Sun In vs. Honey

[Absinthegelatin]

I am looking for a more natural way to *slightly* lighten my ash blonde hair. I have been poking around the lightening threads trying to do some comparative research between the methods. I was wondering if anyone has tried both methods and preferred one over the other?

Thanks for your time everyone
: 3

[plainjanegirl]

Years ago when I used sun in it gave me an orangey look to my hair. I would recommend you try the honey first.

[HairColoredHair]

I would try honey first for the simple fact that sun in will likely damage your hair a little in the process.

[Katze]

I have dark blonde/light brown hair. I bleached it for decades, literally, using everything from sun in and drugstore dyes to foils, highlights, lowlights etc at every kind of salon imaginable.

Sun in is very damaging, from what I understand. I started using it when I was 13 because my big cousins did, so I can't really say how damaging it was, just that my hair was always very dry and frizzy and never grew.

Honey has never lightened my, or my boyfriend's hair, in all the years of using it. I have used many different kinds of honey in moisture treatments, heated or not, mixed with conditioner or conditioner and aloe or just plain. I also use honey as a face mask, and have not found it to lighten hair at my hairline or my eyebrows or eyelashes, no matter how long I left it on.

I WANTED it to lighten my hair - like you I would ideally have my hair 1-2 shades lighter. I did complicated experiments with it, comparing samples of my, and BF's, hair soaked in a honey solution to untreated hair, and there was no difference in color.

I believe some members found, as I did, that honey fades some hair dyes, and thus the idea arose that honey is some kind of natural bleach. However, you are most likely to be disappointed, as I was, if you try to get lighter hair with it. Shine, yes. Softness and happier scalp, yes.

For just a few very subtle highlights, I would recommend having a professional do your hair. It is more effective and less damaging than sun-in.

[ktani]

Based on the reports from both threads, it depends on how light you want your hair to become and how fast.

Honey lightening has been reported to lighten some people's hair very well, especially virgin hair, and relatively fast, with the new reipes and dilution, and others not so fast, if at all. A lot depends on the method, recipe and particularly the honey used, as well as the hair of the individual and what is or is not on it (like build-up or a coating, or many layers of henna). That said, for a number of people who did not get the results they wanted initially, changing their recipe, method and their honey, did yield results.

This is an example of honey lightening on virgin hair (http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=honeykokuryudx6.png), kokuryu, after 2 treatments, with a lower dilution than the new dilution, just honey and tap water instead of distilled water, because the tap water in question, is exceptional, pH 7 with little to no minerals and she used a great honey that had a higher pH than most on the market. The results of her 3rd treatment (http://img175.imageshack.us/i/3treatmentsbh0.png/).

Conventional chemicals have issues too. Different oils and shea butter for example, were reported not to allow for as much lightening as coconut and argan oils.

I suggest that you read the reports in the peroxide thread first post, and look at the first post of the Honey thread, at the pictures posts at the end of that post, to get an idea of what may be possible for you.

The peroxide thread has reports on the oils, that may help you minimize damage, if you go the conventional chemicals route. Just click on the threads, below, in my signature. Both links take you to the first post of each thread.

[Nightshade]

I would start with the honey and see where that gets you :)

For me and my henna, no amount of honey lightening would do the trick, and I did Sun-In with great success. You can read in this thread how I did it (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=19317), and it was carefully monitored over the length of several months.

So, try honey first, and then if that doesn't work you could try Sun-In, just be smart and do lots of testing :) There's another member here with amazingly long blonde hair (her name is escaping me) and she uses Sun-In. She may be a good resource for you if the honey doesn't shake out.

Oh, and to the "it turned my hair orange" thing, it does say right on the bottle that trying to lighten darker hair can produce that result, as brunette hair will turn orange before blonde :) So there's nothing wrong with the product, it just didn't have enough lift to go that light.

[Hermoine]

Plain lemon juice = water mix followed by a honey dt should help lots.:cheese:

[chrissy-b]

Plain lemon juice = water mix followed by a honey dt should help lots.:cheese:

I used to do this when I was a kid but I'd put the lemon juice in my hair and sit in the sun. My hair is medium brown and after doing this a few times, my canopy was dirty blonde.

[StarShine]

I would try Honey first, but also try chamomile tea rinses. It works great for natural blonds. You can leave it in as a final rinse after showering or spray it in and sit in the sun. Some do the double bucket method where you rinse your hair with the same batch of tea catching it in a bucket so you can pour it over again, catching it in the second bucket , repeating about 20 times.

I use sun in to keep my hennaed hair from getting to ruby. I fend off damage by doing a light coconut oiling the night or a few hours before, which I learned the ktani's possible way to prevent damage from conventional hair color thread. It really works.

[kimi]

I should have kept track of everything I did, but long story short - I used ktani's method, and every ingredient and measurement she suggested, every night for about 10 days, and did see results. I've henna'éd for about 2 years, and my hair had subsequently gotten to an unnatural burgundy color, but after I used the honey method it had lightened to a more realistic red tone. And it wasn't my imagination either since others commented on it. So, in my experience, before I'd try the Sun-in I'd try the honey method, and give it some time too. Just my 0.02. :)

[Absinthegelatin]

I would start with the honey and see where that gets you :)

For me and my henna, no amount of honey lightening would do the trick, and I did Sun-In with great success. You can read in this thread how I did it (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=19317), and it was carefully monitored over the length of several months.

So, try honey first, and then if that doesn't work you could try Sun-In, just be smart and do lots of testing :) There's another member here with amazingly long blonde hair (her name is escaping me) and she uses Sun-In. She may be a good resource for you if the honey doesn't shake out.

Oh, and to the "it turned my hair orange" thing, it does say right on the bottle that trying to lighten darker hair can produce that result, as brunette hair will turn orange before blonde :) So there's nothing wrong with the product, it just didn't have enough lift to go that light.

Thanks for the sound advice. Oh and I know the woman with the long blonde locks that you are speaking of- I had previously spoken with her about her color and her use of sun-in which was one of the reasons I started this thread.

I will heed your advice I think. c: