Lightening Natural Blonde Hair

Ever since I moved to Seattle from California I've been pretty frustrated with my hair. It used to be SUPER DOOPER BLONDE. Approaching platinum/white in the summers. Now, while it is still light blond it's just not the way I like it. 

My hair is really thin and fine, so bleaching is a tricky proposition at best. Since I currently lack both the funds and a regular hairdresser who I trust it is totally off the table. So I started reviewing my options....

I decided to start looking at natural remedies since they're typically cheaper and tend to look, well... natural. There is pretty general consensus on the things that will lighten your hair, although they all take some time to make a noticable differentce.

• Chamomile Tea
• Honey
• Lemon 
• Cinnamon
• Cardamom

Most of the sources I found said that lemon is really only effective with sunlight, and I have seen products, like Sun-In, in the past that utilize lemon to help create natural highlights. The biggest concern I have with lemon is that it can damage your hair if you use it too often. Honey has small levels of peroxide, when you mix that with cinnamon, cardamom, or olive oil that increase the potency of the peroxide. Chamomile is a very slow way to lighten your hair, but what is really nice about it is that it doesn't strip your hair at all. Based on that information I came up with this:

Allison's Hair Treatment Plan

• Wash Hair with Chamomile tea, add 3-4 tbs tea to regular shampoo and conditioner.
• 1x every 2 weeks do the following:
• Mix 1/3 cup hone, 1/4 cup conditioner, 2 tsp Olive oil, and 2 tsp cinnamon, apply liberally to damp hair. Wrap hair in plastic wrap, cover with shower/swim cap, and leave over night or 8 hours (you could certainly do this during the day, but it would probably drive me nuts).
• If it's sunny apply lemon to hair and sit outside for 30 minutes, rinse hair, do not do more than 1-2x weekly.

More than likely I won't do that step at all since it's almost October and the gray curtain is going up. My plan is to do at least bi-weekly updates with pictures. We'll see how that holds up. 

If I don't notice significant results, or if my hair starts to look discolored or brassy I'm going to try a toner to see if that helps lighten my hair, I may also consider using a 10 lift and see how that works, but that will be an unnatural hair lightening post.