ketchup to your hair to do so!
Disclaimer: This site is not intended to provide professional or medical advice. All of the content on LovedByCurls.com is for informational purposes only. All advice should be followed at your own discretion. Ingredients may change at any time so always check the product label before using. Check our full disclaimer policy here.
