Lemon juice can be used to naturally lighten hair.  HOWEVER, lemon juice and lemon Essential Oil are most effective on naturally blond to light brown hair.  Lemon juice is acidic and acts as a clarifier to bring out natural blond highlights.

For naturally dark hair, the prospects of using lemon juice to color are mixed.  Depending on your hairs' chemistry and pigmentation, attempting to color using lemon juice is ineffective given the amount of damage that can and will occur during the process as well as the time it would take to achieve the highlights.

Basically, the time it would take for lemon juice to effectively lighten naturally dark hair could take several months...and even then results aren't guaranteed but that's not the worst of it.



Because lemon juice is acidic, it can actually damage your hair...causing it to feel and look dry.  Hair that is damaged doesn't refract light as well so you could end up losing some of your hair's natural luster and no amount of sheen can make hair shine when it's damaged beyond repair.

Either way, this method is best used during spring and summer months.  There are several ways you can incorporate lemon juice into your hair care routine.

Final Rinse:  Mix 1 part lemon juice with 4 parts distilled water.  Again, because lemon juice is acidic, it's important to dilute it appropriately.  After shampooing/conditioning hair, use the lemon juice as a final rinse.  Even if you're not attempting to color, this will act as a natural clarifier to remove Build-up.  Be sure to have a catch-basin to collect the lemon juice rinse run-off.  This will allow you to do the final rinse several times.  Towel dry hair.  Style as desired.

Straight Lemon:  This is what we initially offered as an effective way to use lemons on the hair.  Sure, it may work but what it actually does is strip the hair of its natural oils, causing it to be dry and in effect frying it.  It's like having sun-bleached hair that is more damaged than anything else.  Sure, the hair will be lighter but it will also be brittle and dry.  If you use the straight lemon method (putting lemon juice directly onto the hair), allow the juice to sit on the hair for 30-45 min, allow to process in sunlight for a day or two then rinse thoroughly.

Lemon Spritz:  This is similar to the final rinse.  In a spritz bottle combine 4 parts distilled water to 1 part lemon juice or add a 45-55 drops of lemon essential oil to 4 ounces of distilled water.   Spritz on the hair occasionally.  No need to rinse.

On a serious note, if you want to color your hair and want actual results that can be seen within a specific time frame and do not result in a "killing me softly" effect on your hair, it's best to use one of the other colorants detailed in this section.