Hrmmm...food for thought for sure.
I found a small packet of C. angustifolia leaves near henna in my local Indian store for a couple of dollars which I couldn't resist. I had no idea what I was going to do with it--not interested in its laxative properties, not interested in powdering and applying the paste to my head--already do henna and that is more than enough for my black hair with white sprinkles.
So brewed tea with a teaspoon of leaves which turned golden yellow. Now that I had the tea I decided to dip the ends of my tangly (third day hair) in it. To my surprise when the hair dried it was silky. That rarely happens to me even on good hair days-- wavy, curly yes, silky, I have only heard that my hair was silky when I was a child.
One time could be a fluke so I repeated this a few more times with similar results. Unfortunately, during this period I had made other changes to my routine too--added henna, silk cap and new leave in conditioner and all of them made my hair behave better so it was hard to isolate the effect of a bit of senna tea. Perhaps it was just wetting the hair with water that did it. So I tried that one day and ended up with messy tangly ends as usually happens when my hair gets wet on non-wash days. i dipped it in cassia tea and instantly my hair got less tangly and it dried silky. I could test with other teas, perhaps with dilute citric acid and so on but as long as I am getting positive benefit from this, I will stick with it when I remember. The tea does fine for a couple of days at least after which I toss it out to be safe. The two dollars pack will last me a long time at this rate.
i thought I will share this--perhaps someone else will experiment and add to these results.
For some reason this strain of cassia has been overlooked on lhc though it also contains dianthrones which is the active ingredient for laxative purposes and presumably for binding to hair. Most of the recipes involve sitting around with the mud which maybe good for light haired folks but dark haired people might do just fine with bit of tea as a rinse or leave in.
bihttp://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Herbal_-_HMPC_assessment_report/2009/12/WC500018219.pdf
Last edited by Beborani; July 2nd, 2014 at 12:20 PM.
Hrmmm...food for thought for sure.
Summer of 2017...after "The Chop."
I buy it also at my local Indian store and use it on my son's hair as a treatment for dandruff. It does make his unruly hair very soft and shiny. I mix it into a paste though and let him keep it on for at least an hour. He has very dark brown hair so I never noticed any color change except when I once added a spoonful of henna without telling him very bad mom I know... Thank god he never noticed any difference
I'm glad you found something that is working for you.
Bookmarks