Are you one of those people who spends lots of money on expensive bleaching chemicals to lighten your hair? Have you ever looked at the ingredients of the bleaching agent bottle? Can you identify all the ingredients? The chances are that you cannot, yet you are putting these chemicals into your hair.
Hair bleaching agents certainly lighten your hair a lighter shade, but it comes at a cost. The chemicals in bleaching agents can dry out your hair, making it brittle, frizzy, inelastic and weak. If you get split ends and breakages easily, bleaching agents could be a cause.
One of the main chemicals used in hair bleaching agents is something called hydrogen peroxide. Did you know that there is a food that naturally contains hydrogen peroxide? Yep, you guessed it. Raw organic honey contains hydrogen peroxide, it's where its antibacterial power comes from (hydrogen peroxide is antibiotic).
The key words here are "raw" and "organic." Commercially processed, blended, honey like that sold on the high street has been heat-treated (pasteurised) at high temperatures. Hydrogen peroxide is destroyed by heat so the pasteurisation process means that there is little, if any, hydrogen peroxide left in supermarket honey.
But raw (unpasteurised) honey retains its hydrogen peroxide.
As for organic, organic honey is honey that is honey that is certified free of harmful chemicals, antibiotics and pesticides. You do not want to put any of these harmful chemicals anywhere near your body, let alone eat them. Yet if you eat non-organic honey that is precisely what you are doing.
What are the advantages of using raw organic honey to lighten your hair instead of bleaching agents?
Raw organic honey is a natural product and does not contain any synthetic chemicals whatsoever.
In addition to hydrogen peroxide, raw organic honey contains a number of vitamins, minerals and living nutrients that nourish and protect your hair, making it appear thicker and more lush.
Raw organic honey is far cheaper than conventional bleaching agents.
You can eat raw organic honey! So if you buy more than you need for your hair, you can always eat the rest.
So how do you use raw organic honey to lighten your hair?
There are a number of recipes on the internet that use honey as a hair lightening treatment. As long as you only use natural, organic ingredients, you should be fine.
Here is one way to do it:
1. Mix four parts raw organic honey with one part water in a bowl. Instead of water you can also use raw organic apple cyder vinegar (which acts as as natural hair conditioner).
2. For a reddish tinge, add some henna powder, cinnamon or ground coffee to the mixture.
3. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for one hour.
4. Apply the honey water mixture to your hair. Pour it over your head in small amounts then massage it in. You may want to do this over a sink or in a bathtub as honey spillages can be a pain to clean. Be careful of reddening powders staining your towels and clothes.
5. Cover your hair with a plastic shower cap and leave for at least two hours. If you can leave it for longer, for example, the day or even overnight, then it's even better.
6. Wash the honey out of your hair with warm water then leave to dry (do not use a hair dryer).
Our honey with the highest hydrogen peroxide content is our 20+ Active Raw Organic Coffee Bean Honey From Mexico. With 20.5% peroxide based activity (double that found in high street bleaching agents), it is the only honey from our range that we recommend for use as a hair bleaching agent.
Click here to find out more.
