No matter what color your hair is, chances are you have always thought of or considered changing your hair color at some point in your life. For me, when spring hits, I always get this nostalgic feeling of lightening my hair to allow for a more sun kissed look. A nice shade that is slightly lighter without being too overdone or drastic.
Whether you are trying to add some highlights, go full hair on, trying out ombre or even balayage, here are some great tips for you to help you naturally lighten your hair.
Natural Undertone
Your hair always have natural undertones. This does not just apply to make up, it is certainly something you should factor in when lightening or darkening your hair. Much like checking your skin tone, to check if you have either warm or cool undertone, you can check your wrist. If the veins appear to be more green, then you have a warmer undertone. Whereas, if it appears to be blue, you most likely have a cooler undertone.
Warm tones such as honey goes well with those who have warm skin tones. Whereas, cool skin tones go well with colors such as platinum or ash.
Natural Hair Lighteners
There are multiple natural ways to lighten your hair. Unfortunately for those of you who have dark hair and is aiming for something that is more drastic, natural lightening will probably not do much for you. You will most likely be able to notice a small change, but it will not be drastic enough to go more than 1 shade lighter. To get a lighter shade of hair, you most likely will have to use bleach to help lighten your dark hair.
Bleach is something that is quite damaging to your hair. Therefore, unless you are someone who is knowledgeable with bleaching your hair, I would always recommend you to do it in a hair salon with a professional hair stylist. Someone with experience can help you lighten your hair without the brassy tones and achieve the desired hair shade you want.
Lemon Juice
Lemon juice is one of the most popular options for natural hair lightening. The vitamin C in lemon juice can help bleach your hair without the use of harsh chemicals. However, much like all natural lighteners, lemon juice does work best for those who already have naturally light hair. For those of you who have darker hair, it might help create a slight lightened effect when the sun shines on your hair.
All you need to do is to mix around 2 tablespoons of lemon juice with 1 cup of water and leave it on your hair. After applied, it is best to head out in the sun so that the sun can help activate the lemon juice to lighten your hair.
Chamomile
Chamomile tea is another liquid that can help you lighten your hair naturally. It contains a flavonoid called quercetin that helps lighten your hair. Quercetin is considered an inhibitor of tyrosinase, this is an enzyme that can limit the production of melanin. This means that it helps prevent your hair darkening from the production of melanin.
All you need to do is to soak your hair in chamomile tea and head out into the sun to soak some sunshine. However, for those of you who have darker hair, you will most likely need something stronger than chamomile to lighten it. This is because darker hair contains more melanin and requires a much stronger process to lighten.
Honey
Honey contains an enzyme called glucose oxidase that has the ability to produce low levels of peroxide. This is a chemical that can help lighten your hair. In general, bleach uses around 6% peroxide to bleach your hair, although some can go as low as 3% to help slowly lighten your hair.
When mixed with water, the peroxide in honey is very low. In fact, it is low enough that it might not do anything for your hair. What I would suggest is trying out honey, lemon juice and water mixed together. This is because honey is a natural ingredient that can help condition your hair. If you do try out this solution, make sure you also head out into the sun to help boost the lightening effects.
Stronger Stuff
For those of you who want to go for those stronger stuff, but not strong to the point of using bleach. You should consider using sun sprays. Those are generally formulated with natural ingredient or with light peroxide to help gradually lighten your hair without being too damaging.
Sun Bum Blonde Hair Lightener
This hair spray uses Hawaiian honey and lemon to help lightening your hair using the sun. It is ideal for those of you with blonde hair to use. The spray can help give your blonde hair a subtle lightening effect, one I would describe as sun kissed. It includes ingredients that can even help protect your hair from uv rays and reduce the damage you take from the lemon juice.
Suntouched Sun Hair Lightener
This Suntouched hair lightening product is catered for those with dark hair (dark hair as in brunettes). It includes ingredients such as vitamin C, chamomile, citrus extracts and pineapple to help lighten your hair. The spray is activated by heat, so this means you can go out into the sun or just sit under a hair dryer to help lighten your hair gradually. When I mean gradually, it means that hair lightening is not something that is achieved in 1 day. You will have to gradually do it, I would recommend once every few days to help slowly achieve a desired lightened hair.
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