Whether our hair is naturally light, or even a darker brown or black, summer is often a time when our natural hue changes subtly, thanks to the sun's rays. The results can mean anything from slightly lighter roots and tips to sun-kissed highlights.

But what can we do to replicate the results without going on vacation every few weeks or using bleach? Read on and try some proven natural ways to lighten your hair at home.

First, to figure out how to lighten your hair effectively (and avoid any color mistakes), it's important to understand how hair color works. Our natural hair color is determined by two types of melanin (the same chemical that helps determine our skin and eye color) in our hair shaft. The first type, eumelanin, helps form the black or dark brown colors in our hair, while the second, pheomelanin, is responsible for golden and red tones. Gray or white hair types are the result of an absence of melanin.

Lightening our hair involves opening up the hair shaft and allowing the bleach to remove the natural color contained within. This generally means that in order to get lighter hair, we need certain chemicals (think hydrogen peroxide).