Summertime often calls for chopping off your locks and changing up your hair routine. For many that means trips to the hair salon and dollar bills down the drain; however, these processes can be done more naturally at a fraction of the cost. Some turn to lemons for hair lightening, but this begs the question: can lemon juice lighten hair, or is it a hoax?
Here is everything you need to know before you squeeze some juice into your hair.
How Does It Work?
According to an interview with Roger Clemens in the New York Times, the combination of the citric acid in lemons, oxygen, and the sun's UV rays results in hair lightening.
Throughout this process, the acid works as stimulant to speed up the process of lightening one's hair. Your hair will always lighten over the summer because of the UV rays, but the citric acid accelerates the process.
Hair Color Specific Tips:
Lemon juice acts as a highlighter, not a dye. Your natural hair color will merely be tinted, so if you have dark brown hair it will not turn blonde because of lemons. For that, I would recommend going to your hair salon. Plus, they know the in's and out's of hydrating your newly colored hair.
Your hair will however be a lighter color than what it naturally is. For my darker brunettes, caramel tones will start appearing and for dirty blondes, blonder highlights will be coming in.
Sadly, there is bad news for those with black hair: lemon juice might not be answer for you, my friend. Those who tested the experiment with black hair have found that red-orange tints have appeared.
It's safe to say that this healthy alternative will save your hair from the salon chemicals in the long run while adding a subtle splash of something new to your hairstyle.
The answer to whether lemon juice lightens hair is technically yes, but if you're looking for something to give you more of a ~pop~, then maybe heading down to the salon would be your best bet.