Baking soda on hair

I have heard over the years that a small amount, possibly a teaspoon, mixed in the palm of the hand, and applied, will lighten. Probably not immediately.

Tick

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate .

Hair lighteners are oxidizing agents. Sodium bicarbonate has no oxidative properties. Fading is hastened (or exacerbated) by strong bases. The pKa for sodium bicarbonate is 6.4, actually slightly acidic. Sodium bicarbonate is a weak acid/weak base and not too much for either of those. If you use sodium carbonate (washing soda), it will be much more basic and will fade your hair faster -- but it'll also feel like #%#!@# on your scalp.

Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is touted for many things: to absorb odors from your 'fridge (thanks to an aggressive Arm & Hammer ad campaign), to brushing your teeth (mild abrasive). It actually does most of those things it's touted for, very poorly. If I were you, I wouldn't count on baking soda to fade your hair or lighten it.

Hi perito, using baking soda is nothing more then an old home remedy for hair lightening. Whether it works or not is anyone's guess. People see what they want to see. I think its called sympathetic magic.

Ms tickle

Oops. Bumped the <ENTER> key. At least it was green, as I wanted.

Actually, it's not anybody's guess. As a practicing chemist of many years, I can say with confidence that it doesn't work

Lemon juice used to be used to brighten light brown or blonde hair too. LOL, thanks Perito

Tick

Lemon juice is a very mild oxidizing agent. It works -- but not nearly as well or as predictably as a hair dye. It also contains materials that will suck oils out of the hair, and make it very dry.

Hi again Perito, yes, I know that, but l00 years ago they probably took a long time to find that out

How do you feel about the posts where someone asks 'I just died my hair black today, can I dye it again the same day to go back to blonde' ?

The main reason for waiting is that the scalp can get burned. The hair, itself, really doesn't care. The hair may feel dry, but that's just lack of oil in the hair. The lack of oil may temporarily make the hair more brittle, but while the hair is wet, it's well lubricated so that's not an issue.

Damage that is done to the backbone of the hair -- the chains of amino acids -- can't be repaired. Once those chemical bonds are broken, they stay broken. The biological reactions that repair cells don't occur in the hair (no blood supply, no "active" repair mechanism). You aren't going to damage the hair, per se, more by coloring it today than by coloring it tomorrow or in a week.

What I'm surprised at is the number of people who dye their hair black and then have black remorse. I never felt like black was that great a color anyway. They used to say, "If you dye it black, you can't go back." Actually, some may still say that. While I'm thinking of it, why do most people want to go from black to blonde? Aren't there any decent colors in-between. (A lot of people do try to bleach their dyed-black hair and when the bleach turns the black pigment to orange and it won't lighten any further, they are forced to dye it brown).

Now, back to the scalp. It doesn't take much to irritate the scalp. Peroxide lightly burns the surface of the scalp. Some people have "dandruff" a few days after coloring. That's not real dandruff, it's the damaged cells flaking off. If you continue to beat on a lightly burned scalp, you can develop first degree burns. Second degree burns are also claimed. I wouldn't believe reports of third degree burns. Nonetheless, first degree burns can be plenty painful so people need to think about their scalps if they want to re-dye their hair "today"!

Perito, that was excellent information and I hope anyone picks up on it.

Ms tickle