The henna/cassia thread

[Evilynn]

Thank you. I use whole dried chamomile flowers for my chamomile tea, rather than bags, but I guess I could substitute the chamomile powder for 2 extra tb cassia.

[Nightshade]

Thank you. I use whole dried chamomile flowers for my chamomile tea, rather than bags, but I guess I could substitute the chamomile powder for 2 extra tb cassia.

I'm sure that'd work out just fine

[hennaphile]

Be cautious when adding EOs to your mix, it can burn your scalp. Ask me how I know

[Elettaria]

So tell me how you know! Which EOs did you use, how much of them did you put in, and what was the quantity of henna they went in with?

[Nightshade]

Normally you dilute 12 drops of EO into 1 oz of liquid.

I've burned my scalp too with EOs, and I think it was because I was adding it to the mud. You could get better control adding it to the liquid at the right ratio, and then adding the liquid to the powder?

[Elettaria]

Let me see, how much is 1 oz? Ah, 30ml, so that would be a 2% dilution. I'd probably go for a lower dilution for anything sitting on my scalp for hours, less than 1% most likely, and I think you're right that you'd be better off calculating the ratio from the liquid part alone. Do you mean that when you burned your scalp, you were calculating the ratio from the volume of the mud so that you ended up with a higher dilution?

(No mud for me tonight either, I'm still knocked out from the painkillers I took yesterday. Grrr.)

[Nightshade]

Heh, I just started adding EOs to the mud and stopped when it "looked like enough."

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad plan, that.

[Elettaria]

Oh dear. We all do something like that once. The first time I used EOs, I was a child and my mother told me they were nice in the bath. I put in twenty drops of basil oil. Ouch. So what do you reckon you added, half a bottle or something?

[Nightshade]

Oh dear. We all do something like that once. The first time I used EOs, I was a child and my mother told me they were nice in the bath. I put in twenty drops of basil oil. Ouch. So what do you reckon you added, half a bottle or something?

Nah, more like 30 drops or so, but enough rosemary that it burned my scalp

I don't think the mud dilutes it in the same manner the liquid does, hence why I think it'd be better to dilute the EOs in the liquid to make sure the ratio is safe, and then add it to the mud

[Elettaria]

If you were to add 30 drops to the liquid beforehand, or to the mud later, I imagine that you'd get the same result. Thanks for letting me know that 30 drops was too much, it's not actually that great an amount so the warning's useful. Rosemary is about medium for the likelihood of irritation, so you could always try milder oils.