The henna/cassia thread

**StormVixen** · February 7th, 2010, 04:25 AM

ok... i was going top ask for advise from people here befor i acctually attacked my hair with my concoction but it acctually turned out quite well i think!

so...

i mixed 100g cassia with 100g powdered chamomile and 1tsp of henna with about 2 cups of chamomile tea and about 80g honey..

i let that mix sit for about 6 hours or more
then i slapped that all on my dry hair (had trouble, shoulda probly done it on wet to make curls easier to seperate)

it was on my hair for no more than an hour (did a strand test for 2 and it turned out too ginger for me, sis is ginge, only room for one firey personality in the family...lol)

then washed that out using nearly a whole bottle of inecto coconut oil condish (no cone)...

after it dried was still quite ginger so i mixed about 100g honey (not heated) with the same amount of condish and a blob of Ojon RHT oil, slapped that on my hair, wrapped in cling film, then washed that off about 6 hours later...

i let it dry in my sleep with no leave in or anything on my hair...

it is SOO soft, curls are defined (tho a little fuzzy from sleeping) and it smells LUSH!

im trying to take a picture and i hope ive got a "before" somewhere too!

**StormVixen** · February 7th, 2010, 05:34 AM

ok i forgot i cant post attachments or edit posts... nevermind...

**csm--carla** · February 8th, 2010, 07:58 PM

I love looking at the great results with the henna/cassia treatments! Lovely!!

I've read many pages of this thread and haven't seen this question. (Please forgive me if it has already been asked here.)

Does anyone use the http://www.herbco.com/p-646-senna-leaf-powder.aspx when you are doing a henna cassia treatment?

Has it made a difference in your color result?

Do you pre-grind it in a coffee grinder?

Thank you in advance. (I am presently using henna and HFH cassia...but the shipping is on the steep side for my preference.)
Carla

**girloctopus** · February 8th, 2010, 09:56 PM

Originally Posted by csm--carla

I love looking at the great results with the henna/cassia treatments! Lovely!!

I've read many pages of this thread and haven't seen this question. (Please forgive me if it has already been asked here.)

Does anyone use the http://www.herbco.com/p-646-senna-leaf-powder.aspx when you are doing a henna cassia treatment?

Has it made a difference in your color result?

Do you pre-grind it in a coffee grinder?

Thank you in advance. (I am presently using henna and HFH cassia...but the shipping is on the steep side for my preference.)
Carla

I've used it. What I do is, if I feel so inclined, sift it using the technique outlined here at hennapage.com:http://www.hennapage.com/henna/how/sift.html
I usually don't though, mainly because I'm lazy

I do mix it with an immersible blender though, which does whip it up very nice and smooth. If I had a coffee grinder, I would probably try that too.

I have not noticed any difference in a color result. I actually find the senna to have a remarkable strong dye for cassia, because I had noticeably (by others) yellow stained palms after applying a straight cassia treatment without gloves.

All in all, I highly recommend it! Hope this helps!

**sandrak** · February 9th, 2010, 02:56 AM

Right now I have a mixture of about 75g. cassia, 2 tlbs. dye release henna, 2 tlbs. amla, and 2 tlbs. indigo with a little salt on my hair. I plan to leave it on for about 1 1/2 hours. Hopefully it won't get too dark. I will post results.

**chloeishere** · February 10th, 2010, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by csm--carla

I love looking at the great results with the henna/cassia treatments! Lovely!!

I've read many pages of this thread and haven't seen this question. (Please forgive me if it has already been asked here.)

Does anyone use the http://www.herbco.com/p-646-senna-leaf-powder.aspx when you are doing a henna cassia treatment?

Has it made a difference in your color result?

Do you pre-grind it in a coffee grinder?

Thank you in advance. (I am presently using henna and HFH cassia...but the shipping is on the steep side for my preference.)
Carla

It's been a few days, but yes, this powder is what I use. There is no way I would ever go to a different brand; for the price, the quality is absolutely unbeatable.

Edit: I don't think cassia sold by BAQ henna places is any better in terms of freshness or quality (I suspect the herbco is more fresh); I do believe it is slightly more finely ground, but that doesn't alter the effect on hair, just the "ease" of rinsing, which is difficult either way.

I do NOT pregrind it. It releases plenty of the conditioning properties without additional grinding-- that would be unnecessary, IMO.

It does yield a lovely golden dye for me, but the effect is very very subtle. I use it for conditioning.

**felista** · February 15th, 2010, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by chloeishere

I know I said that I wasn't going to post pictures, but I lied.

My hair feel so fantastic after doing this, that I actually spontaneously felt like taking hair pictures because my hair looked and felt so snazzy! It's been a long time since I felt that way, folks. I'm going to have to keep doing this, because hair that feels this good is worth having a couple of pounds of mud on your head for, once a month (assuming the effect wears off).

I can definitely see the henna glitter on my hair, your mileage may vary. Once before I did a henna gloss, and as I recall, someone was annoyed when I posted pictures of the difference because they couldn't see a difference. Well, I can see a difference. But subtle is the name of the game.

I actually think henna may not be such a disaster with my coloring after all! Still not planning on going for it, though. Maybe when I cut my hair off someday and it'll only take a year to grow out if I hate it.

If you have less than 25 posts, you won't be able to see one of the pictures, it's in an album because I don't post my face on public boards. Sorry! I included the other picture for you guys.

Like I said, subtle... but my hair is tangling much less, feels much stronger, is so silky, and the shine! I love it.

Ooohhh!! I love it! I think our hair is very similar. That is exactly what I'm looking for. What was your mix? It's lovely.

**~~redneckprincess~~** · February 16th, 2010, 06:57 AM

Originally Posted by felista

Ooohhh!! I love it! I think our hair is very similar. That is exactly what I'm looking for. What was your mix? It's lovely.

i am also interested

**felista** · February 16th, 2010, 09:53 PM

Oh, I see you posted your mix a page or two before.

200 g cassia to 1 1/2 Tbsp henna for one hour. And it is so subtle. I thought a tablespoon would be more noticeable than that. Maybe because of the short time, even though you added heat? I think it is perfect. So pretty, I wish I had more posts so I could see your other photos. Do you think you'll have noticeable roots with that amount?

I was thinking of starting safe and adding just 1/8 or 1/4 tsp henna to 100 g cassia and dye release both together. My first time using cassia left my few blond highlights kind of greenish, so I didn't want that to happen this time around. I thought the little bit of henna might help keep them more golden than greenish. I just don't want roots. I plan on dye-releasing the cassia and leaving on three hours. I like that cassia fades intead of giving roots. Do you think that amount of henna in my mix will even show up on my highlights or few whites? I don't know how to get a strand test of my whites because they are so few and very visible. The rest of my hair is ...dark ash blond, light brown with gold glints in the sun and a few whites scattered around, but increasing.

**chloeishere** · February 17th, 2010, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by redneckprincess

i am also interested

Here it is again, in case someone missed it. I cut out some of the other stuff in the post to make my recipe more obvious.

Originally Posted by chloeishere

[snip]
I am doing my goop treatment tonight, after I did another test strand that just looked a touch darker, that is probably too small of a difference for anyone to tell! I forgot how much fun it is slapping all that mud in the hair. Cleaning up the bathroom sink took about half an hour, though. Not so much fun.
My mix:
2 cups packed senna alexandria (cassia) powder; let sit for about an hour and a half on a heating vent
2 cups chamomile tea; 2 cups hot water (I didn't brew enough tea)
1.5 tablespoons dye-released henna paste (thin batter consistency; body art quality henna)

I have it on under my heat cap (so soothing) and I'll be washing it out after an hour under the cap.
[snip]

It was more like an hour and 15 minutes, by the way.

Hi! I'm sorry for the delay, I saw the posts but I kept seeing them when I didn't have time to reply.

So first, the color change: no one but me can tell the difference in person, not even my boyfriend who really, really tried to see.
Here it is, then.

The first picture is from August 2009. The second picture is from the same day I took the pictures I already posted; February 1st (3ish days after I did the henna/cassia treatment).

That is the most obvious change that can be seen, I cropped it so you can't really see anything but hair which makes it more obvious. In person, it's very subtle. I very much doubt I will have visible roots, to say the least. My hair might look slightly less shiny and golden-red coming in, but I doubt it will be visible.

Originally Posted by felista

[snip]
200 g cassia to 1 1/2 Tbsp henna for one hour. And it is so subtle. I thought a tablespoon would be more noticeable than that. Maybe because of the short time, even though you added heat? I think it is perfect. So pretty, I wish I had more posts so I could see your other photos. Do you think you'll have noticeable roots with that amount?
[snip]
I was thinking of starting safe and adding just 1/8 or 1/4 tsp henna to 100 g cassia and dye release both together. My first time using cassia left my few blond highlights kind of greenish, so I didn't want that to happen this time around. I thought the little bit of henna might help keep them more golden than greenish. I just don't want roots. I plan on dye-releasing the cassia and leaving on three hours. I like that cassia fades intead of giving roots. Do you think that amount of henna in my mix will even show up on my highlights or few whites? I don't know how to get a strand test of my whites because they are so few and very visible. The rest of my hair is ...dark ash blond, light brown with gold glints in the sun and a few whites scattered around, but increasing.

Hi Felista! Keep in mind that I used 200 grams of cassia, that's a lot more than most people use-- I actually had about 8 ounces of the mixture left, which I stuck into my altered hair color bottle that I used to do the roots more effectively (I just cut the tip wider), and stuck in the freezer. I used 4.5 teaspoons of already dye-released henna; since most people use 100g cassia, that would be 2 and a 1/4 teaspoons (a bit over 2/3 of a tablespoon) per 100 grams. That is dye released thin paste, not henna powder. If you'd like the same results, I would suggest using dye released henna made to pancake batter consistency, and then measure it in that state since I have no idea how much henna powder is in that amount of liquid.

I would definitely recommend test strands too-- I don't have any white hairs (I love white hair so that is sad for me), but you don't need to have a cross section of every hair on your head to get a fair idea if the color change is going to be more than you want. Honestly, I just took the hairs that shed during my shower for a few showers, taped them together, and used those. It's a reasonable cross section.

It's too soon to say with certainty, but the effect and the color don't appear to have faded at all yet (it's only been about 2.5 weeks, so I would still be noticing some effect even if I had only used cassia). I suspect that my mix will be more permanent than just cassia alone; whether it will last until I cut off the treated hair or just a few months I can't say yet.
As you may recall, I was trying to get a more permanent effect because I don't have time for a monthly cassia treatment anymore; but I only wanted a subtle color change. If I wasn't concerned about the lasting power of the treatment, I would have used less henna or none at all.

What brand is your cassia? As I mentioned, I use the cheap-o herbco stuff, and it releases a lot of the dye molecule. It has never turned my hair greenish, only more golden/ yellow. The "greenish" comment makes me wonder if it's a company that adds green dye to the leaf powder to make it look more "green and fresh" which would sound like lower quality cassia, to me.

That said, I would think that 1/8-1/4 teaspoon henna in 100 grams of cassia would only have a very subtle effect, and it would be golden, not red.The right amount of henna for you will depend on what lasting power you want, and how much color change you can deal with.