Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I want to have ombre hair, but I find it only looks good with light brown hair. I have dark brown hair and I want it to be a light brown! How long should I sit in the sun? How often should I put lemon juice in my hair? How long till I notice a difference?
By Saidah
I really don't recommend using bleach or chemicals to try and lighten dark hair that has been coloured it's only going to go orange. Lemon juice can work well but you won't get a light blonde out of lemon juice unless you have light hair or never have chemically beached your hair and it is natural virgin hair. Using Paul Mitchell's clarifying shampoo three removes the build up of minerals and chlorine to make colour penetrate the best and makes hair a lush rich colour that will last longer.
What is the best way to highlight brown hair with lemon juice but without it turning orange?
By Lindsay
I'd go out in the sun. I didn't find my hair turning orange. I think it's the commercial hair dyes that have this risk. Mine gradually got more blondish.
I have heard about dyeing (lightening) your hair with lemon juice, and I read a lot of comments saying that it works! It's awesome!, but the thing is, they are blonde/light brown haired people. My question is how would it turn out for very dark brown, almost black hair?
By Kristy
Hello, from my own experience of using lemon juice on my hair is, that with dark brown hair it usually will shade it with red tones and not blond.
How long do you leave lemon juice in for medium brown hair? Also how much do you put in? Can you use organic lemon juice?
When I was a young teen and could not afford to do highlights, I would rub lemon juice into my brown hair and sit in the sun for hours. It gave it vaguely red highlights and I was happy. There was no formula....used real lemons, squeezed them on a hand squeezer, and poured it onto my head. Sat in the sun (with baby oil on my skin--if you can imagine--no chance of me doing that today--yikes!) Real lemons were as "organic" as it got back then.
Today just be careful to use a product that is all lemon and no sugar or such added, especially if you are going to be outside in the sun as you don't want bees attacking.
I miss those day!! Hope it works as well for you as you want. By the way, it never "lightened" my hair....in my case, it gave me nice red highlights.
You spray or rub the lemon juice over the parts of your hair that you want lightened. Either sit out in the sun or sit under a dryer for an hour or so. It will lighten your hair a few shades. It can be drying,however
either 30 minutes under the sun or an hour under a dryer should do it. Make sure you rinse well with shampoo with a more alkaline pH to neutralise the acid so that it does not continue damaging your hair (though lemon is one of the safer acids to use in hair)
you can also try hydrogen peroxide though that is a more drastic effect
Hi,
I would suggest diluting the lemon juice, with distilled water, to avoid red highlights. I used to do this a lot ;)
Robyn
Hi,
I would suggest diluting the lemon juice, with distilled water, to avoid red highlights. I used to do this a lot ;)
Robyn
I was wondering how long it will last in my hair if I dye the ends with lime juice?
That's a permanent natural bleaching process. If you'd like to speed up the process, sit with it in your ends and stay in the sun.
It permanently lightens the hair. It is also drying, so make sure you use conditioner.
Lime! Wow! That is new to me.
I used to use lemons as a teen to turn my brown hair, red. It would last for a few weeks then fade back into brown. I would assume the lime bleach would eventually fade back to your original color or grow out. Maybe it is different for just the ends. I did all of my then long hair when I was young.
I would squeze all the juice into a bowl, massage it into my hair and out into the sun I would go! It took a couple of treatments but I used to get it to a really pretty dark red.
Since that method isn't the healthiest because of the risk of skin cancer, looks like the internet gurus came up with better methods using lime and conditioner.
This link looks interesting. If I wasn't mostly gray, I would try it. Sounds easy:
healthresearchfunding.org/
It is permanent so wait several weeks in between dying with lemon or lime juice.It is drying to your hair.
it is a permanent tint-removing process
Lemons and limes will lighten your hair slightly by bleaching the pigments in each stand of hair, and permanently, but will do more damage to delicate hair as that method is extremely drying.
The product called Sun-In for instance, can do the same thing, and was made for hair, so it's gentler, plus, you can use the heat of a hair dryer to enact it, not just the heat from sitting in the sun.
Can I use a blow dryer to lighten hair with lemon instead of the sun?
Yes. It is the heat that makes the lemon juice lighten the hair.
Yes, I used to do that as a teen. Totally worked :)
Yes, you can, but it will probably not be as effective. It may take twice as many uses to get the same effect but it will work.
Years ago my sons used lemon concentrate because they had a lot of long hair and it would have taken many, many lemons. They also liked Sun-In but I think this is only supposed to be used with already blond hair (just to lighten or give high-lights). Sun did a very good job but they had to condition their hair or it got very brittle and would break in many places. I'm only mentioning this because I do not think much has changed in regards to lightening hair.
Here are a couple of links but you may want to find your own.
www.bustle.com/
sun-in is awesome! i highly recommend it
Can you use any lemon juice or does it have to be fresh from the lemon?
Fresh is best, but I have used pure lemon juice from a bottle. Sun always helped with lightening. Use sun screen so your skin doesn't burn, including your scalp. Just be careful not to get lotion on the hair or it could negate the lemon juice's efficacy.
Either one will do. The combination of the sun and the lemon lighten the hair.
It can be used but fresh juice is always more effective!
I have med/dark blonde hair with a few bright blonde pieces. I want to go back lighter in a more natural way than actual hair dye. The past two days I've been spraying my hair with equal parts lemon juice/peroxide/water and now my hair has a slight slight tint of red/orange and is still darker blonde.
I would say it's gotten the smallest bit lighter all around, but is still darker blonde. Should I keep going with this process or do something else?
YOu can keep going with it though in my personal experience (my hair is very black) it doesn't work as well as more aggressive chemical methods
you can try spending more time in the sun to activate the lemon, etc
I dyed my hair black and i regret it. How did you change you chabge yours to a lighter one. What "chemical" method did you do? Did you bleach it? How? Thanks
I have a few questions about lightening your hair with lemon juice. Will it turn you hair orange/yellow? Will it work on light brown hair?
And I have read some places that you should use conditioner, how much conditioner should I use? Should I use conditioner?The main thing you do is put lemon in your hair then sit in the sun for a long time for it to make it work. It depends for how long you sit how it changes
heres more info www.wikihow.com/
Lemon juice needs heat to work. You can use a blowdryer if it's not sunny out.
I have dark brown, shoulder length, thick hair and I want to dye my hair purple and blue with Kool-aid. I need to lighten it first. My mom said I can only lighten it with lemons/lemon juice. How long do I need to sit in the sun with it and all that? Do I need to wash it out afterwards? I need help.
By Jazmine
Lemon juice will not lighten your hair enough to redye it.
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I have really dark brown hair (almost black) and I was wondering if I can use lemon juice to high light my hair?
Use lemon or lime juice and a blow dryer or the summer sun for an all natural and cheap way to lighten your hair. Wet your hair with the lemon or lime juice, then blow it dry or sit in the sun.
If I bleach my hair with lemon, will a blow dryer have the same affect as the sun? Does it have to do with heat or light?
My hair is naturally light brown. I want it to be blonde, but I really do not want to use hair bleach or hair color. I tried sitting in the sun for 30 minutes with the juice of a lemon and a spoonful of water combed into my hair. I was wondering if there is any way you can get lemon juice to work better, so that I could get dark blonde hair all over?
Will a light bulb work just as well as the sun when I'm highlighting my hair with lemon juice?
My hair is a very dark brown. It is not thin, but not thick. I am thinking of dying my hair with 1/2 lemon juice and 1/2 water in a spray bottle.
I recently heard that lemon juice can lighten your hair. I know that not everyone's hair is the same, but I thought I would try it out.
I've hear you can use lemon juice to lighten you hair. Which works better, lemon juice in a bottle, or fresh squeezed?
