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I grew up blonde.
My hair was bleached by the sun thanks to summers running around barefoot and carefree.
And I used the classic lemon juice trick to enhance my naturally light hair color.
School and a career became the priority (#adulting).
And soon my once natural, sun-kissed highlights transition to a much more costly chemical lightening.
So when my editor asked me to try using lemon juice to lighten my hair, I was pumped.
I’d get to live that summer lifestyle I had grown up on.
But would the lemon juice have that same brightening effect I remembered?
He explained that the fruit does, in fact, have a lightening effect.
The acid works in tandem with sunlights UV rays to activate and accelerate the brightening process.
The oxidizing process chemically attacks and reduces the melanin (a.k.a.
your hairs color pigment).
Therefore, the color visibly lightens.
Once this happens and the hair is lightened, the results are permanent.
Of course it cant all be sunshine and rainbows.
There are a few downsides to highlighting your hair with lemon juice.
This experiment works mainly on natural blondes or ashy, light brown hair.
Darker brown hair tends to go orange, says Cincotta.
Or, put simply, it can dry out the strands, especially after repeated uses.
Artificial colors behave differently than natural melanin, says Cincotta.
Its hard to say exactly how hair dye and lemon juice will react.
The tone could look off and the virgin roots may not end up matching the colored hair sections.
Sun Inwas my go-to when I was a teenager.
I used to toss the bottle in my beach bag next to my SPF 15. did it lighten my hair.
Therefore, it really lifts a lot of color.
And in addition to sunlight and UV rays, heat can activate the color lifting process with Sun In.
It will damage the hairs protein and sulfur bonds causing them to become weaker and more susceptible to breakage.
My sisters, who have the same hair color as mine, experienced this unfortunate side effect.
Especially my middle sibling.
The hair around her hairline started to break mid-shaft.
I just stuck to the water blend.
The juice made my hair very crunchy and sticky.
So while it felt kind of gross, I was kinda into how it looked.
Cincotta suggested sitting out in the sun for 1-2 hours on four different occasions.
I dont necessarily live a luxurious lifestyle where I can commit to eight hours lounging outside.
I definitely felt like it was brighter and blonder, especially halfway down my strands.
Going in to this, I was nervous the juice was going to make my chemically colored hair yellow.
Here’s my hair color before.
And here’s the after shot.
The change was slight and minimal.
It did end up feeling drier than usual after day two.
So, I just put a little pre-styling cream in, and my hair was smooth and soft again.
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