Hello!

Has any tried using (home-made) chamomille tea or lemon juice hair rinses? I did chamomille for a while but I've never really understood how strong you should make the tea. Pouring full strength cham. tea on my hair once a day really uses up the tea!

My hair is all dark and dreary this time of year and it's time to brighten it up a bit :-)

/Kate

I've not tried this yet myself, but under the Hair Care Receipes on this site is the following receipe for a chamomile conditioner.  You could probably try it without the yogurt as well:

Ingredients
6 chamomile tea bags
1/2 cup plain yogurt
lavender oil
Directions
Bring one cup of water to boil and steep tea bags for 15 minutes. Discard teabags. Combine yogurt and 7 drops of lavender oil with chamomile tea, mix thoroughly. Apply the mixture to dry hair, working through to ends. Cover head in plastic wrap and condition for thirty minutes. Shampoo hair.

Thanks for the recipe :-)

It does sound like an awful lot of tea - I wonder how strong it needs to be before you start seeing a color change.. I like the idea of adding essential oils to the rinse though!

/Kate

Not having tried this myself, I can't say how quickly you would see a change.  But if you try it, let us know how it works for you!

try mixing a moisturizing conditioner with lemon juice and just use that after shampooing that should brighten your hair up some

If you are concerned about going through lots of tea bags all the time, you could try buying the chamomile flowers in bulk at a health food store. It's MUCH cheaper that way and if you boil up a bunch in a large pot, strain it with a fine strainer, you can just store the tea in the fridge and use it over a few days time.
When I do this I use a cup of flowers for about a gallon of water and let it simmer but not boil at all for about an hour. It gets pretty strong that way.

Thanks for the info noelkara.  How long can you keep it in the refrigerator?  

Thanks for the suggestions, chamogirl and noelkara! I've been finger-combing lemon juice through my hair after rinsing and then drying it in the sun, I haven't noticed a big difference yet but it always takes a while.

I'm definitely going to try the chamomille concoction, noelkara. I actually already buy the flowers themselves (I drink chamomille tea a lot) so I'll start stewin' straight away. I wonder if you could make it even stronger than you suggested, maybe concentrated x2 or x4, and then freeze the mixture in ice cube trays. Then you could just dilute a couple of cubes in the morning with some tepid water. (I tend to have a problem with things getting moldy in my fridge!)

/Kate

this isn't a hair rinse but you can drop a chamomile tea bag in a bottle of shampoo and when it floats to the bottom the tea will have released its color. The tint will be a dark yellow - how many tea bags you use will make the yellow tint lighter or darker. I never tried this in a conditioner but I bet you could if the conditioner was light textured enough. Also soaking the tea bags in lemon juice or white vinegar and then adding that to conditioner will brighten your hair

Thanks for the idea, chamogirl. I haven't started my chamomille therapy yet, I always remember when I'm already standing in the shower. Since I only have the actual flowers at home I think I might try to make the infusion, concentrate it a lot, and then mix in a bit in my conditioner.

I actually found something called chamomille extract here, but it's pricey and is completely clear for some reason. Has anyone tried this?

/Kate

Hi, just a few questions about the chamomile rinses-

1) Does the strength of the tea effect the colour of the hair, i.e. if you made a cup of chamomile tea with say 6 or more tea bags and left it brew for half an hour or longer, making the tea really strong will this make your hair lighter or darker blonde.
  Likewise if you were to make a cup of chamomile tea with just the one tea bag and left it for only about 5 minutes or so making it quite weak would this leave you with lighter or darker blonde hair.
  Which way does the strength effect the colour?.

2) How often would you use this rinse, everytime you wash your hair, or every other time?

3) How long does it usually take before you start to notice a difference?, I've tried chamomile (rinse, shampoo, conditioner) before and have never seen any real results.

Butterfleye. :D

Hi Butterfleye -

I have used chamomille rinses off and on for years, never following a particular recipe. I usually make the tea double strength (with fresh flowers) and let it brew for a half hour or so. This I then dilute with cooler water and some vinegar. I've never noticed a difference if I made the tea stronger or weaker, but then I tend to get tired of doing the rinses after a few weeks so it's possible you would see a result if you kept at it.

Chamomille coats the hair shaft and builds up over time, it usually takes me a week or 2 of rinsing every day before I see a difference. Then again, I rinse with vinegar about once a week so that might be removing the chamomille buildup - but I can't live without the vinegar ;-)

Why don't you experiment with different amounts of tea and let us know the results? Maybe you could take before and after photos!

/Kate

Wow, this thread dates back a bit! I thought I'd share my tint hint! When I was in HS (and I took care of my hair) it would get all dreary in the winter time. That was the worst time for that to happen because I was involved in the biggest winter event! The Christmas Concert! I was lucky enough to get a solo my senior year in the choir, but my hair didn't match the mood! To make my hair bright and cheery again, I went to the store and bought some lemon juice. I mixed about 1 tablespoon of the juice with a normal amount of my leave in conditioner and, well, left it in! I would apply it in the morning and wear my hair up in a bun all day. I rinsed it out in cold water before bedtime, and that was my routine for about 2 months before the concert. My friends nicknamed me "lemon girl". I wouldnt recommend this if you are sensitave to scents tho. It will feel a little sticky, and whatever you do, if you have beautiful sticks, DON'T USE THEM while doing this. They WILL smell like lemons long after this "therapy" It also made my hair very shiney! Goodbye dull hair!

Lemon juice can be very drying, but I suppose when mixed with the conditioner, it would help prevent the worst from happening.

When I was young, we would put straight lemon juice in our hair and sit in the sun to lighten it.  My hair was quite short then, so I wouldn't necessarily notice the damage it was causing.

Yes, lemon juice is very drying to hair, I tried that at first. Lemon juice, then conditioner, but I found that my conditioner un-did what the lemon juice did. I never had a problem with mixing them. I think that was the softest my hair ever was!

:o :o :o
doesn't any 1 write on these boards? ya i no not many people are blonde (without dying it) but plz talk!!!!

Just as in growing long hair, you must be patient.

Welcome to the boards, Sam

strawberryfine