I’ve got brown hair and since I’ve been living in Jakarta, my hair’s been really bland and dark since I don’t get out much. I used to get my highlights in my hair at the salon using bleach but I decided to stop doing this since it dries out the hair and does serious damage to it.
Instead to lighten up my hair and get natural highlights, I’m switching to natural methods of hair lightening. Here are a few options:
1. Black Tea – Boil water and put a teabag in as usual, allow to cool and then use it as a rinse. Let it sit in your hair for 15 minutes or so. It is recommended that the rinse is repeated between 3-6 times before rinsing it out with water.
- I actually use this one. Camomile tea specifically works best (and might even be better fresh). I only do one rinse and I don’t leave it in very long so that it’s a very slow transition and so it doesn’t get too light. Apparently fresh camomile is even stronger.
2. Lemon Juice – Rinse hair with lemon juice and let set for 10-20 minutes. It’ll get crunchy after some time as it dries (which is why lemon juice works as natural hairspray!) and that’s a good sign to rinse the lemon juice out with water.
- Lemon juice alone dries out the hair so it is recommended to dilute it with an equal part of water or olive oil. This will make it take longer to get the desired effect but more healthy for your hair.
- Olive oil has lightening effects so this will be more quick and hydrating than water and is also recommended in equal parts to lemon juice. It might require shampooing twice to remove so it isn’t recommended for those who don’t use shampoo.
- Brown hair will probably turn more orange if used too much. Brunettes cannot achieve very blonde hair with this method.
3. Rhubarb – Mix 1/4 cup of chopped rhubarb to 2 cups of water and then boil. Let the mixture cool before straining it and using it as a rinse.
4. Cinnamon – Mix cinnamon (powdered or boiled sticks) with water and let it sit in your hair for about an hour. It will lighten the hair and make it more of a reddish-caramel colour than the other rinses (which is not flattering on all hair colours).
5. Baking Soda – If you’re going no-poo (no-shampoo) then you will notice that after washing your hair with baking soda over a longish period of time that your hair will lighten in the process.
6. Vinegar – Rinse your hair with 1/6 parts vinegar to water and let it sit for a little bit. This will only work over a long period of time. Apple cider vinegar works best and is better for your hair.I assume most who go the no-poo route do this regularly already.
7. Vitamin C – Crush about 8 vitamin C tablets and mix with shampoo (or baking soda with water) and clean hair. Maybe wash hair multiple times for more noticeable effect.
8. Salt – Mix salt with water and let sit in hair for 10 minutes or so. Apparently it works quite well.
9. Honey – Add 1 tablespoon of honey to a cup of water and wait for half an hour (apparently that makes it work better) and then coat the hair with the mixture and leave in for at least 20 minutes. You can sleep with this mixture in if you cover your hair with a shower cap or saran wrap.
10. Henna Powder and Camomile (for dark hair) – mix henna powder with powdered camomile (or any other light herb) and mix with enough boiling water to make a thick paste. Let the mixture cool and then comb it into wet hair. Put a plastic bag or shower cap over your hair and leave it in for half an hour to two hours. Leave the dye in longer for darker hair (such as black). Remove the plastic and rinse hair.
- note: try this mixture on a small section of the back underside of your hair before doing large amounts as henna is strong
11. Swimming – Swimming in chlorinated pools or salt water (seas/oceans/salt-water pools) will lighten hair as chlorine and salt make hair lighter. Salt water is recommended, especially for those going no-poo because of chemicals.
12. Sun – The easiest and most natural way is just to spend time outside! Make sure to protect your skin while naturally getting your hair done 😉
Mixing up lightening methods will work faster and more apparently:
1. Mix Camomile tea and lemon juice and use as a rinse. Perhaps let it sit for a few minutes and repeat.
2. Spray hair with lemon juice and sit out in the sun while hair dries. This would be good to do at a beach or something with a spray bottle. Rinse with water after hair dries. Repeating this process multiple times is recommended for stronger effect. This will likely dry out your hair so maybe dilute it with water.
3. Mix salt with lemon juice and let dry then rinse. It will definitely dry out your hair so perhaps between doing this, put olive oil or conditioner in for a little bit.
4. It would be quite effective to do any of the rinses (1-7) and let hair dry in the sun before rinsing. Maybe even rinse it out while swimming.
5. Vinegar can be added to any of the other rinses (1-5 and 7) to improve the lightening as well as condition your hair.
All of these are effective if you are going shampoo-free as they contain no chemicals, no commercial hair product, are natural and other things that mean the same thing. All the rinses can be used as conditioning after cleaning the hair with baking soda.
Hydrogen peroxide is used by many people to lighten hair quickly and it is natural but it damages the hair so I would not recommend it.
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Nice tips. Have you try them all?
Too bad recently there’s no sunlight in Jakarta & around whereas I want to try lightening my black hair with lemon+chamomile tea+olive oil, under sunlight.
But after some research, I found out that Lemon will dry out the hair plus slow result, I think I will try Chamomile tea+Olive oil with sunlight.
Since Honey+Distilled water+Cinnamon+Cardamom+Olive oil not worked for me….what a waste money & time 😦
Not all of them but I naturally have brown hair so the camomile acted more quickly than it would on your black hair.
The lack of sun doesn’t do much to help hair colour; mine was so dark when I lived there…
I think I change my review, I said that honey-water-cinnamon-olive oil-cardamom not giving me any result, well, I was wrong. They did, after the many times treatment.
My black hair is turning light brunette, the color is more evenly than using commercial hair dye…I’m happy 🙂
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If you were to put lemon juice in your hair and sit on the beach, would it be alright to rinse your hair in the ocean? I’ve heard that it dries out your hair and lots of people say to rinse it after and I’m wondering if it will keep drying out after you wash it in ocean water or should I just go back to the house and wash it out?
Lemon juice dries out your hair already so sea water won’t dry it out more if you rinse in the ocean.
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I tried dying my black hair, blonde with bleach and it turned orange. I have school so which one of these should i do that will work the fastest?
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will mixing chamomile and lemon juice in a spray bottle do the job even if i do shampoo my hair ???
i think even if any of these dry the hair using a little coconut oil after a shower will fix that right up
Of course it’ll still work if you shampoo your hair. I used both those methods and still shampooed my hair so it should work (albeit slowly). Didn’t think about coconut oil but that should definitely do the trick.
If you’re doing this on dark brown hair, wouldn’t these methods give a more brassy tone to the hair rather than lightening the colour?
does the salt one work?
Just a tip: I used honey, vinegar, cinnamon, and olive oil and it works fantstic!
I have medium brown hair what color do you think the cinnamon will turn it? And I only want to lighten my tips do you have any suggestions on how to do that?
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I’d like to try the vintages, lemon juice, olive oil and cinnamon.
Could anyone tell me how much cinnamon to put in the mixture?
Also, my hair is light brown, a little golden blondish. Will this still work well for me and produce a nice color even though I’m not dark brunette?
works well but try this: mix baking soda with hydrogen proxide and honey,mix,leave in hair for 1 hour you will notice incrediable results!!!Try this out it really works no joke!!
I have naturally dark brown hair and I use lightening chamomile spray in conditioner it will bring out natural highlights. They do get a light brassy color but you can make your own hair toner with food coloring and apple cider vinegar and add conditioner. Lather in your hair and cover with shower cap or plastic grocery bag. Let it sit for 30-45 minutes. Rinse and watch the brassy orange turn blonde. I recommend looking at a color wheel and matching the tones to the color in your hair. For example I have orange reddish color in my hair so I mix blue and green food color. If your color is more yellowish orange use a ash tone, a blue- purple tone works well. It’s very affective. Of course over time the color becomes brassy again but simply tone it once every 2-3 weeks when you notice the color tone fade.
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I used cinnamon, honey, apple cidar vinegar, coconut oil, Chamomile tea, salt, and lemon juice. In one 60 minute application of just dampening my hair, I can see a visible difference. Sounds like a good marinade as well. 🙂
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Hi Sally,
Please heeeeelp !
I have naturally dark brown hair too but have been using organic tints over last couple of years to which has now resulted in horrid orange/ginger tones !!!
I used their ash version tint and even a grey concentrate but it hasn’t worked and left me still “gingery”,
I’m at my wits end with what to do and just read your post regarding Food Colours,
What ratio of blue and green food colour and apple cider vinegar to rid the orangey would I use for waist length hair ?
I also have some yellowish tones , would the blue/green cover this ok and not turn an odd colour ?
Will this be safe to use over organic chemical treated hair ?
Or would using either black tea or coffee work better or would that not rid any orange ?
I so need some help as my hair is “me” and I’m not feeling me until I can get this sorted , I’ve been soooo upset 😦
Kindest regards
Rachael xx
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Love this post! Thank you very much. This is one thing that I love to do is dying my hair, but try to find as mild as possible. Of course this is way better! Takes more time but is natural. Hope you will take a look at my blog as well, music, sustainability, second hand and lots of other things. I follow you now so I will not miss a post!
guys try lemon,orange,water,honey, olive oil and if make it hot water with the car…. tea and this will make your hair blonde or it depend it my be too strong for it made from dark really dark brown too light blond
i say orange too cause it has cirtic acid too so if you have two cirtic acid it might make it lighter cause lemon juice is soooo slow it barley works trust me i tried it for about a month and it barley gave lighter browe hair, and can we use a hair dryer instead of the sun?
and btw cirtic acid is good and lightens your hair