Is It Safe to Use Lemon Juice to Lighten Your Hair?

When the weather warms up, you might want to try a lighter hair color. Salons are expensive and time-consuming. Wouldn’t it just be easier and cheaper to apply lemon juice to your hair and sit out in the sun for a while? You could even do it while working on your laptop or reading a book — multitasking at its finest.

Though the lemon juice trick has been around for generations, the renewed interest in it may be due to the increasing popularity of so-called “clean beauty” products and natural solutions for skin and hair care.

It’s possible. “Lemon juice can alter the tone of your hair because of the [chemical] reaction that occurs when it’s exposed to UV rays,” says Meg Schipani, a master colorist in Los Angeles and a Colorproof ambassador.

For maximum effect, what’s needed is sun plus lemon juice. “[Lemon juice] intensifies the effect that the sun naturally has on the hair,” Schipani explains. Citric acid in the juice breaks down the hair’s melanin (natural pigment), and the sun's rays add to the melanin breakdown process, leaving you with permanently lighter hair.

Lemon juice acids alone could do that in theory, says Jenny Liu, MD, a dermatologist in private practice in Bellevue, Washington. But this is a very inefficient way of lightening hair: It takes a long time and produces mediocre results, she says.

There’s no available research on the merits or safety of using lemon juice to lighten your hair. With some exceptions, lemon juice and limited UV exposure are generally safe, but you might not get the look you’re going for, and it’s likely not the healthiest practice. “The problem is unpredictable results,” says Dr. Liu. “Naturally, that’s really how coloring works. In part, the process removes the protective coating on hair to allow a different color to come through.”

If you have darker hair, lemon juice and sunlight probably won’t deliver your ideal color. And if your hair is already highlighted and you’re trying to enhance it with lemon juice? You may get a brassy look instead, says Liu.

Schipani agrees: “Naturally light blond is the only starting base that would likely experience the brightening effect that’s desired,” she says. Most likely, you either won’t notice much of a difference, or you'll get the brassiness Liu mentions.

One reason lemon juice may be appealing is the fact that, as a fruit juice, it seems like a natural option. If you’re concerned about the safety of regular hair dye, keep in mind the American Cancer Society's statement that “most studies have not found a strong link between hair dye use and cancer, but more research is needed.”

Keep in mind, says Liu, that everything has chemicals, and lemon juice doesn’t exactly avoid the issue. “The compounds in lemon juice are also chemicals,” she says, adding that natural ingredients can cause more issues than synthetic ones.

No matter how you’re looking to lighten your hair, keep these four tips in mind to do it safely and effectively.

1. Go to a Pro (or Bring a Box Home)

As for “natural” ways to lighten your hair, Liu doesn’t have any suggestions. “I personally don’t recommend playing chemist at home, especially since there are lots of available and relatively affordable coloring products in drugstores,” she says. Ultimately, you’re better off with an at-home coloring kit or an appointment at a salon.

The upside of having a professional colorist do your hair is that they know what they’re doing and can advise you on a color or product that’s best for the specific natural color, texture, and health status of your hair.

2. Less Is More

What’s more, a correction on a home hair-color job gone wrong takes more time and money than if you'd had it done at a salon in the first place. It also requires more processing of already compromised hair, says Schipani.

3. Watch for Reactions

4. Care for Your Color

Specific shampoos and conditioners, as well as other products, like hair masks, designed for color-treated hair help preserve your color and promote the health of your hair by restoring moisture and strength, says Schipani.

Unless you have naturally very light blond hair, lemon juice applied in the sun may create inconsistent or mediocre results — not the sun-kissed beachy look you’re going for. In most cases, it’s best to go to a professional or use a professional at-home product. “I haven’t seen or heard of a ton of clients using lemon juice for lightening. I think it’s because professionals have created more of a presence on social media and are posting informative videos about the risks of different methods of at-home lightening,” says Schipani.

• Lemon juice is a relatively safe, age-old beauty trick for lightening hair, but it comes with some downsides, experts say.
• The citric acid in lemon juice reacts with the sun to reduce your hair’s natural pigment, melanin, but the results are often inconsistent or brassy, particularly if your hair isn’t light blond to begin with.
• Both lemon juice and the sun rely on damaging your hair to lighten it, and they can also damage skin.
• Ultimately, experts say that natural doesn’t necessarily mean better — the compounds in lemon juice are chemicals, after all — and commercial hair color, whether from a salon or a box, is considered a safe way to get the exact result you want.