Lighten Your Hair with Honey

After using Henna on my hair for about a year my red had darkened considerably. While I loved the color I decided that I wanted to go back to my more natural lighter shade of red. I discovered the honey lightening recipe on the Long Hair Community message board and set about experimenting lightening my hair with honey.

Here's the current recipe yielding the most results. You can see my results in the image to your left. In the final photo I just had my hair trimmed which is why it looks so much shorter.

Ingredients
1/2 cup raw uncooked honey (Jarrah honey works best)
1 1/2 cup distilled water
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon or cardamom
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Saran Wrap
Swimming Cap

How It Works

Honey and cinnamon are both natural peroxide agents. When combined together they help lift henna and even commercial chemical dyes. The honey only acts as a peroxide through dilution which is where the distilled water comes in. Some people have reported using tap water in their honey recipes but did not have nearly the same success.

Cardamom, cinnamon and extra virgin olive oil are peroxide boosters. Since different honeys produce different amounts of peroxide qualities one or more peroxide boosters are recommended. Cardamom, cinnamon and extra virgin olive oil are 3 that can be combined in the recipe with no ill effects on the hair. As a warning, ground cinnamon is known to cause some tingling and redness. In most people the redness goes away within a few minutes and the tingling is akin to slapping yourself with aftershave. A patch test on your skin is recommended.

One the honey recipe is mixed together it is best if it is left to sit out for about an hour to allow the peroxide levels to be released. It is possible to allow the honey to release the peroxide levels while it is on the hair but there is no guarantee that it will happen evenly under such conditions.

To coat the hair with the honey recipe you can use a root applicator bottle, spray bottle or a brush. I did try to pour it over my head and while that worked I lost some of the recipe down the drain.

When your hair is coated with the honey mixture you need to wrap your head in Saran wrap and put on a swimming cap. The reason for this is because your hair needs to stay wet during the lightening phase. If need be, you can rewet your hair by spraying left over honey mix every few hours. If the hair begins to dry the results may not be as optimal as you desire them to be.

Because the honey recipe is an all natural one it can be left on the hair for one hour or over night with no damage to the hair itself. The cinnamon may leave a little crunchiness to the hair but that can easily be remedied by rewashing a couple of times. If you find it hard to remove all the extra virgin olive oil from your hair then you can reduce the amount in your recipe by half.

I have done 3 honey treatments and although the results are subtle I can indeed see the henna lifting and my hair lightening. I plan to do a couple more honey treatments in the future as I'm trying to achieve a red somewhere between a strawberry blonde and an orangey flame red. You can not expect to go from black to platinum blonde in one treatment but even those who have henna indigo on their hair can achieve a lighter color.

For a list of acceptable honeys that will work to lighten hair see this link.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showpost.php?p=119128&postcount=856itamin