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hypersensitive - You need to let it brew for at least 5 hours before application so that the oils are released properly. The normal recipe is 1tsp to 300ml :) People also generally leave it on for an hour for best results.
Sounds like you might prefer the spray method - I know I could never be bothered letting my hair sit dripping wet for an hour! I let the above ratios brew overnight, sprayed and damp bunned. Results were great for me :D
I am going to try catnip - I've ordered some and it's on its way. But I have a few questions.
I have extremely dry hair - my scalp produces almost no oil. No shampoo has touched my hair for at least five years - I've been doing CO. For over a year I did WO and really liked it, but we moved to a place with really hard water and I couldn't do the WO any more - my hair got really sticky, coated with gunk and was really horrible. So I've gone back to CO. Lately I've been experimenting - I have done SMT several times and I have tried Shikakai - altering the recipes a little each time. The SMT makes my hair very shiny and defines the curls. But my hair is very dry after. Same with Shikakai. I've tried adding oil but that didn't seem to help.
I also have very brittle hair - it keeps breaking off around my face. I have not been able to wear my hair up or use any hair toys because of this. I want to go back to WO but my hair still is very brittle when I do this. So I am going to try the catnip.
My questions are:
1. Can I use catnip while doing WO, or do I have to wash my hair before I use the catnip rinse? Would the catnip be able to penetrate through my own sebum? I know I wouldn't technically be WO if I'm using catnip. But I want to stop using the conditioner because it strips all my naturally produced oil from my hair and I need every bit I have.
2. What things coat the hair and don't let the catnip get to it? Oils? AVG?
3. Would the Shikakai have coated my hair? If so how do I remove the coating?
I'm sorry if these questions have been answered somewhere here. I'm trying to read this thread as fast as I can but I can't get through it soon enough. I appreciate all answers you can give me.
Goodness, I sympathize with your struggles. :grouphug: I hope you find something that makes your hair happy!Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftieKittie
I don't have all of the answers to these questions, but I can chime in with my own minimal experience.
1. I think you can use catnip with water only, but you may have to do a conditioner wash once in awhile to remove potential catnip buildup. I believe that the catnip will give you benefits over your sebum as I use catnip over hair that has been conditioned (my conditioner mix has at least 1/4 teaspoon of safflower oil in each application) and it works very well.
2. A heavy oiling would stop catnip from penetrating, but I'm not sure there is any other product that forms a total (or even substantial) barrier to catnip. Like I said, I've been using it over my dry, conditioned hair (conditioner is said to leave behind a film of conditioning agents even when you fully rinse) with very good results.
3. I have no idea on this one. :o
I'd love to suggest a few things to try;
1. Add oil to your CO conditioner. It sounds counterproductive but it should stop the surfactants in the conditioner from removing all of your sebum. (I've added as much as a teaspoon to a 'serving' of conditioner and still not had greasy hair, you may be able to add even more)
2. Try the catnip tea as a leave in spray on dry hair. I have been having great success with moisturizing my dry strands by doing just that, and it is much easier for me than leaving the catnip dripping off my head for an hour.
3. Most importantly, are you doing anything in your routine to counteract the hard water? Mineral buildup on hair can lead to fragile, breaking hair (I know this from personal experience), so you may want to add a chelating agent somewhere along the line. This thread is about miracle water, which was literally a miracle for me when I had liquid rock for water. (I used about 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice to 1 gallon of water)
HTH! :)
Where exactly would I find catnip for rinsing? I don't have any growing here abouts anymore.
Catnip is available in the pet aisle at Walmart and such, it is used to stuff cat toys. It is a dried herb, I buy the Hartz brand for about $1 and it works great.
Update:
I tried a longer steep time for the catnip tea (8-9 hours instead of 5-6) and I didn't like the results on my hair as much. It didn't seem to give the same slip, and almost made my hair feel kind of grabby and coated. Longer steep times might be best for a rinse out treatment for me.
I've also been freezing half a batch at a time to prevent mold, and I haven't noticed any difference in the frozen tea versus the fresh.
I finally tried the catnip rinse. I used the standard recipe of 1 tsp catnip to 1-1/4 cups water and left it on my hair for 1 hour. I was impressed with the results. My hair came out shiny and with better defined curls. I'm going to keep trying it once a week - when I wash my hair. I hope it keeps working at least as well - or maybe gets better. Today I just wet my hair in the morning and it is not quite as nice as yesterday, but maybe after I've used the catnip for a longer time it will stay nicer.
veryhairyfairy - thanks for answering my questions. I don't think I can use a catnip spray on dry hair because spraying my hair just makes it frizzy - I need to wet it completely to restore the curl. I might try adding oil to the SMT or even just my conditioner if I feel that I need it. As for the hard water - I have a water filter in the kitchen - so I am going to use that water to wash my hair and not let the shower water touch it. Then I won't get mineral build-up. It won't be as convenient, but if it works it will be worth it.
So I tried the spray method. It's not very convenient. I think I might as well let my hair sit wet for 1 hour and do the conventional soak. Round 2!
I just used catnip on my hair for the third time. I'm not very impressed with the results. I've been trying to use catnip with WO washing. Normally I CO my hair - however in my reading the first 50 pages of this thread ktani stated over and over again that catnip does not work over conditioner. My hair is waaay too dry to use shampoo. After using catnip 2 times my hair was starting to feel kind of heavy and stiff. This time when I wet my hair - even before putting the catnip in it felt tacky. Now as it is starting to dry it is frizzy and not shiny.
Also, every time I wet my hair and comb it I lose tons of hair - more than I used to when I was just CO washing my hair. I think catnip has to be washed out every week.
Has anyone else experienced this with catnip? So now I'm trying to decide if I want to go back to shampoo so I can continue to try catnip, or if I should try something else.
I just used catnip on my hair for the third time. I'm not very impressed with the results. I've been trying to use catnip with WO washing. Normally I CO my hair - however in my reading the first 50 pages of this thread ktani stated over and over again that catnip does not work over conditioner. My hair is waaay too dry to use shampoo. After using catnip 2 times my hair was starting to feel kind of heavy and stiff. This time when I wet my hair - even before putting the catnip in it felt tacky. Now as it is starting to dry it is frizzy and not shiny.
Also, every time I wet my hair and comb it I lose tons of hair - more than I used to when I was just CO washing my hair. I think catnip has to be washed out every week.
Has anyone else experienced this with catnip? So now I'm trying to decide if I want to go back to shampoo so I can continue to try catnip, or if I should try something else.
Catnip did not increase my shedding so something else may be the culprit. If you haven't already, I would try using the catnip as a leave-in after you CO-wash. That's what I've done and I've never experienced any build-up. I've been experimenting with shampoo bars for a couple of weeks now though. From my understanding, catnip won't stain hair over conditioner. If staining isn't your concern then it's worth experimenting. Perhaps once the conditioner is rinsed out, the catnip will still be able to penetrate (or coat?) the hair shaft in order to prevent split ends (I'm not really sure how/why catnip prevents splits, I thought perhaps because of an increase in moisture or something to do with the resins in the catnip). So if you don't care about staining your hair, there's no reason not to test catnip as a leave-in while waiting to see if the shedding is seasonal or otherwise temporary and unrelated.Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftieKittie
I agree with alishaxmarie, CraftieKittie. I've been using catnip as a leave in over conditioned hair for awhile, and I actually hated the way it felt as my only form of conditioning.
I think ktani's assertion about conditioner blocking the effectiveness of catnip may have been based on color uptake, as alishaxmarie said. Or maybe it just didn't work for her hair. As in all things hair; your mileage may vary (YMMV).
Some people don't like catnip over conditioner, some people don't like it without conditioner, some people love using it as a leave in, other people hate it as a leave in and love it as a rinse out. And some people hate the way catnip makes their hair feel regardless of how they try it. :)
I would go back to what was working for you before, and try some other methods for catnip use.
Can you use catnip as a rinse and then follow it up with conditioner? Like shampoo, catnip, then conditioner?
And I'm curious about how you brew it, it's supposed to brew for like five hours right? So what, you throw it in a pot with a bunch of water on low temp and leave it on the stove for hours? :confused: I don't like leaving things unattended...
That's how I use it. It works wonders for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Larki
I put the catnip into the bottom of the glass, and add hot (not quite boiling) water. Cover the glass with a small saucer asap to prevent evaporation, and let it brew overnight. If I don't use it the next day, I put it in the fridge and rewarm it in the microwave (still covered) when I'm ready to use it.Quote:
And I'm curious about how you brew it, it's supposed to brew for like five hours right? So what, you throw it in a pot with a bunch of water on low temp and leave it on the stove for hours? :confused: I don't like leaving things unattended...
When you say let it brew, do you mean you just let it sit? I mean, there's no outside heat source or anything keeping the water warm?
Right. I think I should have said I let it "steep" instead of "brew". "Brewing" implies a heat source. I just set the glass aside where it won't get spilled or a family member won't pour it down the sink, and let it steep.
Awesome thank you! Yeah, when I see brew, I think that it's going to be sitting on the stove for five hours, and eek! That would make me nervous!Quote:
Originally Posted by DragonLady
Thanks for your suggestions. I should say that I think I figured out why I am getting so much shedding. I've just been to the doctor and my thyroid is really low - that can cause hair to shed. So I'm not going to worry about that for awhile until I get my thyroid numbers back in balance.Quote:
Originally Posted by alishaxmarie
I might try the catnip as a leave-in after my CO-wash and see if that works. I really want the catnip to make my hair stronger and not so brittle, and to reduce the split ends - the staining would have been a nice side effect but is not necessary.
VeryHairyFairy - you mentioned that some people use it as a rinse out. Do you think it works if I put it in after my CO wash and then rinse it out at the end of my shower? That would only give it a few minutes in my hair - would that be enough? I want to keep experimenting with the catnip and see if I can get it to work for me.
Sorry about the double post before. I think my computer hiccupped. If I get a double post again I apologize ahead of time as I tried to answer this post a few minutes ago and my computer froze up.Quote:
Originally Posted by alishaxmarie
Thanks for the response alishaxmarie. I think I figured out what has been causing my shedding. I've just been to my doctor and found out that my thyroid is really low. So I'm not going to worry about the shedding until I get my thyroid back in balance.
I think I will try to use the catnip as a leave-in after my CO wash. Hopefully that will work. I'm not concerned about staining - I just want the catnip to make my hair stronger and less brittle, and to reduce the split ends.
VeryHairyFairy - you mentioned that some people don't use the catnip as a leave-in but rinse it out. Do you mean that they just put it in their hair in the shower and then rinse it out at the end? If I do that it will only be in my hair for a few minutes. Is that long enough - has it worked for others to leave it in such a short time? I may want to try that if the leave-in doesn't work for me.
Anyway, I plan to keep experimenting to see if I can make it work somehow.
I'm glad you figured out the shedding, thyroid stuff really affects your whole body, so I bet you'll feel loads better in general when you get sorted out.Quote:
Originally Posted by CraftieKittie
Thyroid problems also cause the hair you grow to be dry and fragile, so you may have been low for awhile and that's why your hair feels (and maybe is) brittle, so maybe this will also solve itself in time. (but you'll basically be growing out stronger hair like growing out color, so it will take awhile to see a difference in the bulk of your hair, just FYI) :)
As for the rinse out, as you can see from the posts above, DragonLady uses it as a rinse out between shampoo and conditioner (I think she does NOT rinse the catnip before putting the conditioner on, so it sits on the strands for a longer time).
I have also read some posts where people use it as a rinse out, but I think you're right that a few minutes may not give you optimum benefits.
I love the way it makes my hair feel when I put it in a mister/spray bottle and dampen my dry hair with it every morning (I wash twice a week but I never feel like the catnip is making my hair sticky or bad in any way because of the repeated applications). You could also try spraying your hair after you get out of the shower (while hair is still wet) and leaving it in, that way it'll be diluted enough to not be sticky.
HTH :flower:
So, if I leave catnip with water in a bottle for 3 days, will that go bad? I did that and it smells awful. But catnip smells awful too. I'm not sure if it went bad or not.
Lol, if it smells different from the first time you smelled it, dump it! :lol: (I'm imagining moldy hair disaster where you have to wash just to stop yourself from getting sick, darkly funny!)Quote:
Originally Posted by Budgie
I put my spray bottle in the fridge and it generally stays good for a week. You can also freeze it into ice cube trays and thaw one use worth at a time. I've done that and it works the same for me. :)
I leave mine in the cabinet under the sink sometimes, and it generally smells the same (at least approximately since I can't be 100% sure based off of my memory of how the mix smelled the day before). Honestly though, it's started to smell somewhat minty over time, like it doesn't smell as odd to me as I think it once did. Does that make sense? Like it doesn't smell like peppermint tea but it smells like a tea that has some kind of mint leaves added to the mix? Sorry if that's confusing but I think catnip is related to mint plants which would explain the change in scent but I might be remembering that incorrectly lol. I'm just saying your perception of the scent may change but if it smells somewhat repugnant or disgusting at all then you need to brew another batch of the catnip tea. If your air conditioning is low enough though (as in cool enough), then leaving it out (my container has a lid which may affect this) should be fine, according to my personal experience at least. My AC is generally under 73-ish during summer though... I feel like my worry that I'm a mere outlier made this completely unhelpful but if it smells yucky then don't put it on your hair! If it smells relatively the same over a couple of days then go ahead and experiment, I believe the worst that could happen is that you smell rotten, it's not as if your hair will be damaged, it simply won't be reinforced by the catnip since it's gone "bad".Quote:
Originally Posted by Budgie
Oh interesting, maybe that's what Budgie is smelling. I actually kind of think I know what you're talking about in terms of the minty smell... and it makes sense because they used to/sometimes still do call catnip 'catMINT'.Quote:
Originally Posted by alishaxmarie
Mine has a minty undertone right away, but maybe it gets a little stronger toward the end...
I recently started putting lavender EO in my catnip tea (like one drop per 6 ounces) to act as a bit of a microbial retardant, so I don't smell straight-up catnip very often anymore.
By "it's started to smell minty," I meant that the very first time I brewed catnip I didn't think it was minty but now I always smell mint when I open the container or brew it. But that is very interesting, catmint...
After another extensive S&D session yesterday where I found a lot of splits, I'm brewing some catnip tea for my hair. The only thing I don't like about carnip rinses is the time required to do one.
:agree: I don't do rinses/soaks (because I just can't stand having the drippy wetties for so long), but I've been too lazy to even make catnip tea for months. When I finally got around to it this weekend I felt stupid for putting it off so long. One spray-bottle application and my hair was/is the best it's been in months. It seems like the tea is the last puzzle piece in my routine: WCC w/ an oil+conditioner rinse out sealer + spray with catnip tea when dry= best hair I can have! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Vanilla
I'm going to have to try spraying it on dry hair and see if my hair likes that.
Brewed another batch of catnip and put it in my trusty spray bottle and put it in the fridge. Sprayed it on dry hair tonight. I can't wait to see how it looks tomorrow morning.
Will report back!
Oh an experiment! I really love what it does for my hair when sprayed on dry, I hope you get similar results! :thumbsup:Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanilla
When I woke up this morning, my hair was still a bit damp from the catnip spray I put in last night. I didn't notice much difference in my hair yet. I have been battling greasy roots and a dry length since the change of season.
Veryhairyfairy, do you spray catnip on your dry hair daily, or just post-wash dry hair? I am hoping multiple applications would help with my split ends.
I just use it as a styling spray every morning instead of the plain water I used to use. The only big difference I notice in my healthy hair is increased shine, so if yours is in good shape it might not be as awesome as it is for my damaged ends.Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanilla
Ok I need to try tjis. So I need to go to the pet store and buy loose catnip. Then I put a tablespoon full in a mug of water hot but not boiling let it steep covered about an hour. Wash my hair apply let sit for an hour then I can apply conditioner let sit a few more minutes then rinse? I am hoping it will stain my grays. If I put 2 tablespoons in two mugs of water amount in a glass bowl I have will this will work too? I do have a basin ao I was hoping to put my head over that and really soak the ends and pour it over my scalp to soak it good for staining of grays. Does this sound like a good plan? Will my hair pick up an odd sent from this? I only wash my hair once a week could I do this weekly in this order and will it work, or does it need to be more often?
What a great idea to use it as a styling spray! I never would have thought to use catnip spray in that way. I've also been battling shorter stray hairs around my hairline that enjoy sticking up in every direction.Quote:
Originally Posted by veryhairyfairy
I have tried aloe gel as a styling aid, and it makes my hair super crunchy, even after washing it out. I hope catnip can be a better alternative for me.
I saw some catnip essential oil on amazon. If i add some in my conditioner, would that give me the benefits? How much should i add?
:o It was a revelation for me because my hair is just always flyaway, and the tea has a little tiny bit of holding/setting power. It's perfect for those of us who hate the feeling of styling products but want to tame the mane lol. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanilla
You know, I don't think we've had very many (if any at all) members use the essential oil and report back, so I couldn't say.Quote:
Originally Posted by emelnd
I do know that much of catnip tea's conditioning properties are attributed to it's volatile essential oils, so it's not entirely crazy that the essential oil could have a similar effect.
Here I am too cheap/broke to try it, though, so hopefully someone else will try it someday and give us the scoop!
If i end up trying it, I will report back.
I was unemployed for some time so I know how it is :(
(hug)
I got some catnip at Target today. I planned on getting it at Petsmart but it's snowing a lot here and I didn't want to go to multiple shops today. It's organic so hopefully it will still be good! First, I plan on clarifying my hair & then doing a catnip soak like instructed. Then after that, I plan on using a catnip soak as a pre poo...hopefully that will still work! I just don't think washing my hair, then sitting with catnip in my hair for an hour, then rinsing my hair and putting on conditioner will be practical for me every time. I don't like getting in and out of the shower, and I also don't like rinsing/washing my hair in the sink. Doing a pre poo soak would just be easier for me.
I'd be interested to hear how your pre-poo with catnip tea works out, THW. I think I've tried to post-shampoo catnip soak ONCE and I hated it so much that I never did it again! :lol: I just can't stand being wet and drippy for so long, and then having to get back in the shower and get all nuded up and whatnot.
If you don't like the pre-poo results, you could always give the tea a chance to be your mister bottle solution. I seriously love it more and more as I use it!
How sweet, thank you! :blossom:Quote:
Originally Posted by emelnd