Lightening Hair with Honey

[Billy B]

This is something I hadn't heard of before.   A FB friend posted something about her daughter's hair coloring, which began with lightening the hair with honey (followed by kool-aid for dye).    Some quick googling confirms this is indeed a "thing".    But some further googling and I found some references to the anti-bacterial property of honey attributed to the fact that honey produces hydrogen peroxide ... so then it would make sense that honey would indeed lighten your hair, just like hydrogen peroxide would do.   Huh.   Why not just use hydrogen peroxide, I dunno.   But there you go, honey as a hair lightener.

[Kathyp]

good to know....although the last thing i need is lighter hair  :-D

[sarahplusbees]

I've heard this too. I once tried using hydrogen peroxide and it made my hair horrible and dry for weeks after. Perhaps honey is a gentler way to go about it? I have heard that honey is also a humectant, so perhaps it's better to lighten with something that also moisturizes? Has anyone tried it?

Also, I'm very curious. Would you please go into a little more detail about honey producing hydrogen peroxide? How does this happen, and in what quantities?

[Billy B]

I won't pretend that I know how the mechanisms work myself, so here is one link that I found on the subject:

http://www.prlog.org/10227103-the-hydrogen-peroxide-producing-capacity-of-honey.html

It's referenced in Wikipedia and lots of other sources as well.

[Santa Caras]

Hydro Peroxide is REALLY bad for hair. Splits and rips hair---bad bad.  Honey may work...havent tried it but just how quick are we talking about?? Most women arent gonna wait weeks months for it to slowly do its thing.

[Michael Bush]

Honey doesn't produce nearly enough H2O2 to lighten your hair.  I would say the effect is probably due to its acidity.