Cassia / Henna

re-post:  http://www.hennacaravan.com/how/cassia.html

Natural, pure cassia is a wonderful safe, chemical free natural hair dye and conditioner. Safely brightening blonde and lifting gray hair, while conditioning and leaving deep healthy shine. You can achieve beautiful blonde and strawberry shades with cassia and blends of henna and cassia.

What it is

Cassia Obovata Sometimes called senna or neutral/blonde henna (there really isn’t neutral/blonde henna, they’re talking about Cassia Obovata). The Cassia Obovata plant, with over 400 species, is grown in Egypt and Nubia. The leaves are harvested, dried, and ground into a powder for natural hair care, coloring, and conditioning.

What it does

• Cassia Obovata is an excellent natural conditioner that may thicken and add shine and golden hues to your BLONDE or GRAY hair.
• Brightens and adds golden hues to blonde or gray hair
• Adds richness, shine, and texture
• Will not color dark hair, but will condtion it
• Use as often as you like for healthy hair and scalp
• Non drying

How to use it:

As a dye:

• Go gold - Brighten up blond or gray hair naturally!

• Mix Cassia powder with orange or lemon juice or water until it’s the consistency of yogurt
• Cover and let the paste sit for 12 hours.  
• Apply the cassia paste to dry or damp hair in sections, completely coating all the hair down to the roots
• Wrap your hair in a shower cap or plastic wrap and allow to soak in for 3 hours
• Rinse and shampoo to remove any residue
• Repeat: Monthly for healthy, thick and shiny golden locks 

As a Dye:

• Go Strawberry blonde with your blonde or gray hair naturally!

• Mix Using 80% Cassia powder with 20% henna powder. Mix with orange or lemon juice or water until it’s the consistency of yogurt
• Cover and let the paste sit for 12 hours.  
• Apply the cassia paste to dry or damp hair in sections, completely coating all the hair down to the roots
• Wrap your hair in a shower cap or plastic wrap and allow to soak in for 3 hours
• Rinse and shampoo to remove any residue
• Repeat: Monthly for healthy, thick and shiny strawberry blonde locks

For deeper strawberry red tones you can add more henna to the cassia/henna blend, try a 50/50 mix for a copper red.

As a conditioner:

• For shiny, thick, healthy hair, naturally

• Mix Cassia powder with warm water until it’s the consistency of yogurt
• Apply the cassia paste to dry or damp hair in sections, completely coating all the hair down to the roots
• Wrap your hair in a shower cap or plastic wrap and allow to soak in for 1 hour
• Rinse and shampoo to remove any residue
• Repeat: Monthly for healthy, thick and shiny locks

Storage

store cassia obovata paste in the freezer

How Much do I need

Short Hair  1 Box or 100 Grams
Shoulder Length Hair 2-3 Boxes or 200-300 Grams
Long Hair 4-5 Boxes or 400-500 Grams

What else you need to know

Disclaimer
*We recommend you perform a strand test before using any of these recipes or products on your hair to be sure you like the color and result. 
Test the product on a small section of your hair or on hair harvested from your hair brush.

When using natural products please keep in mind that every product will react and color your hair uniquely. The result will be different and unique on everyone depending on hair type and condition. There are many ingredients and recipes to try, have fun experimenting!

What it looks like

Cassia Obovata powder is a medium olive green powder from the ground leaves of the plant and smells like fresh grass.

History and Use

Cassia has been used for centuries as a beauty and health regimen and has been used as an antifungal, antibacterial and laxative as well as treatment of mites, eczema and psoriasis. Cassia contains chrysophanic acid (1,8-dihydroxy-3-methylanthraquinone), tannins and anthraqinone which is yellow. The anthraqinone is what gives the plant its ability to stain a yellow hue.