If you’ve always wanted to go lighter with your hair, join the club! At some point in almost every woman’s life, she craves lighter locks. But the lightening process can be a major investment, not to mention bleaching and lightening your hair at the salon can damage your strands. If you want to know how to naturally lighten hair, we’ve got you covered! Take a look at 17 amazing products and techniques that actually work!
3 Things to Consider Before You Lighten Your Hair
1. Your Skin Tone: Just because stark blond hair looks good on one person, doesn’t mean it’s going to look good on everyone. Your skin colour sets the tone for what hair shades will and won’t look good on you. For example, olive undertones look good with a more honey blonde, while pinky undertones suit creamy blonde. If you’re not sure of your skin undertones, try to find a photo of a celebrity whose skin is close to yours and who has lighter hair to see how it looks, or ask a professional in the beauty or hair industry.
2. Maintenance: If you want to lighten your hair, you should know that it’s not a one-and-done deal. If you want to go lighter for the long haul, you’re going to have to upkeep your colour on a regular basis. This means shampooing and conditioning for lighter hair, keeping your hair hydrated, constantly repeating the lightening process, and so on.
3. Your Natural Hair Colour: If you’re going the natural route, it’s easiest to lighten already light hair. If you have really dark brown or black hair, you shouldn’t expect to be able to go blond with natural products. All the techniques and products in this post will work best for those of you with already light hair (blond, light brown, and even redheads) who want to go even lighter!
How to Avoid Damaging Your Hair When Lightening It
Even if you’re not bleaching your hair, lightening hair at home can still cause damage to your strands if you’re not careful. Here are 3 tips to avoid damaging your hair when lightening it.
1. Deep Condition: Conditioning your hair is super important if you want to keep from damaging it. You want to strengthen and protect your hair, so make sure to consistently condition it, and use a deep-conditioning hair mask at least once or twice a week for best results!
2. Reduce Your Use of Heating Tools: Heating tools like hair dryers and curling wands cause lots of damage to your hair, so try not to use them as much when you lighten your hair. Heating tools can really dry out your strands, as can lightening your hair, so doing both is extra harmful for your locks.
3. Use Natural Oils: Natural oils like coconut oil and argan oil are amazing for infusing moisture into your hair. They’re able to heal hair that has been damaged from lightening and heating tools. You can either make a mask with these oils, or run them all the way through your strands from bottom to roots.
How to Lighten Hair: 5 Tips to Try
1. Lemon: Lemon is probably the most well-known way to lighten your hair naturally. Lemon works best to lighten your hair if you have lighter brown, blonde or red hair, but not so much for dark brown or black hair. Use a piece of lemon and run it through your hair, or mix lemon with warm water for an all-over hair mask. Then sit out in the sun, allowing the heat to activate the lemon. Although it’s natural, lemon contains citric acid, so make sure to follow your lightening process with a hydrating hair mask!
2. Vitamin C: Vitamin C also contains citric acid, so is very effective if you want to lighten your hair. Crush up some vitamin C, add it to a spray bottle with water and spritz it on your hair. Easy as that!
3. Chamomile Tea: If you want to lighten dark hair, this one’s for you! Even if you have super dark hair, chamomile tea will help you add more of a golden glow to your dark locks. Steep chamomile tea in a large mug of boiling water for 10 minutes. Once the tea has cooled, pour it over clean hair and let it soak overnight!
4. Cinnamon and Honey Mask: Cinnamon offers a subtle colour-changing effect, so it’s ideal if you want to go just a touch lighter with your hair shade. And when mixed with honey, it actually activates the hydrogen peroxide, giving you a lighter tint. Combine two tablespoons of honey, 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Let it sit for half an hour, then apply it to your hair, put it in a bun and place a shower cap over it. Leave it on for at least four hours, or even better, overnight.
5. Raw Apple Cider Vinegar: This hair lightening hack is for those with brown and red hair. Mix organic apple cider vinegar with water at a 50:50 ratio. Apply the mixture all over your hair, let it sit for 30 minutes and then rinse it out. You’ll probably want to give it a good shampoo to get the smell out!
How to Lighten Hair without Bleach: 3 Natural Products that Work
1. John Frieda Sheer Blonde Lightening Shampoo: Formulated with bergamot extract and chamomile, this shampoo gently lightens your hair without drying it out! Use it every time you wash your hair and watch as your hair transforms.
2. Label.M Brightening Blond Shampoo: If you have blonde tones in your hair, this shampoo contains natural extracts like Mamaki tea and white pineapple to brighten and nourish your strands, boost shine and refresh your scalp!
3. Dassange Paris Lightening Shampoo: Made with chamomile and citrus extract, this shampoo gradually lightens natural blond hair for a more sun-kissed look!
3 Drugstore Hair Lightening Products We Love
1. Sun Bum Hair Lightener: This hair lightening product will work for those with blond to medium brown hair! Enriched with Costa Rican pineapple, Hawaiian Lehua honey and Meyer Lemon, it lightens your hair by amplifying the natural highlighting effects of the sun!
2. John Frieda Lightening Spray: If you want sun-kissed strands, this lightening spray is infused with natural lemon for a beautiful, sun-drenched look.
3. Sun In Hair Lightener: This hair lightener contains botanical extracts like aloe, marigold, chamomile and flaxseed to bring out your hair’s natural highlights, and conditions your hair while it lightens it.
If you want to lighten your hair naturally, these techniques and products are the best of the best! Try them out to get those sun-kissed locks you’ve been dreaming of!
