Honey hair lightener. For the stale women, like me.
Oh the things we do for beauty.
If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen me pose the question a few days about 'natural' ways to color hair. You see, my bff and stylist is 2,600 miles away at the moment...and you know that dang 'ol Dave's budget....he certainly doesn't agree with dropping $100 at the salon for highlights.
Man that guy runs a tight ship. Grr.
What's a dark blond girl to do?! Especially one that is *very much attempting* to resist the harsh chemicals in modern beauty treatments?!
It's not that I want a drastically different color. In fact, I am quite fond of my dirty dishwater hued hair. But I also don't want to be stale. You know what I mean by stale? Like when you need to shave your legs (which I do), paint your toes (umm, yep, need to do that too), wax your eyebrows (girls, don't even get me started about my poor eyebrows), and heck...let's throw the fact that you could use a good manicure in there too (ahem, sign me up).
Well, I was feeling stale. And I needed a little beauty pick me up yesterday. So after doing minimal research (the best kind, really), I decided to try a very gentle lightning/conditioning treatment on the 'ol mop.
Why the heck not.
So here's what I did:
First, I took a 'before' shot...just for fun. I even parted my hair for you. You're welcome.
Then, I mixed together:
- 1/2 cup raw honey
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
Then, I poured this into a bowl, flipped my head upside down, dipped it into the bowl, and used my hands to scoop the delicious-smelling liquid all over my damp hair. It took a few minutes to really get it all on there, and it was essential to keep my head over the bowl so that it could catch the run-off until I got all my hair covered. By the end, I resorted to a measuring cup which helped me to scoop the liquid from the bowl and pour it over the back of my head.
I'm sure you can understand why there were no photos of this process.
It even added more excitement to the mix to have little G-love wanting to join in the fun, as you can imagine. When will I learn to only attempt such tasks at nap time?!
Regardless, the hair eventually was coated. I then piled my hair on top of my head and quickly covered it with a plastic grocery bag, which was secured tightly in the back with a rubberband. For the first few minutes, the honey-mixture was dripping out the bottom along my neck, so I improvised, and tied a bandanna around my head to catch the drips.
Pretty smart, huh? And please note that the red bandanna does not correspond to any chosen gang affiliation.
I'm just saying.
I tried to capture step by step photos of this, but it was essential to get the dripping dealt with. Priorities, people.
This is what we were left with:
I tried to get a side shot so you could see how it was tied....
And I kept trying...
And kept trying...
Dang man. It's hard to take a self-portrait when you don't use a point-and-shoot camera. As you can see, my skills were improving quite quickly. By this point I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants. That happens a lot these days.
For Pete's sake. So much for a side shot.
Let's just move on.
So basically for the remainder of the day (7 or so hours), I walked around looking like this. Yep. True story. Sure, the neighbors pointed and laughed as I walked down the road with a grocery bag and bandanna on my head, but such is life. And who's got wonderfully conditioned hair now, suckers?!
I even picked up Stuart from school with this on my head. He was so proud when he came out to the car. What an incredible beautiful, and in no way strange, wife the Lord has blessed me with. I'm pretty sure he said these exact words.
Ah. Isn't he so sweet.
Anyway, after dinner and a walk down to the bay (yep, still rockin' the plastic bag), I came home covered in sand and was ready to shower. Since I'm still rockin' my no-poo, I washed my hair with baking soda and rinsed with some raw vinegar (both of which are known to slowly lighten hair over time, by the way...).
The hair felt fantastic. Thick, moisturized, luscious. Though I think it will need one more washing to get all of the mixture out.
Did the naturally-occurring peroxide in the honey actually lighten the hair at all? I'm not sure...maybe a teensy bit, but not a lot.
That's okay.
It still feels (and smells) like I had a wonderful spa hair treatment. And sometimes that emotional boost is worth more than golden locks.
Plus, the baking soda and vinegar I've been using in place of shampoo and conditioner has really amped up the shine and texture of my hair - so I'm good with that for now.
Now, if only I could get myself to fix those few other pesky points (ahem, paint your toes, Shaye!), I'd really be feeling like a million bucks.
Okay, maybe not a million bucks. I am, after all, carrying around many extra pounds of baby and fluid. That can take a tole on girlfriends hips and feet, man!
At least the hair feels fantastic.
What do YOU do to feel fabulous?