BKT and henna/cassia

~Ghost Poster~ · 04-05-2010, 11:37 AM

So, yesterday, I did a 90% cassia 10% henna--actually it was more like 92% cassia 8% henna. I washed my hair with a low poo and dried it. The cassia/henna mixture was mixed with orange juice.

I applied it and left it for 3 hours. My hair sucked it up as quickly as we could apply it.

I did a mermaid rinse, then rinsed out the rest in the shower--which took forever. Wow...so dry! My hair felt horrible!! I couldn't get the HEHH back in my hair fast enough! I had to cowash with it 3 times to bring my hair back to life.

I don't know if that was normal or if that was as a result of the BKT damaging my own hair and the cassia/henna/OJ just stripped away everything and revealed the real hair texture. I put my usual products in and styled it as usual, and it was very nice. Upon awakening today, my hair is still great! It was 92% humidity this morning, with a dew point of 42˚ (it was 49˚ outside). My hair was bouncy and full of body without any frizz.

The color: My grays were a very subtle golden color, which I expected. But, as dark as my natural hair color is, it really didn't look as good as I expected, so I won't be doing cassia again. It still looks like gray hair, even with all my honey and caramel highlights. The end didn't justify the means. I don't get the alleged conditioning effect of the cassia, but maybe that's just exclusive to my hair type and condition.

~Ghost Poster~ · 05-24-2010, 06:53 PM

I forgot to update after I did another cassia/henna/FSG job. Looks much better. My grays are replaced with fiery golden red highlights now. The FSG made application and removal super easy. I've done it twice more since the initial post above, and I'm very happy with it. I mixed with only water and just 2 drops of lemon juice, and the FSG makes it possible to stretch the henna so as not to use so much. I can use about 1/4 of the recommended amt of henna. Upon risnsing, my hair wasn't dry at all this time.

I still wouldn't recommend cassia and henna as hair conditioning treatments because I notice no benefit here, but I do note a significant decrease in dandruff.

No negative effects on my BKT, either.