Everything You Need To Know Before Using Lemon Juice To Lighten Your Hair

This article discusses how to use lemon juice as a hair treatment to lighten your hair. Follow the instructions carefully to achieve the best results. Happy hair goals!

Lemon Juice To Lighten The Hair: How Does It Work?

If you’re curious about how to lighten your hair without bleach, lemon juice is a natural and healthy alternative. To understand how this method works, it’s helpful to first grasp the principles of traditional hair bleaching. Bleach oxidizes the melanin of your hair and depletes your natural hair color, giving it a lighter appearance instantly. Citric acid, the main component of lemon juice, is a natural bleaching agent with oxidizing properties (1). It absorbs into the hair easily and works with the UV rays from sunlight to accelerate the hair brightening process. Just like bleach, it oxidizes the melanin of your tresses, resulting in visibly lighter hair. Now that you know how lemon juice can help lighten your hair, find out whether it works on dark hair or not.

Can You Use Lemon Juice To Lighten Dark Hair?

No. According to beauty enthusiasts and bloggers, lemon juice generally works for brunette and blonde hair. As citric acid is a mild bleaching agent, using it on dark hair will not make any noticeable difference. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that using lemon juice on dark hair results in the appearance of red-orange tints. If you have blonde hair and are looking for subtle highlights, follow the steps in the next section to lighten your hair with lemon juice.

How To Lighten The Hair With Lemon Juice

This is a simple and easy process that works best on unwashed hair. You Will Need

1 cup of lemon juice Conditioner Lukewarm water A spray bottle

Directions How To Use Haley Van D., a lifestyle blogger shares her experience about using a simple lemon juice and conditioner solution to tone down her hair color to a softer one. “My hair was left the color I had wanted to end up with in the first place! A golden/honey blonde as opposed to light bulb bleach, then grey. It was also was left in much better condition (i),” she claims. Now, let’s have a look at what other benefits lemon juice has on your hair. Scroll down.

Benefits Of Using Lemon Juice For The Hair

Alleviates various scalp conditions like itchiness, dryness, and flaking. Helps in hair care by Improves the pH balance of your scalp. Helps clean the scalp and unclog hair follicles, which can help reduce dandruff. Controls excessive production of oil on your scalp. Helps in scalp care and combat dandruff and scalp acne (2). Maintains overall hair health.

How long does it take to lighten the hair with lemon juice? You will need multiple sessions to see a gradual but permanent lightening effect on your hair with lemon juice. Can you use store-bought lemon juice to lighten the hair? No. It is better to use freshly squeezed lemon juice to lighten your hair as packaged juice is highly processed and contains chemicals. Does lemon juice lighten the hair without the sun? No, the citric acid in lemons requires the sun’s UV rays to lighten your hair. Can you lighten your hair with lemon juice permanently? Yes, lemon juice oxidizes the hair pigment to cause a permanent lightening effect until new roots grow out. Are there any precautions for lightening the hair with lemon juice permanently? As lemon juice tends to dry out the hair, follow up the hair lightening routine with a deep conditioning treatment. Will lemon juice lighten dyed hair? Yes. The highly acidic nature of lemon juice can strip dye from your hair. Can you mix lemon juice and baking soda to lighten hair? Yes. You can mix lemon juice with baking soda to lighten your hair. Applying this mixture to your hair and letting it dry for a few hours helps lighten the hair color. Can I mix lemon juice with shampoo? Yes. If you have an itchy scalp, mixing lemon juice with shampoo can help cleanse the scalp.