Sedr (Zizyphus Spina Christi)

[Suortuva]

captainjanuary, thanks for sharing your experience, it's really interesting!

Here's my experience:
My Zizyphus arrived today. I ordered two packs and unfortunately one of them was partially open, so there were powder in the envelope, some of it trying to escape. Though it wasn't a big amount, surely less than a tea spoon. So not a real issue, but a bit annoying.

It was very fine light green powder with a faint, quite nice, smell, which was a relief, because my DH can't stand the smell of henna or cassia. Now he didn't react at all.

I used hot, but not boiling, water, and it mixed easily, no clumps at all. I used 5-6 table spoons and that was just enough to my thin APL hair. I added a bit of honey and liquid Aloe Vera concentrate in the mix too.

I washed my lengths, because I had som coney serum in them. Then I applied the mixture to my damp hair. It was quite grainy, which surprised me, because the powder felt so fine.

I read it can be used as body scrub too, but I haven't that much. But I had enough to use it to my hands and face, and my skin felt very nice afterwards.

I let it sit 1,5 hours under a shower cap and a beanie. It was quite easy to wash out, and my hair felt good and detangled after the first rinse, but I used even Dr. Organic's Aloe Vera conditioner to be sure I get it all out.

My wet hair was very soft, slippery and detangled. It's dry now, soft, shiny and very voluminous. And there's no smell left. I'm really impressed and pleased. And it was very easy procedure, I will definitely keep using this.

*Happy*

[Sabrina Fair]

This one is Italian, but it's the Z. jujube variant. Otherwise this one ships from the UK, and it is the Z. spina-christi, but gods know how long they'll be in the EU

I've had a little rummage around the internet generally and scientific google in particular, and it looks like z. jujube and z. spina-christi are either the same plant, or very closely related plants of the same genus, in the same way that the different forms of cassia - senna alexandrina and senna italica - are very similar and are used in exactly the same way to condition hair. (Just for clarity and to avoid creating yet more confusion by using cassia as an example: although the various sennas have different levels of yellow dye, ziziphus is colour-free, so even if it's not exactly the same plant, the difference wouldn't have an effect on hair colour.)

The common name for Ziziphus spina-christi is Christ’s Thorn Jujube, and I suspect the non-English sites that call it Ziziphus Jujube just conflated the two versions of the name. Jujube is more often used when talking about the fruit of the tree, but all of the references that I found are to genus Ziziphus/family Rhamnaceae. So ordering your sidr for hair at either the UK or Italian shops should give you the same stuff

[Suortuva]

That's really interesting, thanks a lot Sabrina Fair!

The UK shop was just cheaper for me (shipping included).

[Siv]

This is fantastic information! I've been MIA from LHC lately and haven't really been messing around with hair stuff in real life either but once I run out of cassia I think I'll give the Italian sedr a go!!

Thanks all of you for sharing your experiences

[Sabrina Fair]

Tried a different mix on the lengths last night while re-hennaing my roots, skipping the cassia this time. 50g of the ziziphus from the Italian shop, mixed with hot water and about a quarter cup each of conditioner and honey (so kinda runny), applied to dry hair that hadn’t been washed for about 4 days.

I left on for three hours under plastic plus a wool hat while I let the henna do its thing, co-washed out with more conditioner and honey mixed at about a 1:1 ratio (so kind of a modified SMT without the aloe and with a lot more honey, which is working really well for me as a co-wash right now), ROO with 10 drops mineral oil focusing on the dyed lengths I’m growing out, yet more of the modified SMT to rinse out the oil, then a citric acid rinse. My hair came out lovely and thick with minimal tangling, which is fabulous for a straighty like me! And so much less heavy than the ziziphus cassia mud mix, which gave me a neck ache from the weight of all that mud last time.

[captainjanuary]

I used hot, but not boiling, water, and it mixed easily, no clumps at all. I used 5-6 table spoons and that was just enough to my thin APL hair. I added a bit of honey and liquid Aloe Vera concentrate in the mix too.

...

I let it sit 1,5 hours under a shower cap and a beanie. It was quite easy to wash out, and my hair felt good and detangled after the first rinse, but I used even Dr. Organic's Aloe Vera conditioner to be sure I get it all out.

I'm glad it worked out for you! It is funny, because my packet of sedr powder was also open when I received it and the fine green powder was everywhere inside the larger plastic envelope. I do also enjoy the smell vs henna.

Your experience makes me think that I should try mix-ins like aloe and/or try with hot water. I also felt like shampooing or conditioning my hair after doing the treatment would wash it out, so maybe I'll use conditioner next time. It does sound like you didn't have problems with clumps, so perhaps my sedr powder is just not a great product.

[Suortuva]

No, I didn't have any clumps, thankfully. And I found the smell quite pleasant and it really didn't linger. I haven't done a second treatment yet, I think the recommendation is some weeks between treatments? Maybe I should try to do this once a month?

[Fimu]

Does anyone here have the tools to measure the pH of Sedr/Zizyphus in distilled water?

[florenonite]

Does anyone here have the tools to measure the pH of Sedr/Zizyphus in distilled water?

I think you're going to have a hard time getting an accurate answer here. Sedr is typically applied as a mud, not a liquid as pH testing strips are designed for, and the thickness of the mud will affect the end pH. If you mix in enough water to get an accurate pH reading, it'll likely be too thin to apply easily, but if you mix it as a thicker mud for application then it might not be wet enough to get an accurate pH reading.

[Suortuva]

No, I didn't have any clumps, thankfully. And I found the smell quite pleasant and it really didn't linger. I haven't done a second treatment yet, I think the recommendation is some weeks between treatments? Maybe I should try to do this once a month?

Just a little update, I have been doing this once a month since March and I'm really happy with this thing.