Questions About Catnip

[daffodil7]

I am African American and I have black hair. The texture is a mixture of 3b - 4b and is manageable, but kinky African American hair. I want to start using catnip for preventing split ends now that I just had to cut off some splits, I really want to prevent them from coming back. I am being very careful with it and treating it gently as well.

Questions:

1. So, from what I understand, you just pour the tea, after it has steeped for 30 minutes over your hair. Wring hair to damp, and let it set under a plastic cap for an hour, then do you rinse out or wash out?

2. Next I was planning to put a blonde semi permanent over my hair because I saw in this video that it can make your hair look a little browner.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97s-mdbRyO8

You can see when she comes close to the camera and shows the sides of her hair. The front I think is bleached or permanently dyed though.

I do not want to use permanent color to go brown and risk damage.

I was reading on here that catnip also has a yellow tinting action. Will this tint both my gray hairs yellow and my black hair as well, making it just slightly brown like the semi permanent color did in this video? Have any black haired girls using catnip experienced this?

[ravenreed]

I have coarse, wavy, dark brown hair with a good number of greys. I use a demi-permanent to color it burgundy, but based on what catnip does to my roots, I don't think it will affect your hair color much at all. BTW- the demi only really shows up in my hair in the sun, but it does cover my greys. The problem with demi- and semi- permanents for us dark hairs is that there isn't any lift to the color so the color is just deposited on top of what is already there.

If you do decide to dye, I recommend looking at the thread on coconut oil protecting hair during the dye process. I use coconut oil before I dye and it really does make a difference on the damage I get, even with a low peroxide dye. I was out of coconut oil last time I dyed and my hair was much more unhappy than usual!

Catnip has been amazing for my hair. It has always, always, always, been prone to split ends. When I make up the rinse, I use a lot of catnip in the water. I nuke it for 3 minutes and let it sit for quite a while, sometimes over night. I use it at every washing now.

ETA: For removing the catnip from the water, I use a small funnel lined with a coffee filter. Works perfectly!

[ktani]

I am African American and I have black hair. The texture is a mixture of 3b - 4b and is manageable, but kinky African American hair. I want to start using catnip for preventing split ends now that I just had to cut off some splits, I really want to prevent them from coming back. I am being very careful with it and treating it gently as well.

Questions:

1. So, from what I understand, you just pour the tea, after it has steeped for 30 minutes over your hair. Wring hair to damp, and let it set under a plastic cap for an hour, then do you rinse out or wash out?

For colouring my grey/white better I now steep for 4.75 hours. I updated the article linked on the fist page of the catnip thread.

2. Next I was planning to put a blonde semi permanent over my hair because I saw in this video that it can make your hair look a little browner.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97s-mdbRyO8

You can see when she comes close to the camera and shows the sides of her hair. The front I think is bleached or permanently dyed though.

I do not want to use permanent color to go brown and risk damage.

I was reading on here that catnip also has a yellow tinting action. Will this tint both my gray hairs yellow and my black hair as well, making it just slightly brown like the semi permanent color did in this video? Have any black haired girls using catnip experienced this?

It can tint the grey/white - it usually covers mine completely. However, it has not been reported to show up on dark hair. It is a light stain.

I hope this helps. And Welcome to LHC!

ETA: Here is the updated article, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/vbjournal.php?do=article&articleid=118

ETA:2 Here is the thread on coconut oil and dye mentioned, http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=10495

And here is a quick version, from my blog, http://ktanihairsense.blogspot.com/2009/11/part-1-of-3-part-series-on-innovative.html

[daffodil7]

Many thanks, RavenReed and Ktani, this information really helps me a lot. :)

[ktani]

Many thanks, RavenReed and Ktani, this information really helps me a lot. :)

For my part, you are very welcome :)

[daffodil7]

Ktani, your research and work on this board is truly awesome. I appreciate all of it. I don't always post, but I have read so many of your posts and articles over the past few years. You are really blessing and helping others to reach their hair dreams with your work. Thank you!

[ktani]

Ktani, your research and work on this board is truly awesome. I appreciate all of it. I don't always post, but I have read so many of your posts and articles over the past few years. You are really blessing and helping others to reach their hair dreams with your work. Thank you!

Thank you so much!! And you are very welcome.

A lot of it just comes from my curiosity and goes from there, lol. I never knowingly promote anything harmful and to me that comes first, as health is precious, no matter how well something may appear to work. That I research relentlessly.

[HappyHair87]

@daffodill...what is your regimen?? I'm trying to understand why you have split ends in the first place :-/

I am Black American as well and i have a mix of 3/4 types of hair. I tend to avoid split ends but making sure my ends are moisturized everyday...my hair is somewhat fine...it's inbetween fine and coarse.

ETA: Come join us in the Kinky 4's thread as well! :)