Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice

This did do some lightening and added a few streaks of golden brown, but 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? Thank you.

By Cara from Firefield

Archives: Request: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice Archived on 11/05/2009 Will a light bulb work just as well as the sun when I'm highlighting my hair with lemon juice? By cuppy11cool from UK Feedback: RE: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice As an ex-hairdresser do yourself a favor and do not use the lemon juice, it is way to acidic for hair, it will lighten it, but it will also cause it to become dry, frizzy and very dull as all oils and natural moisture will have been stripped from the hair. You can't replace what you have drawn out with the lemon juice and make it soft and supple to the touch again, and any natural shine is long gone until you grow out the new hair. You will have to cut off the damaged hair as even professional coloring will not work very well either so you can end up with "German Shepherd hair" referring to the color blotchiness, it is not a pretty sight. And no, a light bulb would not work as it needs more heat and the sun is what activates the lemon and the hair to basically counteract each other. The warmth from the sun opens the cuticle of the hair allowing the lemon juice acids inside to strip out or "burn out" the color. A bad choice, but it is your hair. A better choice would be a Clairol Frost and Tip kit, easy and not harmful as the lemon juice would be. Good luck and hope it doesn't come out looking like you have tiger stripes as you also are not able to control where the lemon juice will spread to. With the professional frost kit you can control where it goes and what hair it will be acted on to lighten. (09/21/2009) By Beau D RE: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice I also was a hairstylist, retired after thirty years behind the chair. Knew my trade well enough to have worked full time in the studios and those actors and actresses certainly don't trust just anyone with their hair. Both my parents retired as hairstylists, too. Back to the question at hand, if all you want is a "minimal amount of lightening" then by all means use it instead of the chemicals that are "ultra lift" in lightening kits and can dry your hair out if not used correctly. All you have to do is use it when your hair is dirty/oily. Those natural oils will help reduce the chances of the hair drying out. For even lightening, so you don't get strange streaks or missed spots, just spray hair very well with the juice and gently comb through. Do not use a lightbulb. Just put a shower cap or plastic bag over your hair and sit under a hairdryer or use a blow dryer on low heat for a few minutes while moving it around evenly. The heat will open the cuticle layer allowing the lemon juice in. Afterward shampoo with a mild shampoo and condition. If you want more than minimal lightening please be kind to yourself and find a good hairstylist. Best way to find one is ask people who's hair color you like and looks healthy and ask who does theirs. (09/22/2009) By Deeli Report Spam or Abuse Request: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice Archived on 09/19/2009 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 would spray it all in my hair, stay in the sun for a hour and wash it out. What are my chances of it turning into a disaster or it becoming orange? By nicolexcheer Feedback: RE: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice I used to do that to my hair back in high school (80s) and while it is effective, even for brown hair, it is very damaging. If you want a decent, but less expensive way to lighten your hair, spend the extra cash and go for a trusted hair color kit from a drugstore instead. I have my own favorite hair color brand and as a dark blonde, I use it rather than homemade types of things to color or lighten. There's only one brand I have had bad luck with (starts with a G). Keep in mind that lightening your hair is not as reversible as changing colors to dark or to add reds. Also, there's the upkeep to any permanent change of hair color. Sometimes just adding highlights is a great way to brighten up anyone's hair without a dramatic change or potential for disaster. (07/01/2009) By COflower RE: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice I have brown/dark blonde hair and I used to lighten my hair with lemon juice years ago. It did not damage my hair though. I never had any problems with it. My sister has had green hair and my friend has had orange hair, but those were from commercial coloring and my sister's was the combination of color and perm. (07/02/2009) By KristyEllen RE: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice Oh, and also, when I was younger and used the lemon juice to lighten my hair, I would often braid my hair, then "paint" the lemon juice on the braid before laying out in the sun. It had a highlighting effect. (07/02/2009) By KristyEllen RE: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice You won't get orange, but if your hair is dark brown you may get auburn rather than blonde. If you dilute the lemon juice and wash it out after an hour you may not get anything, depending on where you are (how hot and strong the sun is). I used to soak strips of my dark brown hair in undiluted lemon juice and leave in on all day. It would change some, but I can't say I was excited about it. The lemon juice does dry your hair some, so make sure you use some conditioner, at least on the ends. (07/02/2009) By tennesue RE: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice I was born strawberry - golden blond, over time my hair darkened to chestnut brown. 3 weeks ago I highlighted my hair with Garnier Nutrise gold ash blond. The highlights were not as clear as my natural highlights so I decided to enhance them with "lemon juice". I have used lemon before and it works fantastically. I didn't have yellow lemons, but I had key limes, they're like mini lemon-limes. The "lime" aspect ensures they are not as strong or drying as a straight lemon - which is good. Initially, I squeezed 2 - 3 key limes into a cup and added a little water approximately 3/4 of a cup (mainly key lime juice) and brushed it through my hair. It immediately turned bright orange, where I had previously chemically hi-lighted. I cringed. Not to worry. The same principle which turns the hair orange if continued will turn it blond if continued. So I continued combing a little "undiluted" key lime through my hair daily to every other day for a week starting underneath my hair (flipping it over and combing the length of my hair) and combing around the frame of my face and leaving it in until my next regular shower-rinse. Today approximately 1 week later my hair is exquisite. There are numerous shades of natural blond hi-lights of gold, red gold, bronze gold, ash gold, all mixed throughout in varying degrees of shine on a light chestnut infused base. It's beautiful and looks exactly like the hair I was originally born with. Frankly, it may look even better. Also, it's completely conditioned. So don't fret if it initially turns red or orange, that's the first color phase keep combing undiluted juice on specific areas and it will continue to lighten (gold) per your preference. Blessings in Christ. (07/05/2009) By Magnificent RE: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice My natural hair is dark blonde with some lighter, natural, highlights. To lighten my hair in the summer, I usually mix lemon juice with water and some leave in conditioner (the leave in conditioner is so my hair doesn't dry out from the lemon juice). When I just put lemon juice with nothing else, my hair gets extremely dry. (07/20/2009) By maryt795 Report Spam or Abuse Request: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice Archived on 07/01/2009 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 used a spray bottle with 1/2 water and 1/2 bottled lemon juice. I sprayed down my unwashed hair with the water. I laid in the sun for a little over an hour and I took a shower and shampoo/conditioned as normal. I did not blow dry my hair afterward because that can be damaging. I started out with light brown hair but I was blonde when I was young, and now I have dirty blonde hair. I will keep doing this until I get the color that I want. By using a mix of lemon and water, my hair is not dried out. It is softer than it has ever been and I love it. Not everyone has the same type of hair, but I suggest that you try it out. By orange hair tie from Utica, MI Feedback: RE: Lighten Your Hair With Lemon Juice I recently heard about lightening your hair with lemon juice from a friend, and this website. I thought I would give it a shot, since when I was younger my hair was completely blonde, and then changed to light brown. Hearing that concentrated lemon juice can be damaging to your hair, I decided to buy fresh lemons and squeeze my own lemon juice, then mix it with water and a few drops of oil to keep my hair soft. I sprayed the mixture in my hair, laid in the sun for about an hour, then showered using Suave Damage Repair Conditioning Treatment. Once my hair dried, it was softer then ever and a sweet caramel colour. I love it. (My hair is fine, so this is sure to work with fine hair.) (06/27/2009) By Adddie Ann Report Spam or Abuse Request: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Archived on 05/14/2009 I've hear you can use lemon juice to lighten you hair. Which works better, lemon juice in a bottle, or fresh squeezed? Anything else I should know? Please tell me. Kiera from Seattle, WA Feedback: RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I'm doing the lemon juice thing now, my hair is a deep ginger/red. I read on the internet just then it may go green? I've only used it on a small section, and I will use the blow dryer to see how it works, as it is night time now. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out. (: (08/21/2008) By Alex RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice works great in your hair! It made my hair practically blonde and it doesn't dry it out at all. You should definitely try it and DON'T USE SUN-IN. It turns your hair orange! (08/24/2008) By Angela RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice One of my mom's friends is a cosmetologist and I was telling her how I love how blonde the top of my hair is but underneath it's just a little bit yellower and that I spend like $30 a week on hair dye at Riteaid, but it doesn't get any blonder it just keeps killing my hair! She said your hair is already as blonde as its gunna get. She said use lemon juice! I was like what? and she said, seriously its amazing! She said just squeeze natural lemons like the yellow plastic ones into a cup or whatever and put on your hair (not sure to do it wet or dry) and go tanning in your backyard for about a hour. JUST PUT UR HAIR BY HEAT heat heat heat and it will brighten! She is a hairstylist use to work at Regis. She knows her stuff, so, try it! I am gunna! I'll update after I do. (08/27/2008) By Jade RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I tried lemon juice, but I didn't have the chance to get out in the sun with it and so I didn't quite get the results I wanted although I have to say it did give me some results. I'm a naturally white blonde haired person but over the years my hairs gotten darker and now it's dirty blonde. I looked around on different websites, and finally I tried dish soap. it really works, at least for me! I don't know if all dish soaps work, but I used dawn, it's a blue color. It worked for me, I hope it works for you to =] (09/05/2008) RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I've always heard this may work but I don't want blonde hair, just maybe a few red/ gold highlights (I have some natural ones already; and my hair used to be natural blonde - but it turned a strange, flat brown as I got older) so I'm going to try a little and just go biking under the sun and see if anything happen! Haha! Instead of this ugly brown color I want shiny, warm reddish-brown =.= Good luck to me and I know it doesn't work on some people. So it may not work. D: (09/06/2008) By Alex RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I read all of these and decided to find my own recipe 1/2 cup lemon juice 1/4 cup chamomile tea and 1/2 teaspoon olive oil. I sprayed my hair when dry with the ingredients in a spray bottle then I sat in the sun for three hours then I washed it and conditioned it really good with Aussie products. I love my new color! At first the top layer was dirty blonde and the bottom was a medium brown, now the top is a rich buttery blonde and the bottom a really sandy brown. I love it! (09/14/2008) By Koti Bear RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have been rinsing my hair in diluted lemon juice (2 tbs of lemon and fill the rest of the cup up with water) for 3 days now it's 1 or 2 shades lighter now. I'm gonna rinse it like this until it's totally blond (09/15/2008) By Eileen RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have been highlighting my hair with lemon juice in the bottle - you do NOT need to go out in the sun for this to work! I apply the lemon juice in the bottle to my WET hair and let it sit awhile before I blow-dry the rest out. I wash my hair and condition it really well before adding the lemon juice. It is still soft and a gorgeous color - not dry at all! I think the bottle lemon juice is better because it is diluted and not as harsh on the hair. (09/15/2008) By Ashley RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice, it's fabulous. I got on here and read all about it. I put 1/2 cup of lemon juice (from the bottle) 1 tablespoon of veg. oil, and a little bit of salt; mixed it together, stayed in the sun till it dried (I think about 30 minutes or less) then, came in blow dried it all little, then washed it out with shampoo and conditioner; and now that its dried its VERY blonde =D My original hair color was blonde-dirty blonde in some areas. It worked pretty good. (09/17/2008) By Ashley RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have dark brown hair and I think that lemon juice is a great way to lighten your hair. One summer I achieved great highlights by soaking individual pieces of hair (most about a half inch wide) in lemon juice before going outside. My hair looked really sun-bleached and the highlights were blond- not red. This is important because I have had problems in the past with dye unintentionally turning my hair red. (09/19/2008) By Robyn RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have always used fresh lemon juice, it works quite well. I use it on my daughters hair in the summer and it doesn't leave a brassy tone to it. I love it! (09/23/2008) By Tamara RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice If you don't want your hair to turn orange, the main point is that you should check if the base of your hair is red or gold. If it's gold, you should be able to lighten it with lemon juice and it will go up the kind of medium-gold-brown to blonde scale, but if the base is red, it will go dark auburn to red to orange, depending on how long you leave it on. Basically, if you have red-brown hair you should be very cautious and don't leave it in for too long. (If you're not sure about your hair's base then hold a section up to the sun and see if it shines red or gold. Gold colours are kind of 'straightforward' browns such as caramels or ashy browns while red colours are chestnut browns.) (10/11/2008) By Sara RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Freshly squeezed because lemon juice in a bottle often contains other things i;e: sweeteners or sugar. If you choose to use lemon juice make sure you protect your hair cause it damages and dries out hair. (11/02/2008) By Bridge RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice You can make a lemon hair conditioning treatment by mushing an avocado with a fork and mixing in 1/2 cup lemon juice, wet your hair and put it on then wrap your hair in clingfilm and wait like 1/2 hour. Rinse and shampoo your hair. The avocado makes your hair soft and shiny and stops it from drying out. Works great! (12/20/2008) By Kaz RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice SunIn is a spray that you use in your hair. When exposed to sun or light, it lightens the hair. I've used SunIn and Lemon juice and have found that SunIn works much better than the juice. Good Luck! :) (12/30/2008) By Abbey RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I used lemon juice with a little bit of oil mixed in it and when tanning in the tanning booth. When I came out it gave me a lot of blond highlights and my hair is light brown. After that I washed my hair and squeezed lemon juice over my hair, waited a couple of minutes and then I blow-dried it and it gave me even blonder highlights! Good Luck! (01/01/2009) By Me RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice It may be a little acidic for your hair. So I'd be careful. Don't concentrate the lemon mixture too much. Add a little bit of water to weaken it, and make sure that you wash your hair once you have finished using the lemon juice, because the lemon acidity will damage your hair. :D (01/04/2009) By georgie. RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Hey, I'm Britt and a natural blonde; however, my hair tends to get pretty dark in the winter and I use lemon juice to lighten it. It works great for me actually. If you let it soak in your hair, wherever you want it lighter for about 15 minutes, then put a little more in. Blow drying it, works well. The heat somehow makes it work better. Then wash it out. Actually my hair felt really soft after I washed it out. I was expecting it to be damaged but it wasn't at all. (01/15/2009) By Britt RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Ok well, I literally just used sun in to dye my hair, but not a lot. I have blond hair naturally, but my hair is like a mood ring, lol (not really). It's platinum in the summer and brown in the winter. I get so mad cause I want it blond all the time. I just took a shower, dried my hair a little, so it was damp, then flipped my hair and sprayed every part of it. Then I flipped it back and sprayed all of that, and then just blow dried it (sun in is a conditioner and it stays in). It worked so awesome. (01/26/2009) By shelby By Georgia RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice You can use lemon juice and oil, chamomile tea, or lemon juice and eggs. (02/02/2009) By Day RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have light dirty blonde hair with a few blonde highlights. I squeezed halves of lemon up and down my head until it was soaked and then conditioned on top. When it dried, i rinsed out the conditioner and the lemon juice had worked! My hair had pale whitish blonde highlights, plus the rest was a few shades lighter! It takes a while but it really works! Also, if you want reddish auburn highlights, mix red wine vinegar and dark vinegar with water (so its not too harsh on your hair) and mix it with your shampoo and conditioner. Take a shower and wash your hair like you normally would, except wait until the conditioner gets to a sort of dryness were your hair looks greasy, feels oily, and the ends are a little frayed and "crusty." Then you rinse it out. Instead of a leave in conditioner, put the vinegar mix in a spray bottle and spray it on your hair while you brush. After, you might want to wear a little fragrance- the vinegar smells pretty harsh! (02/13/2009) By Tammie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I think that it is easier to just use Sun-In. Lemon Juice might damage your hair, and Sun in definitely wont. But, if you are going to go to the hairdresser within a year of using Sun-in for dying or highlighting your hair, you can't use Sun-in. I have used Sun-in all of my life, then i went to the hairdresser for her to dye my roots lighter because its winter. and she said she couldn't because if she did your hair could fall out. so it's either Sun-in or hairdresser. (02/15/2009) RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Watch out sun-in is very damaging to your hair, lots of nasty chemicals. My friend used it and her is hair turned orange! (02/21/2009) By Katie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice This could just be me, but I have strawberry blonde/golden hair and when it's summer my hair naturally gets lighter. Especially when I go outside all day. You can't really say lemon juice is good or bad. It all depends on what kind of hair you have, how you mix the lemon juice, etc. But remember that putting anything (no matter how "natural" or "organic" they say it is) onto your hair or skin can be potentially harmful. If you do use SUN-IN, it is SO important to shampoo and condition your hair afterwards. Also remember to spray the sun-in evenly or will get patches of light hair (talking from experience.. this is not fun.) (03/16/2009) By nicky93 RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice has given my hair a nice lift. I wouldn't ever use Sun In again. The first time I used it, my hair came off in chunks but I still didn't learn and thought there might have been another reason it happened, so years later I was fooled by the natural looking pictures on the bottle, and my hair burnt off again. It took me ages to grow it back. Wella Sun Lights also give a nice lift and isn't as damaging as Sun In. (03/20/2009) By szlwson Report Spam or Abuse Request: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Archived on 08/21/2008 Is it okay to use lemon juice from concentrate to lighten hair? Lida from Tacoma, WA Answers: RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I thank God for this website giving me the push I needed! I have been through a lot with my hair lately and needed to stop bouncing from stylist to stylist wasting money, so I decided to try it on my own. I used a mix of 3/5 fresh squeezed, strained, lemon juice, 1/3 brewed chamomile tea, and 1/3 olive oil in a spray bottle. I spritzed my 3 days dirty hair to just dampen all over and combed it, re applying every hour or so, and shaking the bottle after every few sprays for a 6 hour stretch. While staying in the sun as much as possible, it turned my recently dyed dark blond hair the perfect shades of blond! I can't believe how great these highlights look! Hint: 1)Don't wear a ponytail so you don't end up with a break in the highlights. 2)Constantly re apply the sunscreen or you will be bacon. My hair feels very soft due to the olive oil. T0he chamomile definitely saved me from some of the damage the lemon juice would have done all alone. I highly recommend this. Best of luck, go for it, nothing you can do can't be fixed. Save yourself some money and do it natural! (05/26/2008) By Kristi14 RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice After reading all of these comments I wasn't sure what to do. Some people said it works other people said it didn't. I decided to try it. I have dark/dirty blonde hair. I used lemon juice from a bottle. I just soaked my dry hair and went out to sit in the sun for about an hour and a half. I have only done it once so far and the change wasn't that dramatic but it does look more golden and so far it is working great. I can't wait to keep using it. It's so much easier than going to a salon, thats for sure! P.S. It feels a little bit like hair spray when it is in your hair, kind of sticky. So just take a shower when you are done! Hope this helps! (05/30/2008) By Jessica RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I put lemon juice and an egg in a bowl and stirred it until fluffy. Went in the shower, then put it in my hair for 10 minutes (before shampooing), rinsed it out and continued to use my regular shampoo and conditioner. It works so great, repeat as much as you want until you get the desired color. (my hair is a dark brown) (05/31/2008) By Leslie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Hey guys. I have black/dark brown hair with natural auburn-like highlights. I just put in the lemon juice (minute maid lemon juice) and sat outside for a couple hours. I already saw some lighter results but I'm concerned if my hair will turn orange. I guess it's tough to say since everyone's hair is different. But right now my hair is hard as if there is hairspray in it. I will post back later with the results! (06/01/2008) By Julia G. RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice My lemon juice experiences (all under the florida summer sun, and my hair is naturally honey brunette colored): - Straight juice - Half juice, half water - Half juice, half salt water - 1/3 juice, 1/3 salt water, 1/3 chamomile tea Results: - Straight juice: sticky, didn't dry evenly, irritated my skin. Some lightening seen in the first two uses, though. - Half juice, half water: still sticky, dried better, didn't irritate my skin. Some lightening, but not as much as full-strength juice. - Half juice, half salt water: Very similar lightening as with full strength juice. Salt ratted hair by the end of the summer. - 1/3 juice, 1/3 salt water, 1/3 chamomile tea: best experience thus far, with little stickiness, pretty good lightening effect, and didn't seem to be as hard on my hair. Also smelled nice. (06/05/2008) By EMS RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Alright, this is the real deal people. I have extremely dark hair. I wanted a little change, maybe a few natural highlights to stand out (even though I have no highlights, I have solid brown hair, but sometimes natural highlights can show up with a lot of sun). I put 1/2 lemon juice in my hair and rubbed it in, it's really sunny outside today, so I went outside, tanned for about forty minutes, absolutely NO resluts. You will have to stay outside for 1-2 hours and use more lemon juice if you want results. Once again, that's for dark brown hair, 1/2 cup lemon juice, NO results. As for it turning your hair orange, it might make a reddish tint, but as long as you keep checking back to the mirror and don't stay out for too long, your end result will most likely be a few lighter higlights with maybe a reddish tint. (06/08/2008) By Raven RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice does not damage your hair if you do it properly. Your hair is naturally acidic, like the lemons. Make sure you maintain the proper pH by using a mixture of lemons and water. I have light-ish brown to dark blond hair, and I left the lemons in for about 10 minutes. I was not out in the sun at all and it still got lighter. Make sure that you shampoo and condition your hair like usual. (06/13/2008) By Paige RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have used lemon juice for years. I buy it in a large plastic bottle from cub and make a 8 ounce glass 3/4 full of lemon juice and 1/4 full of water. I soak my hair in it and lay out in the sun until it dries. Then I make sure to wash my hair after I'm done tanning or whatever outside. And to use conditioner. I have never had dry or split ends because I don't use a straightener. My hair is naturally curly and I like it that way :) it has never dried out my hair and for other people it may be different. I would talk to your hair stylist or someone professional first to see if your hair type/texture would handle the lemon juice well. (06/16/2008) By Rina RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I don't know, I want to, but I'm scared it will turn my hair ugly, and I have a graduation coming up soon, soo what should I do? Editor's Note: If you are worried, it might be best to wait until after your graduation. (06/18/2008) By chigemm RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice It works with out sunlight and I know this because I tried it and it worked. I used all methods, but I found that Chamomile tea worked the best for me. But I didn't wash it out though and it worked. (06/22/2008) By Anastasia RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice For all the people with Asian dark brown hair, it does NOT work! I tried it just yesterday and it didn't even lighten my hair. I am thinking of trying sun-in but i don't know if it will work. I want to dye my hair a semi permanent purple. I have purple contacts so I want my hair to match. I don't know where to get it though. I have tried shop rite, it was near my house. Any advice? (06/23/2008) By Rose RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice This has already been said many times, but hey, once more can't hurt. The key word to lemon juice highlights is "subtle". You're not going to go from brunette to marilyn monroe. In fact, the trick works best if you're a blond to begin with. Also, it takes time and sun. Not 10 minutes and a blow dryer. If your mom says you're too young to highlight your hair but your mom says lemon juice is okay, that right there should be an indicator that the results aren't going to be as dramatic as you're hoping. On the plus side, I'm a twenty six year old natural blond, and I've been juicing my hair off and on in the summer since I was sixteen. Thanks to a decade of experience I can tell you: A. Lemon juice and water will NOT make your hair fall out! and B. If you're patient you can get great results. Generally my hair looks like it would after a whole summer of sun exposure ('cause y'know...sun bleaches your hair too) after a day or two. Good luck, and if you really DO decide you need a drastic color change you should ALWAYS GO TO A SALON! Especially if you're going lighter rather than darker. Novice bleaching is a great way to seriously damage your hair, cause massive breakage, and end up with seriously strangely colored tresses. That's never good. (06/23/2008) By speedunk RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have dark brown hair and I tried lemon juice plus peroxide and hey it gave me the color I wanted and the perfect color for my job. It made me hair an ash brown. It's kinda strange but I really liked it. it's starting to fade now but it's still cute and I would definitely do it again. (06/25/2008) By v. gina RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I've read like all of these and I'm not sure if I want to try the whole putting lemon juice in my hair.Some have said that it worked for dirty blonde hair (which I have) and some said that it turned and ugly orange color! I didn't know if it was ok to like use that lemon stuff in a bottle shaped like a lemon, or do the half and half (lemon and water). I need advice, because I'm gonna be outside all day tomorrow and I was gonna do it then. I don't know yet! (06/25/2008) By Bug RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice My hair color is a reddish, brownish and just lemon juice worked well the first time. But I noticed my hair was very dry afterwards, so I went to my hair salon, and got bedhead vitamin enriched shampoo. The 2nd time I did this I put olive oil, lemon juice,and water mixed together (more lemon juice). I sat in the sun for an hour and a half and then took a shower and washed my hair with the bedhead. It worked so well. Whenever I need to lighten my hair I do this. (07/01/2008) By :] RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I put olive oil and eggs and lemon juice in a bowl and my hair is lighter and not damaged. (07/02/2008) RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Never ever use sun-in. I used it to lighten my hair a few times and my hairdresser (who is also a trichologist and therefore really knows hair) said that the problem with the product is that it never stops working. While it disguises itself as a 'natural' product it is metallic -- which means once used on your hair you cannot put any colour over it without an unpleasant chemical reaction. (Incidentally, henna, which is natural, has the same effect when in contact with any other dye). I found that even certain colour conditioners used over my sun in hair turned it green. even after 6 months the sun in would still react with any colour. it is also extremely damaging to the hair shaft and, as it never stops working, will eventually eat through it. I have had to have my hair cut in stages to try and get this stuff out, so unless you are happy for sun in to be the last colour you put on your hair, stay away. (07/04/2008) RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have been using lemon juice,water and chamomile tea all mixed together for two days. My mom forced me to use sun-in today. When she left I wetted it down with water but I'm not sure it worked. Does anyone know if my hair will turn orange or green, if i continue using lemon juice? My mom insists it will work, but she has never tried it before. I really don't want green hair (or orange for that matter). I reccomend: 1/3 lemon juice 1/3 water 1/3 chamomile tea 2 drops of oil(by adding oil it keeps your hair from drying out Don't use sun in! Do you know what's in there? (07/09/2008) By Roxie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Ya, you bet. It isn't a chemical, so it is okay that you use lemon juice. I suggest that you lighten one piece underneath the top layers of your hair just to see how it works, if it does then apply to the rest of your hair in a shampoo solution with lemon juice added. (07/12/2008) RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I know I'm a boy but I have hair that's long. It reaches the floor. I love putting lemon juice in it because it makes my hair really pretty and soft! Lots of people tease me about it but I don't care, at least I'm not bald! My girlfriend thinks it's totally fab! (07/14/2008) By Alex RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I got out of the shower and I combed out my hair and sprayed the lemon water in my hair and combed it in and it dried and for a while it straightened my hair! But I did go out in the sun and it made my hair a little bit lighter! I am continuing my lemon head for a while before school starts. BTW my hair is like a dirty blonde. (07/15/2008) By Angela RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Ok, if you want to use lemon juice, I recommend you should put a couple drops of oil and a little bit of water in a spray bottle. This varies with everyone, because everyone has different hair. If you are unsure that you don't know if lemon juice will damage your hair, then put a small amount on one piece and then if it comes out fine, then spray it all over your hair (or however you desire). I hope you love the results! (Don't use sun-in because it can damage your hair with all of the chemicals and it turns your hair orange.) (07/20/2008) By Brittany RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have dark brown hair, and I put one whole lemon in my hair. I was only in the sun for a few minutes, but I now have a much lighter brown color. It's amazing! It does, however, make your hair very straight and dry and sticky. I'll be washing it soon though! (07/21/2008) By Ellie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I used about 1/2 cup of lemon juice and a teaspoon of oil (any kind), combed it in my hair, and sat in the sun for 2 hours. My hair was a blonde/brown shade, but now it is almost a platinum blonde! ALWAYS use a little oil in the solution! If you don't, then the lemon juice will dry your hair out. But otherwise, it will work fabulously! ; D (07/21/2008) By Brenden Sun In I cant recommend it for anyone with hair darker than a light brown/dark blonde because my hair isn't darker than that. My hair is naturally a lightish brown and sun in has worked perfectly fine for me. (07/22/2008) By Sarah RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I wanted to dye the under section of my hair blonde, so I used sun in, so I could control exactly what color it went. I coated my hair in it, and dried it with a hairdryer but I didn't think it was light enough so I straightened it on a low setting. I was straightening it huge chunks of my hair started to fall off and the rest went really frizzy. I know this probably wasn't the smartest thing to do but now I've ended up with flaming ginger hair underneath and light brown on top. Also I had to get it cut really short and now it looks terrible.I wouldn't recommend "sun in" to anyone. I also wouldn't recommend straightening while using it. hoped this helped (07/23/2008) By natalie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have a medium-dark shade of brown hair and I used about half a lemon and spray-in oil on my hair. I didn't extract the juice from the lemon; I just rubbed and squeezed the slices around my hair. I left it in for about 3 hours. It sort of worked although I will try for several days more. My hair hasn't been damaged. BUT the lemon juice and oil are really really hard to get out. I washed my hair 4 times and my hair still smells like lemons. (07/23/2008) By Anna Kate RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have a deep bloodish red hair and it use to be a bit lighter and pinker cause I used dye for it and now since I got someone to do it for me they have made it darker than I wanted it and I was going to try the whole lemon juice thing and I've read a quite a bit of these and they all say sun and junk but I cant stay in the sun for that long maybe 30 minutes because I get burned real easily, so yeah and I used Sun In about 3 yrs ago and it made it lighter when I had blonde hair and on the bottle it said use a blow dryer or sun, so I blow dried it and I was wondering if you have to be out in the sun. (07/23/2008) By Heather RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have seen so many of these comments and they all say diff. things, but the main things are 1. Don't use sun in 2. Lemon juice and water will not damage your hair.and 3. It takes time if your hair is light brown etc. I saw a few comments on where to get semi-perm. hair die like the colors pink, purple, blue, green, etc and I have the tips of my hair hot pink and I got my hair die [manic panic] from Sally's beauty supply! It works great but starts to fade after about 2 weeks. It is really light, but for me no problem just re-dye. It does not damage your hair! I hoped I helped! (07/24/2008) By sarah RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have a very dark brown hair and I tried this on holiday and it didn't work at all! :( (07/28/2008) By Sophie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I just did it. My hair is dark red, but I have to get it really red for a play I'm in. So I thought I would try it. I was out in the sun for about 30 minutes when I noticed the ends of my hair turning blond. I came in and washed my hair, and its a lot lighter! I think I'm going to do this twice more today. Then I think it will be light enough to dye with a temporary red. (07/30/2008) By Meghan RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I looked at all the comments, and after I went to do it myself. I got my hair wet, put in lemon juice and I tanned until my hair was dry. Then I went inside to take a shower because it felt like hairspray. I dried my hair and I just saw my usual hair color. I'm not saying it doesn't work, because a lot of people say it does, but for some reason it doesn't work for me. I tried it twice and it didn't work. Btw, my hair is brown with blonde highlights. (08/02/2008) RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Okay, so you just put about 2 cups of lemon and a teaspoon of oil in your hair, then sit in the sun for an hour or 2 so it will get like a dirty blondish color? (08/03/2008) By guest RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have used the 'lemon juice and oil' technique, and it does work. I had dyed brown hair, and then I used the 'Color Oops' stuff, and instead of turning it back to my natural blond, it turned my hair orange. I really wanted my natural shade back, so I decided to try it. I couldn't sit outside, so instead I sat in front of my window; works the same! (08/04/2008) By Marina RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Just used lemon juice to remove the green tint from my hair caused by copper in my swimming pool water. Works great! Looks like we'll be keeping a supply of it around the house. (08/05/2008) By Tiff RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Seriously, I've been reading most of these, and I'm dying my hair with lemons right now. I'm going to go put more on and sit in the sun, DON'T use Sun In, from what I've heard I wouldn't risk it. I just want to know how to get my hair white blonde with lemons. That would be great if someone could help. My hair right now is purpley-orangey-red and i did a tester strip just before. Pure blonde streak in my darker hair. works a dream. Give it a go. For those people who can't decide whether to do it, ignore the others and give it a go, that's what I did. Hope I helped. (08/05/2008) By moi RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice OMG ppl read the stuff! It says Sun-In might turn your hair reddish-orange, not lemon juice! BTW I have dark brunette hair, I mixed lemon juice and oil and stayed in the sun for an hour & now I have pretty coon tails! (08/11/2008) By Me RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Oh yeah, and I didn't sit out in the sun :) (08/11/2008) By Red RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I just did it, my hair was dark red and after mixing lemon juice and camomile tea then letting it dry on my hair it turned light red with some of the lighter bits even going blonde. Definately works for me (08/11/2008) By Red RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I used sun in a few years ago on my blonde hair. First it was like strawberry blond but then it turned dark and my hair never went back to blond. So all I can say is don't USE SUN-IN! I really want to try the lemon juice thing though. How long should I sit in the sun? Also how do I do highlights or just my roots? (08/16/2008) By tay RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice only works on hair that is already blondish. Dark hair is not going to have any response. If the lemon juice were that strong it wouldn't be edible. (08/19/2008) By natural blonde RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Girls, no lemon juice please! I've always been a brunette and have used some chamomile tea on my hair, there is also chamomile shampoo, this will not only make your hair lighter in less time but also make it stronger, softer and more beautiful. Use the shampoo and the tea on your hair whenever you're not washing your hair. Believe me, this will work, the results won't be instantly but your hair will appreciate the treatment and days later the new color :) (08/20/2008) By Lyllhie Report Spam or Abuse Request: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Archived on 07/23/2007 How long should I leave the lemon juice in my hair, until it takes effect by making my hair lighter? My hair color is a medium brown. Jantaara from Mollymook Beach, NSW Answers: RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I just bleached my hair and it's pretty blonde but I want a white blonde so will this work? How long do I have to sit in the sun? Editor's Note: If you just bleached your hair, I wouldn't recommend it. By Karol RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Yesterday, my sister and I took lemon juice and dumped it all over our heads and then put our fingers through our hair to spread it around. Then we laid out for about an hour or two. Then we washed it out using shampoo and conditioner and when it dried, my sister who has brown hair with blonde highlight had a lovely lighter color that I would say was a mix between blonde and light brown. I am blonde and my hair just looked lighter. It really does work. I think the reason most stylists dont tell you about lemons on the hair is because that would take the business away from them. Even if it is damaging, bleaching is also very damagaing! Even more so than lemons. By Stefani RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice You can use lemon juice to protect your hair from chlorine while you are swimming. I tried sunbaking with lemon juice in my hair, it didn't really lighten it (it's already light). Once dry, the lemon juice felt a lot like hairspray so you'll need to rinse it. By janie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice A few people have suggested sun-in. I wouldn't recommend this unless you already have really light hair. It was very trendy when I was younger and all the girls with brown hair who used it had really nasty orangish hair. Peroxide + brown hair (almost always) = orange! By Ashley RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice From what I've read on here, it would seem easier to go to the barbers and have it done. By R.C.Hole RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Well, one of friends at school recommended lemon juice to be put on hair to make my hair lighter since my hair is really dark brown, almost close to black. I wanted to dye it so I did. Nothing really works, and I want my hair so like brown without using chemicals so I put on some lemon juice in and went out in the sun for 10 minutes max so my scalp wont go ewl. I did it for at least 4 days and went the colour I wanted. The thing I liked this is because it is natural hair and no dye and won't fade. By xxmanalacxx RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice NEVER NEVER USE LEMON JUICE! Any hairdresser that cares about the condition and strength of your hair will tell you to stay away. It damages your hair, most of you have heard that lemon has a strong chemical effect on one's hair. That in itself is a warning sign. You may not notice its drying effects immediatly but it does dry your hair out, it will eventually cause your hair to split much more than usual and you will not have healthy, shining hair. Rather, use a tint to lighten your hair, it is not a bleach and will not damage your hair and if you talk to a professional on what colour to use, you will get a beautiful, hi-class blonde colour without the damage. It won't have a yellow colour to it either. Redken is unbelievably good, it is a bit more expensive but a lot of research has gone into the product and i, personally will let nothing else near my hair. My hair is curly and thus a lot dryer than those with straight hair and I was worried about my hair drying out and being damaged by using dyes or lemon on my hair. I would rather have healthy, shiny hair and wear my natural hair colour well before having to use anything else besides Redken. You should have your ends trimmed on a regular basis as soon as you see them splitting. Use a good home treatment on a regular basis. I use it once a week but you know your hair and should use according to when you feel it needs it. Go have an in-salon Redken treatment every couple of months. Don't overlather or scrub your hair during washing. Don't wring it out to get water out, let it dry naturally as often as possible, like when you are staying at home, and don't over brush. If you take my advice, you'll have beautiful movie-star hair. By sublime RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Stay in the sun for about an hour with hair soaked with 2-3 lemons, hair will be oily and stiff. Then use a good cleaning shampoo and notice beautiful results. By Trisha RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice worked for me in the summer when I had a chance to be out in the sun. However, now that it is winter, it's not as convenient to be out in the sun, so I was wondering, does lemon juice lighten your hair even if it isn't in contact with the sun? By suzy RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice It really works! By RPD RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice i tried putting lemon juice in my hair and it worked really really great! It turned it blonde in a matter of minutes. Of course you need the sun but a flash light will work. Believe me, I did it with a flashlight. Okay, well I had great results and I love my lemony hair and and it smells like lemonade. Okay, well that's it. Try it, you wont regret it. By princess priscilla RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I would not recommend lemon juice on darker hair as it may turn a brassy or orange tint. Once the lemon juice has activated in the sun, it is usually a golden blonde color. Good luck. By Trisha RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Olive oil is also a good alternative to the lemon juice method and it is healthy for hair. By Trisha RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice You can clarify your hair (remove build-up) by using dish soap. You don't have to use much, and you should use a good conditioner afterward. It works great! By Nikki RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice AHHHH!OMG, I dyed my hair blond last Sunday and it came out orange, so I dyed it light brown the next day and it was still orangy. So yesterday, I dyed my hair dark brown. AND ITS ALMOST BLACK! It looks awful. Should I try lemon juice, I have so had had no luck with hair dye! Editor's Note: I'm not a hairdresser but it seems to me that if you do anything more to your hair you risk it falling out. I doubt that lemon juice would do much to black hair except bring back the orange. By anna. RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Use a plant light instead of the sun. it protects you from rays and works better! By anonomous RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have naturally blonde hair and now that it is winter, it is getting darker. I put lemon juice in both my shampoo and conditioner. It makes my natural blonde highlights and colour in general blonder. Since I don't go out in the sun very often in the winter, I blow dry my hair on a medium setting until it is about 95% dried. Then i finish drying it on cold. It makes your hair shiny and silky. I recommend using either Herbal Essence "degunkify" (it helps get rid of the lemon residue and all) and "moisture milks" or the orange bottle of Vive Pro shampoo and conditioner. In the shower, leave the shampoo in for at least 3 minutes. Rinse it out with the hot water (to open up the root so it will deep cleanse it) then keep the conditioner on for at least 4 minutes. Rinse with the coldest water you can stand (it closes your roots and keeps your hair shiny and soft). I also use Sun In Super with lemon. People say that it makes your hair dry and brittle, but for as long as I've used it it hasn't done that. If your hair does it up dry, use C.H.I Silk Infusion. It is definatly worth your money. It works wonders! After using Sun In, style as usual. I usually straighten my hair with my C.H.I. straightener and you can really see the highlights, or i leave it naturally curly and you can still see the highlights, I love this stuff! :) Hope this was helpful. I'm very picky with what I use for my hair so if I'm satisfied with it, most people probably will be too. I want everyone to know that I am 16, well almost 16 years old, but I do know a lot about hair and if this didn't work for me, then I wouldn't have posted it. But it works wonderfully! By Amanda RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I once did this; i put lemons juice in my hair and sat in it for an hour. I did this 4 times, and not much came of it, except the underside of my hair turned a light-ish brown. I went to the hairdressers, and the hairdresser dyed it a blonde for me: but the blonde was a horrible custard yellow. I re-did my lemon juice experiment, and my hair colour calmed down to a light ash blonde. Charley RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice makes hair a golden blonde color after several applications over a certain length of time which varies for every person. For those who have a darker brown hair color, I would not recommend lemon juice as hair WILL turn orange. By Trisha RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice WARNING: Lemon juice DAMAGES your hair By Brett RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Alright, you CAN Lighten your hair with Lemon Juice. And it doesn't have to be STRAIGHT lemon juice. You can do about a 50-50% solution of Lemon Juice and water. Just make sure that you have either the same amounts, or more Lemon Juice. I use the 50-50% solution all the time. But on occasion, I add a 3% Solution of Hydrogen Peroxide to the mix and spray it on. The two of them combined help lighten the hair more. Though, if it's during the winter, or there isn't any sunlight, you can use a Hot blow dryer. No matter what you do, I don't exactly suggest you go out after throwing the Lemon into your hair. It gets really dry and sticky-ish, and stringy and stuff. And yeaaaah. xD No matter what you do, I suggest you wash your hair when you're done. AND - Putting Lemon Juice in Shampoo's and conditioner's doesn't really lighten your hair, but it does help enhance highlights. By Rawr! RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I tried the experiment for a few days when there was sunlight available and all that came out was that the undersides of my tips turned a brownish color. Funny because thats the exact color that I want for my whole head, but it only came on the undersides. There are some strands that have turned a lighter shade. But then again, my hair was dark brown so I guess the process didn't really help my hair. It turned so dry though, my tips and I've noticed more split ends than before. :[ Also putting lemon onto my hair and going out into the sunlight made the natural oils of my hair strip away and didn't leave me with much. Therefore, it could've reduced the rate of hair growth for me. By dangerident RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice In the winter, I mix lemon juice and salt water and dampen my hair. Then, I apply the solution at my roots and comb it down the rest of my hair so it looks naturally highlighted (not skunky). I blow dry it in and it always works quite well. Sun - in also is helpful in the winter using the same steps. Washing your hair with beer also helps A LOT! Although it sounds strange, it can significantly change your hair color to lighter shades. By sarah RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice makes blonde hair blonder. It won't turn brown, red, or black hair blonde. Only hair dye can do that. By RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I'm just gonna stick with the box color. By cass RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice doesnt not work unless there is: light- SUN or plant light, because of UV lights. Not straight up lemon juice mix with water wash out thoroughly. USE CONDITIONER TO SMOOTH YOUR HAIR. Otherwise, your hair will be rough and look bad. As an alternative to lemon juice, try 2 cups of WARM water and 2 bags of chamomille tea. it lightens your hair, brings out natural highlights you never even knew you had, smells GREAT! doesnt look bad, softens and makes your hair shine. Trust me,add a tablespoon or 2 into that mix for best results. Please, please trust me, this really does work. honestly, I don't lie, I'm just like you. By Lilliana Andrea Stevens RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Ummmm, yeh well, my hair is kind of a dirty blonde colour. I really hate it =[ So, when you do the wash-your-hair-with-lemon-juice-and-then-sit-in-the-sun-for-ages trick, does it actually work? (b)Editor's Note:(/b) This works best on dirty blonde colored hair. I should lighten it so it looks blonder. By Sian RE: Lighten Your Hair with Sun in Never use sun in if you hair is any shade of brown it will turn a hideous orange color! By caitlin RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I read this page and tried to highlight my hair using lemon juice. My hair colour was dirty blonde and now has dark orange highlights! I didn't want this all. I wanted a lighter blonde colour. If you have dirty blonde hair, I dont recomend using this! RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice lemon juice does make your hair lighter, but ONLY with ultra violet light from the sun! You can NOT blow dry it and you have to be outside in the sun for FIVE hours which is VERY VERY VERY bad for your skin, especially if you're a blonde with pale skin! By the way, if you do have blonde hair, the lemon juice will make your hair orange not light blonde and if your hair is brown, it won't make a dramatic effect, especially not if your hair is black. By jen RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Never use sun in. When I was 13, I had red hair. But I wanted it to be lighter. I wanted it to be like a strawberry blonde, like it gets in the sun. But the only problem was that there was barely any sun because it was winter. So I used sun in. it worked and it made my hair blonder and so it was a really pretty strawberry blonde. After I stopped using it, however; my hair got ruined and started to break in this one part. No one could see it but I could notice it. The reason it started to break was because even though it doesn't say it, sun in contains some bleach, or else it wouldn't make your hair blonder. If you use bleach or sun in a lot however, the bleach starts to ruin your hair causing it to die, and break in some parts. Fortunately, mine grew back, and it wasn't even that visible to begin with because it was only in one spot, the back of my hair. I'm putting this out there to warn all of you out there wanting to buy the product. Once you use it, you might think "ohh, it's sooo pretty, but after a while it fades in to a weird color causing you to use more. After a while, your hair will get gooby and start to break. I AM JUST TRYING TO HELP BY WARNING YOU NOT TO USE IT! By blondie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Hey girls, I have light brown hair and I used lemon juice and it worked. I don't know, maybe it's me but I've had it for a year and it hasn't faded so I recommend it, it worked for me. PS, it gives you a golden light blonde colored look :) By Karry .C RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I've used sun in and my roots were dark blonde and now they are light bleach blonde! I want to dye the rest of my hair without the chemicals and there is good and bad feedback on here so now I'm debating on if I'm going to it or not. I tried the sun in on the rest of my hair but it did not work AT ALL. By Katie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice My hair is/was black or really really dark. (I obviously dyed it) but the lemon juice really does work but damages your precious hair. And that's not all, It turned out to get an ugly orange crayon color ugg. So my recommendation is to not uses it, especially with dark hair. Don't use it in the sun in dark hair. Maybe, I should have wore it for a little while, but definitely NOT in the sun. By kerry RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have light blonde hair but my natural colour is mid-blonde, my hair is dyed. I want It a bit lighter though because my roots have started to show and It's all going a bit darker. I'm thinking about using lemon juice, but after reading all these comments I'm in two minds about It all. My best friend's brother lightens his hair with lemon juice and his hair looks fine, but I'm still not sure. The weather's good right now, so I can go in the sun. Would it be better if I used lemon juice, salt, camomille stuff and water and then go out in the sun for a few hours, then wash it. Do you think that will work? It won't make my hair fall out or anything, will it? Thanks By Jessie =). RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I had dark hair and I put lemon juce in it and I was not happy at all. It did not work for me. By zoe RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice To me, it sounds like the whole lemon juice trick varies with each person, so I'd try it on a small, not visible piece of hair before you put it all over your head. I think Ill try it soon. By Shexi RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I've got naturally light brown hair, and in the summer I get lots of natural highlights through it. I sat out in the sun with lemon juice on my hair, from one lemon, and my hair was significantly lightened. Lemon juice is also good for lightening eyebrows. I think sometimes you need to just bite the bullet and ignore the hair experts, they're usually in it for the money. By sue RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I've never tried the whole lemon-juice-in-your-hair thing although I'm going to but I am going to recommend u don't use Sun-in. Although it does really work, it really damaged my hair. By stef RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice My hair is dirty blonde/light brown. I use lemons like whenever I go to the beach, and usually nothing happens. Sometimes my blonde highlights come out a bit more than usual though, but nothing bad as long as you wash your hair that night. I reccomend trying it, but don't get your hopes up. :-) By Elle RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice The combination of lemon juice and prolonged sunlight lightens your hair. If you cannot be out in the sun for long periods of time then this technique is pointless for you. It will be summertime soon. Throw some lemon juice in your hair 'til it's saturated, ignore the weird itchy mild burning sensation, and go play some soccer or tennis or basketball for the day. It will lighten your hair and because it's citrus it will probably strengthen your hair too. Stay away from this sun-in crap because it hasn't worked for a single soul on this page, and accept the free gift of natural hair lightener. If your hair is not lighter the first time, try it again the next day, and the day after that. If after a while of trying if, it still hasn't worked, then it's not something you can take advantage of. Just accept it and move on. I am a black man. I heard about this technique 19 years ago when I was like twelve. I spent my summer vacation playing outside like I always did but for about two weeks, I did this everyday before I went out to play in the sun for the day. I used little lemon packets that they sold in the restaurant down the street. By the end of two weeks, my hair had gone from a dark brown that is so dark it looks black to a bright firey red. It worked for me. It still does. It MIGHT work for you. Prolonged sunlight and lemon juice, (bottled or otherwise). You must submit to both lemon juice and PROLONGED sunlight for this to work. By Tetsuo RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I used sun in for years on my hair when i lived in the desert (needles, CA). It works great in the hot hot sun. My hair was way long and like spun gold,with natural highlights underneath. I had compliments on my hair wherever I went. People even thought it was fake! It was perfect! Now I live in MN and it is more of a challeneg due to shorter summers and the sun is not as intense. I could still achieve the look but it took lots of dedication whenever the sun was out and a blow dryer to get a head start on dark roots. I have "good" thick hair. If you have thin whimpy hair, it may not be the best route, or you could try but do TLC to your hair weekly. I used to put eggs and mayo in my hair and sit in the sun and hot oil tratments as well as lots of good conditioners at the beach. My hair is in a crisis now because, when I moved back to minnesota, the sun was scarce so I stared to get it done and it got that processed look. They did my whole thick head of hair so a lot of the natural look was lost. Only a few out there can do a real natural job and I would advise not doing the underneath. Also, you young girls out there with long beautiful hair like I had, please don't cut it or do anything drastic to it. You WILL regret it. When you're young, you just dont know!!! Ruining your hair is enough to make you cry! LOL! By Sarah RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice hey I think all of you guys that tried to hilight your hair with lemon juice are brave I got bangs today, and now I'm going to try the lemon juice thing, hopfully it works.(my mom or dad both don't want me to dye my hair cuz' I'll damage it!) LOL! By Heather Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I know someone who used lemon juice and it worked. She had thick dark brown hair too. Now it's blonde. By RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice No one should ever dye their hair black or blue black. Once you do this, you CANNOT get it out, until it grows out or you have the color stripped out by a professional. Other hair colors while not work on hair to lighten it. I know this, because I did this and I hated it immediately after I saw it and could not get it out so I ended up having to cut my long hair into a bob. Depending on your hair type, I would consider not using anything darker then a dark brown an even then you should only use a non-perm. hair color. By RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I actualy like the lemon juice method and I have brown hair. It's not a dramatic difference because I went out in the sun for like only 1 hour but if you stay out longer, it will be lighter. My hair got a really pretty carmel brown shade. It's lighter, I love it. By neptune RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have used this method. The first time, I had about 5 lemons. Every day for five days, I used one lemon. I would keep it in my hair for a hour under light. My friend suggested to blow dry it into my hair which I did. I have dark hair so doing so will take time. I just recently went to the store and bought the lemon shaped bottles with the juice. I'm gonna keep adding lemon to my hair and just spend my weekend in the sun and see what my results will be. By jessie p> RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I'm a natural blonde/dirty blonde. My hair gets lighter in the summer and darker in the winter and my mother used to put sun-in in mine and my younger brothers hair back in the day. it turned light light light. almost white blonde and looked completely natural cuz it almost is considering no dyes or processing. I started dyeing it when I hit middle school and I'm now a senior but I want healthy natural hair. I stopped dyeing it last September and it's now May so I'm going to back to the natural color and just use lemons or sun-in this summer. I did it today and theres no big difference but tomorrow will be much nicer out. i'll let ya'll know. By Samantha . RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice i have dirty blonde hair, and i want it to be a lighter shade of blonde. should i use the lemon juice, because people say it work, but some say it doesnt. i dont know what to do. HELP! (05/29/2007) By jenna RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Alright. There are a LOT of rumors on this thread that should be cleared up. 1. Lemon Juice (or any kind of hair lightener) will NOT turn blonde hair red. Bleach of any kind may turn very dark hair a reddish color as opposed to a blonder color, depending on the undertones, however. 2.Lemon juice does NOT require sun. Lemon juice is a natural bleaching agent, and thus works on it's OWN to bleach your hair. Sun will, however, help and may make a dramatic difference as to the visibility of the highlights. 3. Sun-in does NOT contain bleach. It contains other natural bleaching agents, however. It may dry your hair out, but I highly doubt that it was the cause of your 'extreme hair breakage' . Sun-in is a MUCH better alternative to lemon juice because it does not cause as much breakage as lemon juice. By Grace RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I am an old pro at lightening my hair with lemon juice. I am a natural blonde and it was almost white when I was little but kept getting a little darker each year until it was a medium and eventually dark/dirty blonde. Around 7th grade, I started lightening it with lemon juice. I would buy the bottles of lemon juice, not real lemons. I would mix it with water in a spray bottle. I mixed it about 60/40, a little more lemon juice than water. I would always completely wet my hair and towel dry. Then I completely saturated my hair with the mixture and combed it through. I would set on the deck in the sun until my hair was almost dry, usually about 30 minutes or so. Sometimes I would lean over the deck rail and hang my head over so the underneath would get the sunlight. I would only have to do this once every so often. It instantly lightened my hair and I never had to use any chemicals or color my hair until I was in my twenties then I just decided to color it which I wish I had never done. To make a long story short, I know from experience that the lemon juice really works. Also, my cousin who had brown hair used sun in and it burned her hair and turned it an orange color. I would never use it. By Sherry RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I dye my hair blonde, but sometimes the chlorine in my pool turns it a greenish tint, so I put lemon juice in my hair in the shower and rinse it out. Bam! I'm a blonde again! By Kristen RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Well I was planning on lightening my hair using this method but people are saying it will turn medium brown hair orange...is that true please help !! (06/01/2007) By Me RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice HERE IS YOUR ANSWER. Lemon juice works, but it is better for blondes. it is drying, so if your hair is already dry, it may not be the best idea. For brunettes, chamomile tea is best. Boil tea, let it cool, pour it on. If you have dyed dark hair or black hair, nothing really works that great. brunettes and lighter can also try olive oil. It may be a good thing to try after lemon juice, because it replenishes your hair and brings back moisture. In order for any of these to work, you have to sit outside in the sun with your head wetted with these ingredients, usually for about 5 hours for it to work. By laney6 RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Black is not a hard color to get out for whoever said it. I had dyed my hair black for a year and about a month ago, I changed it and now it's platnium blonde. Why don't you all just bleach your hair instead of seeing if lemon juice will work? By Kristen RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice This method totally works! I was out in the sun for like 2 hours and the change is great! I just put loads of squashed lemon juice in my hair, laft it for about 10 mins, washed my hair as usual and it changed colour a little bit! My hair was medium brown, now it is dark blondey ish.. By Amy RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Hey um, what's Sun In? (b)Editor's Note:(/b) It is a commercial product. http://www.chattem.com/products/sun.asp (06/09/2007) By RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice My boyfriend, Anthony, is a cosmetologist. I have learned from him this one golden rule. Only try home beauty recipes if you have "virgin" hair, that means hair that has not been previously processed with chemicals, such as dye or perms. Once you have a chemical process done to your hair, stick with the professionals, and let them know what you have put on your hair, and also what meds you may be taking. That info will let them know the best products to put on your hair for the best results. If you have virgin hair, and want to try lemon juice, or Sun-in, or henna, then know that anything you do like that does have an effect on your hair. A stylist can look at your hair and tell if you have been using lemon juice, or Sun-in. If you just want to lighten blonde or light brown virgin hair, then lemon juice (I'd use fresh, because bottled has preservatives in it.) will work, but results will vary with the individual. If you have dark hair and want to go blonde, please go to a good salon. It might cost a bit of money, but it can save you many tears. Yes, stylists want to make $. But if Anthony had a dollar for every customer that came in with a homemade hair disaster, he could retire. Play it safe, and use common sense. To Katie: DO NOT PUT LEMON OIL ON YOUR HAIR. Lemon oil is a furniture polish, and contains petroleum products, which makes it toxic. By Anthony's Girlfriend RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I did an experiment in science and hair actually gets smoother when washed in more acidic conditioners/shampoos. That's because the little scales all lie flat. The best pH for shampoo is about four or five. Anything more acid will probably make your hair fall out! So if you use lemon juice, which is an acid it should make your hair smooth as well as lighter. I'm going to try it these holidays. :P By ebs RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice About a week ago, I heard that lemon juice would lighten your hair, but I also heard that it wouldn't. I asked some of my friends and they all said it would work. So since they are my friends I went with their opinion and I tried it. I just tried it today and it actually does work. I only sat out for like 2 hours, but it is already starting to lighten. Everybody who has brown hair and thinks that it will turn orange you're wrong, it doesn't. I have medium brown hair and it didn't turn my hair orange. I used lemon juice because my parents won't let me get it colored because it will ruin my hair. so everybody who wants to try it but is too scared, try it, it works. By Ashley RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice just lightens, it's hydrogenm peroxide that give reddish color. I like the color it gives me, actually. But remember to put anything like that on dirty &/or conditioned hair so you don't dry it out and damage it. By pamphyila RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Everyone on here needs to cool down, if you read the posts before you, you'll see that your questions have already been answered. And plz be reasonable, everyone knows that lemons are acidic and that is NOT going to be good for your hair, but it's better then straight bleaching. It's your call but I would recommend talking to your hairdresser more than asking people online. I'm not saying their advice is wrong but everyone's hair is different and your hairdresser knows your hair and knows hair in general more then most people who posted things on this site. By RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Try adding lemon juice to your conditioner it works (06/16/2007) By Austin RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice pour loads of lemon juice in your hair, then go out in direct sun for 2-3 hours. then jump in the shower and SCRUB the juice out.....brush hair, make it soft and smooth and your hair will be noticably lighter (and it will smell like lemonade :] ) IT WORKS! TRUST ME! I USE IT ALL SUMMER LONG AND EVERYONE LOVES IT! By: Lillian, Haley and Jacie Smith (06/22/2007) By Lil, Hal and jas RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice It works. Just put it the time to go in the sun. Im about to do it tomorrow... and don't use sun-in, its not worth it. my friends hair did turn orange. that same friend used lemon juice the next summer and it was lighter the way she wanted it. (she had dirty blonde hair) go with lemon juice or bleach -- not sun-in (b)(/b) (06/23/2007) By Maggie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice i used pure lemon juice i did make it from lemons i also rubbed the fruit on my head. it worked out great for me i have black hair / dark brown and now it has a orange kind of glow i love it. and also i had really bad hair it smelled and it was dry and now it had a nice glow and it smells nice (06/24/2007) By happy lemon juice user RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice i have dark hair and the reson that lemon juice turns it orange is because of toner. that is what you pay for when you go in for highlights. lemon juice dosent have any toner in it all it does is lightens and when you lighten dark hair it is orange it has nothing to do with it being lemon juice it is just that without the toner from high quality products your hair is orange when it is lighter. (06/25/2007) By RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Will it work if I dont go in the sun ? I have like a dark browny caramely color and I want to know what to do . (06/25/2007) By Andrea RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice The first time I heard about the lemon juice was at my hair-dressers' place. She said that if you do it too much, obviously, you will have damaged hair, just like you would with bleaching and colouring your hair. If anyone is scared to try it, just do what I did the first time. I used the bottled lemon juice (which still works) and took strands of hair and soaked them in the lemon juice to create a highlight effect. I stood out in the sun for an hour playing volleyball. It worked, and I liked the colour I saw on the streaks and then did it to my whole hair. Since the highlights got more lemon juice i had lighter hair with highlights. I had medium brown hair-medium blonde. Try it, it works different on everyone! (06/26/2007) By Alex RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice How long does the effect last? (b)Editor's Note:(/b) It is permanent. It will last until the hair grows out and the lightened part is cut off. (06/26/2007) By Cheyenne RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have used lemon juice before and now I'm a bleached blonde ( before: brown). It was amazing. By megan RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I don't use this method often but in the summer it is a great way to lighten hair! Dark hair + Lemon Juice=orange or copper color. I'm not sure about red hair but I would say it's A VERY BADidea for black hair. Be cautious and use boxed dye if you don't want to risk it and always talk to your hairdresser after dying/bleaching. By Mystie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice will lightten your hair but it is an acid so it will dry out your hair. If you are going to lighten your hair with lemon juice in a spray bottle then put a little bit of olivie oil on the bottom, so your hair wont end up completley dried out. By liv. RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice hey =) ok girls here's the dish on lemon juice in your hair; If your a blonde and you put lemon juice in your hair it isn't all that drastic. It justs makes your natural highlights pop out. Nothing major is going to happen in a negative way but I don't recommend it all the time becuse it can make for dry hair after a while If you're a brunette or dark haired person and you use lemon juice in your hair. It DOES NOT make barely a difference. Maybe the slightest one but no one will notice. And about the amount of time, the lighter the color, the longer you stay out but you will get a difference anywhere from 30 minutes to 6 hours. Just make sure to use sun block. Also: a tip for how to make highlights. take 2-5 lemons and hand squeeze them into a bowl. Then take a meat/steak brush and brush it onto your hair from the top to the bottom to create the highlight effect. (that's just the simplest way) So yeah enjoy the rest of your summer =) By nikki =) RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Ok so, I had always wanted blonde hair and finally I got lots of blonde highlights so it looks blonde, but I'm going to try the lemon juice thing tomorrrow. BUT I would like to know that if you put it on your roots would it damage some of the hair because it's on the roots? Editor's Note: Don't use lemon juice on top of the highlights or you may have problems. I wouldn't do it. It won't damage the roots but the highlighted areas have already been bleached and it may ruin the hair. By J4D3. RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice OK, after adding lemon in your hair: you would want to take a shower AFTER right? You can, it had no effect to your hair. But note that: your hair doesn't change colors right away! It works next morning when you wake up. By yvonne RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice If you don't like the way this turns out with the lemon juice, does it become removable if you want it to. (can you take it out) I have dark brown hair almost like hershey chocolate. I just wanna know how i can get a change but not to dramatic. I dont want to look completely different! Editor's Note: There is no way to change it back except by dying it. It is usually fairly subtle. It is repeated bleaching with the lemon juice that makes bigger changes. Try a little bit on a few strands and see. By Pritch RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Hey, can you LIGHTEN your hair with LIMES? (I don't have any lemons) By maria RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Hi Guys: I have darkest brown hair. Recently, I noticed 17 gray hairs and I have been cutting them out of my head. I did not want to do that anymore so I went ahead and dyed my hair twice in 3 months. Both colors did very little to my hair. I first used natural dark brown and second natural medium brown from nice 'n easy. I choose these colors to be sure my hair would look natural and not have a drastic color change. Lastly, I chose the natural medium brown to give myself highlights that blend and not stick out. Unfortunately, my efforts did nothing. The grey hair is gone of course but the highlights never took. Just had to clean the bathroom up!!! I want to know if mixing lemon juice with chamomile tea (with a little water) will give me highlights. I don't want anything dramatic, just something nice -- like a chestnut brown mixed into my darkest hair look. The one question I need answered: Will the mixture for highlights be effective with my now non-virgin hair. Can this damage my hair? Or worst give me an awful orange/yellow color? As for you sun-in users, I am happy you were satisfied with the results. I used it when I was 14 y/o and in the end had my mother run to the store to get dark brown hair dye to get rid of the yellow and orange colors it produced. I do not recommend it at all!!! Took nearly 5 years to get my virgin hair back after many hair cuts!!! Thanks for your time! God Bless, Ginger :) By gingerrogers77 RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice OK, so there are a lot of people who think it is great and others which don't think it is. I have naturally redbrown hair which is a type of blonde, but doesn't look it! Will it work on my hair? Well I'm gunna try it, I will tell you how I get on! By Henrietta RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Just a tip (especially to the people with light complections): Wear sunscreen if you are going out in the sun for this. It's really bad for your skin if ya don't. By Kait Report Spam or Abuse Tip: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Archived on 10/04/2006 To lighten your hair chem-free this summer, use pure lemon juice. I used to have my mom squeeze one or 2 whole lemons in my hair and comb through, while I was out playing in the summer sun. It worked wonderfully. Jennifer Feedback: RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice You can use lemon juice to protect your hair from chlorine while your swimming. I tried sunbathing with lemon juice in my hair, it didn't really lighten it (it's already light). Once dry, the lemon juice felt a lot like hairspray so you'll need to rinse it. By Janie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I tried lightening my hair with lemon juice, and had great results by doing the following. Every day for about 5 days I applied about a 1/4 cup of lemon juice to my hair and sat out in the sun for a couple of hours. Everyday I would part my hair differently, that way the lower layers of my hair would also get lighter. After sitting in the sun you need to wash out your hair with a good conditioner b/c the lemon juice makes your hair extremely dry and stiff. I have dirty blonde hair and now my hair is much brighter... It's been about a month and my color is still great. By MADDIE R. RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I did an assignment for science on this and this turned by brown hair gold. Open Ended Investigation - Tenaia Setter 8H Does Lemon make brown hair blonde? Why Do This Experiment? Lots of people want to go blonde, they just don't want to use harsh chemicals, pay pricey professional colorist fees or try to figure out the right colors to buy at the chemist. An old wives tale suggests that putting lemon on your hair and leaving it in the sun will cause your hair to lighten. The aim of this experiment is to find out if this hypothesis is true and to scientifically find out why the lemon reacts with hair in this way. Title: Can the natural substance; "lemon" make brown human hair blonde? Aim: To find out whether lemon can lighten medium brown human hair and efficiently turn it blonde. Hypothesis: Lemon will act as a sufficient hair lightener. This is because the chemicals in lemon juice are very strong and are able to lighten your hair. Method: 1. Squeeze three lemons into a jar. (Try to include as less pulp as possible) 2. Using the lemon juice, spread evenly throughout hair. 3. Carry on this process each day for one month. At the end of each week, record your results. Your results will be set into a table, on it you must include state of how much lighter is your hair (if lighter at all), and include a color picture of your hair compared to original color and results from previous weeks. BEFORE THE PROJECT: Hair was a solid brown. No sign of any visible lighter highlights. WEEK ONE: Hair in general visible lighter tone. Small golden streaks at the tip of hair. Light brown/golden streaks half way through hair. WEEK TWO: Hair is still visibly lighter again, although there are no signs of any blonde in hair WEEK THREE: Gold Highlights in bottom of hair have efficiently lightened. They can be seen very well in the sunlight. By Tink RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice OKAY. FOR EVERYONE WHO DOESN'T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS WORKS: The lemon juice bleaches your hair when it meets sunlight. It's acid + UV light. Therefore, it WILL NOT work without the sun. Using a blow dryer IS NOT a substitute for the sun, because it is not the heat that bleaches your hair. It's the sun's UV light By pandsta RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I read in a magazine that you can use lemon juice in your hair to lighten it. but you should mix water with it so it's not straight up lemon juice, otherwise it can damage your hair By Mo RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice My hair was so dark and I hated because I always wanted to have blonde hair. Last week I tried lemon thing and it really worked, I squeezed together 5 lemons and I washed with my hair with lemon juice and it really worked, but not really blonde but my hair got lightener. By MARY RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I agree with Enuffy. Some parts of my hair felt out, and my scalp was irritated, I even bleed (not much though) from it. Be careful girls. :) By Marisa_Hawtt RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I've heard about this lemon juicing your hair before, and my mom always tells me to go ahead and try it. After having read through these comments this is what I've come up with, I am going to fill up a spray bottle with juice from REAL lemons 3/4 of the way full, and put water in for the other 1/4. then I am going to try it on a small section of my hair to see how it goes. I'm going to put it on dirty hair, so the natural oils will help protect it from drying out and anything else. then I will lay out in the sun for about 4 hours. when I'm all done I will wash it all out cause acid cant be good to leave in. and I'll see if it works, if it does work, then I'm going to do the same thing again, but this time with my whole head. I'll let you know how the test section goes. By Girly girl RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I have light blonde hair. I squeezed 2 lemons on my hair this morning, sunbathed for an hour and then put a conditioner on it. It's now lighter (noticeably but it doesn't looked bleached) but isn't dry! By Abi RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I just used it a couple days ago. I have blonde hair that I wanted to make blonder, so I have a lemon tree in my backyard, so I got one and squeezed it into a cup, then I scooped it on my hands and ran my fingers through my hair and i stayed in the sun 4 about an hour. When I got inside you couldn't really tell a difference, but it acted like hairspray. The hair became super stiff.. By Kiki RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I don't think lemon juice would be bad for your hair, however, like everything that you can do to your hair, if you do it to much, of course it'll ruin your hair. Thats why I (I'm not an expert of course) would say feel free to put lemon juice in your hair and go out in the sun for like 10 min MAX, but don't go and sit out on the beach in 10 UV ray for 5 hours, that will be bad for your hair By Lighter-Hair RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Hydrogen peroxide is so bad for your hair, it can make you actually loose your hair, and it strips layers from your hair, and it's terrible for your scalp. Lemon juice and Salt works much better for most people because it's less likely to cause irritation, and it's not a strong chemical. By Camille RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice The trick to using Sun In /lemon/Juice/hydrogen peroxide (the main ingredient in Sun In) on your hair for lighter streaks is to USE IT ON DIRTY HAIR. That way the oils in your hair will protect it from the drying effects. The reason hairdressers don't tell you about lemon juice, etc., is that all of these methods work OVER TIME - I much prefer that, because it makes the color so much more natural, and because you can control it. (But you won't get the effect in one sitting -which is what you want from a salon.) The color effects vary from person to person depending on the original hair color. I use regular hydrogen peroxide plus colored shampoo for natural strawberry highlights. By pamphyila RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice is not always bad for you hair. Because if you rinse your hair with lemon juice it can bring life and shine back into your hair. I guess its sort of damages it slightly cos sun and lemons. But you could also use a mixture of strong chamomile tea and lemon juice for faster results. By Allison RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice is a good "lightener", but it does not do any thing dramatic. I have natural light brown hair, after putting about 1 lemon's juice on my hair, doing my normal daily activities, work, etc., all for about week straight, i ended up with some blondish streaks. I did not sit in the sun all day, i just did what I normally do. I washed my hair each night, shampoo and conditioner. That was my first experiment with it. Every summer now, I do this: squeeze out the juice of 4 lemons, put in one of those cheap spray bottles you can buy anywhere, mix it with about a third amount of water, and add either some body spray or scented oils in it. Smells great, naturally lightens just enough, and so easy! By Nervarah RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice About 2 years ago when I was 12 and my hair was Strawberry Blonde I wanted a little change in my hair color so I tried lemons at first and sat out in the sun, my hair got a little lighter and it looked pretty nice. But then I was thinking that I wanted my hair to be lighter so I bought Sun-In and sprayed it all over my head. My hair got very blonde. I was loving it. Now that I'm 14 turning 15 soon, I decided I liked dark hair better and dyed my hair and now my hair is a really dark red. But that's not the point. The point is if you want your hair to be lighter without dying it, try SunIn! OR if you just want a little lightening, then sure try the lemons. Both work very good. Glad to help you all. By Angie RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice I tried lightening my hair with lemon after reading the comments on this page. I shampooed and conditioned my hair, brushed my wet hair, and then brushed in some Real Lemon juice. I noticed a little color change in my hair right away, then, I blow-dried my hair and when I was finished, it gave me a great caramel-golden blonde color that looks great! it's completely natural and it works so much better than those home highlighting kits! My hair isn't even dry or frizzy! You can use is as a highlighter or an all over color like I did By Karen RE: Lighten Your Hair with Lemon Juice Lemon juice is the only way I color my hair just because of the fact that it's so much more natural and doesn't give you orange residue. I squeeze a couple of lemons and mix it with some lemon juice concentrate from the bottle and put it in an old hairspray container (not the aerosol kind though). Definitely works wonders. By Nat Report Spam or Abuse