Lighten Your Hair Without Damaging ItI have a very short attention span. I'm the person who was always lost during field trips and who never knows where she put her keys. Consequently, I tend to change my hair color every couple of weeks. It's one of the perks of not being "conventionally employable," and I like to enjoy it. Getting vibrant colors can be a chore, however. It usually involves quite a lot of bleaching and pre-lightening. For that reason, I decided to research some alternative methods of lightening hair. For All OccasionsThis trick is not only for making your hair lighter, but it is also great for if you're just trying to go a few shades lighter than your natural hair color or if you accidentally dyed your hair too dark. Honey and lemon juiceHydrogen peroxide works, but it damages and dries your hair. Honey and lemon juice work well on natural hair—especially when subjected to light—but do next to nothing for already colored hair. Meanwhile, bleach and color strippers don't tend to work well on vegetable-based dyes like Special Effects and Manic Panic.
This left me with vitamin C, which seemed bizarre, but I'm always up for a challenge. Step One: Crush Up Pills The pills that you need are just ordinary vitamin C tablets. However, make sure you don't get the ones with flavoring. The ones I received were 500 MG, and I was advised to use 5 of them. However, I like to overdo things, so I ended up using 10 of them instead. Crushing is fairly easy. Using a soup can or rolling pin is the fastest route. When crushing the pills into a fine powder, make sure that you are thorough. If the mixture is gritty rather than powdery, it will be difficult for you to mix. Step Two: Mix With Shampoo Your crushed pills should now be mixed with enough shampoo to lather your entire head—usually a one-to-one ratio. You want to mix it very thoroughly. I used a plastic bag to do this. Step Three: Lather and CoverWork the mixture through your entire head, focusing especially on your roots and around your ears as these are the areas most commonly missed.
If you feel any grit while you lather, keep going until the graininess dissolves. The foaming action of the shampoo will help, but take care not to use too much water; you don't want the mixture to get runny. Once you've finished lathering, cover your head with a shower cap. Now the waiting begins. While not common, some people experience burning or itching when using this method. If you start to experience this, stop immediately! Step Four: Wait and RinseYou should wait at least an hour before washing this mixture off. However, if any time you experience irritation or burning, you should rinse it off immediately. You may be having a bad reaction to the vitamin C. Once the hour has passed, you should rinse off the shampoo mixture completely. However, you likely won't be done yet. Step Five: RepeatThe only downside to using this method is that you normally need to repeat it at least two or three times. However, don't get discouraged if your hair doesn't seem light enough.
You actually only need to lighten your dye to a reasonable level if you're interested in dying your hair a different color. Many people mistakenly lighten their hair too much, damaging it unnecessarily. Step Six: Dry CompletelyRemember to dry your hair completely between lightening. There are two reasons for this: applying a lightening solution to your hair while wet is not as effective as applying it dry, and you may not realize how light your hair actually is until it's dry. Step Seven (Optional): Dye It Again!After you've lightened your hair enough, you can feel free to do it again! Always do a test if you're not certain. Sometimes you may be pleasantly surprised with the results. Is Vitamin C the Best Solution?There are a few things I want to note about vitamin C. It can dry your hair and your scalp--it isn't a completely non-harmful method of lightening your hair. Further, a color stripper can be a fantastic solution if you have conventional hair dye in, such as a deep brown or black.
However, for vegetable-based dyes, vitamin C is definitely the most gentle and least harmful option that I've used.00I dreamed of having pink hair for a reallyWhen I finally had pink hair, I was obviously happy, but also mildly disappointed that it didn’t seem to completely change my life for the better and suddenly turn me into aWTF is up with that? Turns out 90% of having pink hair is answering questions like “Is your hair pink?” and “Why is your hair pink?” as did my soul. I have been itching to go back to blonde for a while now, but when my hairdresser told me she would have to do a bleach bath, then highlights, then some other stuff on top of that (I peaced out at “bleach bath”, actually), my hair was once again There had to be another way. That’s when I stumbled across the very weird method of lightening your hair with vitamin C tablets and decided to give it aApparently, the vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, opens the hair cuticle by causing
it to swell and lighten hair colour. From what I understand (very little), it works much the same way that lemon juice does when you want to lightenAll you need for this is the shampoo of your choice and vitamin CThis mixture truly smelled like watered down urine.Some internet experts claim that using vitamin C is a good alternative to bleaching, and I don’t have a long way to go until the pink is all washed out (RIP).First, take two to five vitamin C tablets (literally every source used a different number), or even nine if you want to, or maybe just two. Live your life, you guys. My hair is quite thick, so I used five 500mg tablets to make sure the vitamin C-ness covered every pink-stainedCrush the tablets up with the back of a spoon in a bowl; Crush it until it’s basically a powder. Or even use vitamin C powder if you can find any.Next, mix in a couple of squirts of shampoo. Some say a good nourishing shampoo is best, others say a clarifying shampoo is
the way to go. I say use whatever you want. Again, live your life, guys. Johnson’s Baby Shampoo because it’s a good clarifying shampoo. concoction we’re making is nothing close to bleach, but it will still dry your hair out a bit. I ended up with too much shampoo, but you can judge how much you would normally use.Lather the mixture onto damp (not wet) hair, making sure to really concentrate on the areas where the color build-up is theFor me, this was the bottom layers of my hair. Once done, use a shower cap or cling film to wrap your hair up and let it soak in for about 45 minutes.Might as well get your daily intake while you’re waiting.Then, rinse it all out, use your favourite conditioner in the world (I’m still into my Kerastase Bain Nutri-Thermique as a mask and conditioner in one) and examineI was quite underwhelmed. Yes, it did lift some colour, but I’ve seen it turn coloured-black hair darkMany claim it can take your hair two shades lighter (remember, though,