Chamomile tea does WHAT to your hair?

Here at Q, we love finding new techniques, formulas and products that have been tried, tested, and proven to work wonders on your hair. What’s even more interesting to us is when we find out that an everyday item that we would never think to put in our hair has actually been discovered to have proven benefits. In this case, today, we’re talking about chamomile tea.

Honestly, we wouldn’t even be surprised if you haven’t ever drunk chamomile tea, let alone considered lathering it into your roots. But according to some of the leading hair experts, chamomile tea not only helps keep blonde hair vibrant, but it’s also a natural, gentle lightening agent, so some people even dye their hair with it. Want to know the science behind it? Apparently, the golden colour of chamomile, along with the flavonoids present in the compound, both combine to brighten and lighten hair, and prevent dyed blonde hair from fading as quickly.

So, how should you incorporate chamomile tea into your hair routine? There doesn’t seem to be one way per se- it seems as long as you’re getting the tea into your hair by one method or another, it’s going to have an effect. That said, here are a couple of methods we found in our research that we would be most likely to try:

For hair lightening- Okay, so chamomile tea isn’t going to give you a super vibrant head full of blonde locks; it’s referred to as a “soft” lightener for light brown hair. If you’re curious to see if this method actually works, it apparently did for this person, which is pretty cool. For a basic chamomile tea rinse, soak five tea bags in a couple of cups of hot water and wait until the water goes cool. Remove the tea bags and rinse your damp, shampooed and conditioned strands with the mixture. Let your hair air dry without rinsing the tea out. If you continue to rinse with this mixture every couple of days, the tea should have a gradual natural lightning effect on your hair.

To keep dyed blonde hair vibrant- This method is far less time consuming than an every-other-daily hair rinse. Simply brew a chamomile tea as you usually would, wait for the water to go cold, remove the teabag and add the liquid to an empty spritzer bottle. Then spray the liquid onto dry hair and pat with a towel. This should help keep your dyed hair looking at its peak for longer.

So, how well is chamomile tea supposed to work when it comes to lightening? Apparently, blonde haired tea rinsers should notice a lightning of up to one shade, while those with light brown hair should expect their lighter strands to brighten. Unfortunately, as chamomile tea is only a natural, gentle lightening agent, it’s pretty unsuccessful on dark brown or black hair.

Image credit: Organic Facts