When I was a kid I spent so much time outdoors each summer that my hair would lighten substantially. As a 6 year old with a hard and fast desire to have Princess Leia buns one day (took me a few years to figure out those were hair pieces…), the ends of my growing hair were always a little lighter than the roots come spring. I once had a woman insist I had dyed my hair as she’d met me the previous winter (8 year old me was very amused). Anyhow, I just can’t get outside that much anymore (sad), so this year I thought I’d encourage it.
I no longer recommend making this as it no longer lives up to my formulation standards.
This spray is made with three natural ingredients that are said to help gently and naturally lighten hair (I wasn’t about to start spritzing my head with peroxide). Chamomile is a long time favourite for blondes, and lemon juice has been used to help sun bleach hair. Cinnamon is said to have a peroxide content—I’ve read online accounts of people adding cinnamon or cassia essential oil to their shampoo and accidentally lightening their hair over a few months. So, I thought I’d give that a go as well. Plus, cinnamon and lemon smell fantastic together.
I’ve been spritzing the lower half of my hair with it frequently, and when I’m in the sun I can definitely see bright gold highlights. It isn’t bleached, but the highlights are much brighter than before. Hello, summer!
I no longer recommend making this as it no longer lives up to my formulation standards.
Chamomile, Lemon & Cinnamon Lightening Hair Mist
½ cup dried chamomile flowers
1 cup just-boiled water40 drops cinnamon bark essential oil
20 drops cassia essential oil
40 drops lemon essential oil
2 tsp polysorbate 20 (USA / Canada)Â or Turkey Red Oil (optional, but you’ll need to shake vigorously before spritzing if you leave it out)Broad spectrum preservative of choice (why?)
I recommend 1.3g Liquid Germall PlusPour the boiling water over the chamomile flowers and let the mixture steep until the water is at room temperature. Strain the chamomile flowers from the water; discard the flowers, reserve the water.
Blend the essential oils with the Polysorbate 20 or Turkey Red Oil. Mix the essential oil mixture into the chamomile water.
Spritz into your hair frequently and enjoy the honey highlights!
is there a ‘finish’ to your hair once its dry?
ive been feeling sad about the sun produced blondeness of my yester-years, and broke down and bought the john freda go blonder spray….it makes my hair feel gross once its dried in my hair (dry and sticky, as if that makes sense, simultaneously). but it sure made me blonder….
and id be fine with it being a more gradual process. ive given up coloring my hair (i think forever) and am currently growing out years of henna on my ends….so i can do hair-patience (mostly).
i always dig yer recipes 😀
There is no icky finish! Once it dries, you can’t tell it was ever there, other than they lovely scent 🙂 Your Blonder spray sounds rather icky, lol—dry and sticky is quite the accomplishment! What is the active ingredient in that? I’m guessing peroxide of some sort.
Thanks for reading, as always 😀
Would glycerine be a good substitute for the solubizer? I’d like to make something like this but not with the solubizer. 🙂
Nope—glycerin is in no way any kind of emulsifier. You could add some, but it isn’t going to do anything for emulsifying. You can just leave the solubilizer out, but the final product will not emulsify. You can kind of fake it by shaking the bottle vigorously before spritzing. Have fun!
Hi there … this is unrelated to this post but I am wondering where you get your pre rendered tallow? I live in Grande Prairie AB and none of the local butcher shops carry it. Or do you buy suet and render it yourself? Any insight you have is appreciated. I also really like your site. So encouraging!
You can often just ask for the fat trimmings at your butcher, and get them to save them for you, and then you can render the scraps yourself (that’s what I’ve always done). Otherwise, Saffire Blue sells pre-rendered tallow in Canada 🙂 Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it!
I seriously can’t stop spraying this on my hair…. and on my body… and on my pillow… It’s only been 3 days, and I don’t know how the lightening thing is going to go, but I really don’t care, it smells so ridiculously magnificent! 🙂 p.s. Couldn’t find any cassia locally.. it’s on my next mal order list. Split the extra 20 drops between the lemon and cinnamon. What do you think, Marie? Is the cassia imperative?
Ha! I’m glad to hear you’ve found your new perfume, lol 😉 Do be careful with it, though—it is designed to magnify the effect of the sun, so you will burn more easily with this on your skin.
The reason I included both cinnamon and cassia EO in this spray was because I couldn’t find any good information on which one was the lightening one (or perhaps both are?). Most of the sources I found on it used the two interchangeably. So, I played it safe by including both 😛
Hi, I know this is a bit late. But from what I have gathered about adding eo’s and the sort to henna mixes, the cassia has a more yellowing effect and the cinnamon more red. I am not sure if that would apply in this case though. It sounds lovely though, so am definitely be making this 🙂
Neat! I definitely do notice this mist helps my hair lighten. I’d say it’s more on the golden side than anything, though that may well be my hair’s natural tendency as it did that when I was a child as well.
Hello,
I wondered
a. how often you use this spray in order to see results…daily? twice a week?
b. I’m guessing that this mixture breaks down, do you keep it in the refrigerator to keep it fresh, or is room temperature okay?
thanks in anticipation!
Kristi
Hi Kristina! This spray is mostly sun-powered, so even if you apply it lots, if you never go out in the sun, you likely won’t see much of a change. I like to mist up before my bike ride into work 🙂
I keep a small spray bottle out in my room, and the rest stays in the fridge for when I need a re-fill. If you’re using it daily and your spray bottle is only about 50mL you shouldn’t have to worry about spoilage too much, assuming the room you’re storing it in isn’t steaming hot.
Thanks for reading!
Hello,
Do you recommend either Cinnamon leaf essential oil or Cinnamon bark essential oil? Not sure which one to use?
thanks in advance,
K
Cinnamon bark 🙂
Hello! I wanted to ask if its okay to boil chamomile tea bags instead of the flowers? Because I don’t think I get chamomile flowers in my city here in India.
And can I use cinnamon powder instead of the EO?
As long as it is pure chamomile tea, and doesn’t have anything else added to it, that’ll be fine.
I wouldn’t add anything solid to this as it will clog the mister. Instead, you can try steeping a cinnamon stick or two in the liquid and removing them before pouring the liquid into the mister bottle 🙂
Also what I really like about you is that you reply instantly unlike the other bloggers! Do keep that up! <3
I do try 🙂 It can take a while, but I will always reply to comments—they’re my top correspondence priority.
Hi there
Thanks for this! I can’t find any of the cinnamon essential oil here in the UK. I do however have some chamomile essential oil. Could this be used along with the lemon essential oil? If so, in what amounts would you suggest? I thought about using borage oil for the EOs carrier, again I would really like some tips on quantities!
Thanks so much.
XX
Hi Jen! I found cinnamon EO in the UK here.
I’d save your money and leave the chamomile EO out of this—the EO doesn’t seem to have the same hair lightening properties from what I’ve read.
I also wouldn’t add any carrier oils to this unless you really fancy the look of greasy, dirty hair 🙂 The EOs are diluted in water for this recipe, so that’s your “carrier”.
Thanks for reading!
I’m pleased to say that I noticed your link on the original post just after I hit the ‘post a comment’ button! So I did get some cassia and cinnamon from there and went ahead. I used distilled water so I am hoping that is ok for storing at room temperature as mine has been out for over a week now! x
Awesome! Depending on how hot your room temperature is, it should be fine for a while 🙂 Mine generally lasts the entire summer!
Hi Marie, I am totally addicted to your site and love your generosity.
Tomorrow I am attending a course on making your own natural skin care in Sydney.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Brita.
Thanks so much, Brita! Enjoy your course 🙂
One more question…you wrote, “Do be careful with it, though—it is designed to magnify the effect of the sun, so you will burn more easily with this on your skin.” … I’m a fair-skinned sunblock bunny so this statement scares me a little. What if I blew dry my hair on a hot setting, would the heat activate the lightening effect? I typically wear hats in summertime.
As always, thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes!
Hi Kristina! As long as you are careful to thoroughly rinse off your skin you should be fine—I have yet to give myself a burn from using this mist, and I’m also very pale (I usually flip my hair over my head and mist it like that). And no to the hair dryer, the heat isn’t what activates it, it needs to be UV rays 🙂 Hence my hair only really gets lightened from the shoulder blades down 😛
I’m so happy to stumble upon your post. Although I’ve been using all natural stuff on my hair for years, this highlighting method is new to me and now I’m very tempted to to try it. Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
Thanks, Daria! Have fun with it 🙂
I mixed up a bottle of this to see if it’d lighten the red dye out of my hair from last Halloween (never repeat dying with manic panic again) and it worked wonderfully! There’s still red tinge, but it looks way more natural and like highlights rather than blocks of color. 😀 and I smelled like Christmas for several weeks in June and July! That was awesome!
I’m so thrilled! WOO! I love it when my concoctions work on people other than myself 😀
Hello!!!
Living in the uk i have no idea where to get those oils from which you have used. But i have a method thats similar to yours which i tried and i have noticed it to be working. I have pitch black hair and now i can notice a dark dark brown gloss but in the sun i see brown highlights in my hair.
I have been using:
Conditioner
Honey
Lemon
Cinnamon
I know there are a lot of people that have said chamomile makes your hair go blonde. But having pitch black hair is that possible? Maybe it might just make my hair go that slightly more brown. I am thinking maybe i should pour chamomile after a bath on my hair or as a mist after coming out the bath? What do you think is best?
Hi Nessa! If you look in the big box above the comments I have linked to a UK supplier there 🙂
The only thing that will make black hair blonde is peroxide or bleach—no amount of chamomile tea will cause such a drastic change! The changes you’ve mentioned are about as drastic as things are likely to get.
Hi Marie!
Big fan of your site 😀
Wondering if you would think the following product would be suitable to use instead of the Polysorbate 20, or even in combination of?
Glyceryl Stearate
This monoester of glycerin and stearic acid, glyceryl stearate is used as an emulsifying and skin conditioning agent. It is both an opacifier and a viscosity builder in emulsions. Generally used with another high HLB emulsifier, such as Polysorbate 20 or Ceteareth 20.
Recommended usage level: 1-3%.
Appearance: White Flakes
HLB: 3.6
Mainly because I’m a little worried it may be drying for my hair, which is already really dry, with Polysorbate alone? This sounds a bit more moisturizing if you know what I mean 😀
Cheers, Elle
Hi Elle! I haven’t tried this, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Since it’s a solid it sounds like it has more in common with emulsifying wax that polysorbate 20, and you will likely encounter issues creating a thin liquid that will mist properly.
Wooo! Pretty excited about this! I have put lemon juice in my hair before and that does work but I can’t go out in public because of the weird crunchiness it leaves behind so I’m really happy about this recipe. Just letting the chamomile steep right now and I’ll be good to go. Thanks for the recipe, Marie!
I mixed up your recipe and sprayed it on. First, it stung like crazy where it touched the skin of my scalp. Second, it smelled rather overpowering. I was outside most of the day which was good because I think folks would have complained if I were indoors. I have been using natural blonding rinses as an alternative.
Hmm. It sounds like you’re probably quite sensitive to cinnamon and cassia EOs—they can be irritating, but it sounds like you’re quite a bit more sensitive to them than I am. If you decide to try it again, I’d drop those—that’ll help with the scent as well 🙂
Thanks for your response–question, you recommended dropping the cinnamon and cassia essential oils from the recipe. Should I substitute something else instead? How will I get the coloration/bleaching effect otherwise? I have used powdered cassia obovata mixed with lemon to color my hair, with no ill effects. However it leaves an orangey-yellow color that I’m not thrilled with, so I’m searching for alternatives.
Lemon and chamomile are both supposed to help lighten/highlight hair, but you could try adding a few drops of a citrus essential oil as well.
Enjoy! I look forward to hearing how it works for you 🙂
Love using essential oils for everything: health, beauty, home, cleaning even my pets. I’ve used several oils on scalp and hair and look forward to trying your recipe! I’m going to use chamomile EO instead of flowers since I already have the oil. I don’t mind shaking my oils when I mix in water or even a carrier oil. Thanks for sharing your recipe! Extra highlights might even camouflage my grays. 🙂
Thanks for reading & DIYing with me, Debra 🙂 Enjoy the rinse!
Hello, I am starting to experiment with homemade beauty products, and i wanted to achieve lighter hair in the sun. The recipe i have found was honey, lemon, chamomile, and olive oil. Would you happen to know what is the estimate shelf life of the finished product.
Hi Randa! Read this for more information on shelf life and preservatives 🙂 The short answer is “there is no way to know, but likely not very long”.
I’m unsure of the ratios of the ingredients you mentioned, but I would recommend choosing something that has very little oil in it if you’re going to be putting it in your hair, especially frequently. The recipe I’ve shared here is much better for frequent wear (and wearing out without looking like you have very dirty hair!).
Hi there! Im looking to purchase the “1.3g Liquid Germall Plus”.
I come up with 1.3g converted is .5 ounce. Does that sound right to you? I just need to know how much to purchase. THANK YOU!!!!
Stop using whatever converter gave you that conversion, it’s rubbish haha. 1.3g is 0.046oz. Liquid Germall Plus is typically sold by volume, and 15–30mL is typically more than enough for a year or two 🙂
Gah, I thought it said. .5oz not .005. lol Big diff. lol Thanks.
Ah haha! Ounces are silly 😛
hello thank u so much for sharing amazing diy
I would like to know do i have to wash my hair after spraying it
and whats the shelf life of this recipe