Cassia, hold the color?

So...I haven't posted in about a hundred years. Since then, I've stopped using herbal hair colors of any kind. I've got too much grey these days and I don't want to be covering up my greys. A few sparkly gold strands is all very well but a whole head of that is downright weird on an Italian lady, and the idea of the amount of work it would take to keep my hair my near-black auburn color over grey...plus. Roots. Icky.

So anyway, I've been keeping it simple for a long while now. Natural shampoos, conditioners, coconut oil. The problem is my hair is not as cooperative without the henna. The ends got nasty, so 18 months ago I did a drastic cut, just below BSL. SCARY. It's back to belt length now, and reasonably healthy, but it just dries out and gets frizzy/velcro-ey at the ends by comparison to my hennahead days. It also has some extra waviness that just makes it more frizzy looking.

I miss henna. Cassia always deposited a fair amount of gold color for me, and I don't want my grey to be yellow. Can anybody make suggestions about how to suppress the coloring effect of cassia so I can enjoy the conditioning aspect?

Member Join DateMay 2012Posts243

Doesn't cassia wash out in a month? And grey hair is usually resistant so you'd have to do a whole head cassia mud app weekly to get golden sparklies. If you started adding henna to your mix then you could be in for some permanent golden-izing but otherwise I think you ought to be fine. If it gets too gold then perhaps apply less often, giving the cassia time to wash out.

Lots of people don't get any color at all from cassia, even when they're hoping to.
Normally when you do, it's because you've mixed it up enough in advance of using it to allow it to dye release, and then left it on your hair for several hours.
When you got color from cassia in the past, did you leave it on for quite a long time?

If I don't want color from cassia, I mix it up about 20 minutes before I want to use it, and leave it on for about 30 minutes. That leaves my hair as conditioned as if I leave it on for 3 hours (my hair is fair, so letting it dye release and leaving it on longer does give me golden tones)

Well, I usually used it in conjunction with henna and did get a big color shift. I never noticed the gold washing out, either. I'll have to give it a try. If I'm not using any additional color-fixing techniques, just using it in water and maybe honey, maybe it'll be fine.

Do you do deep conditioning treatments? I find that my hair really needs a dose of those on a regular basis. I did a protein pack a couple of days ago, followed by moisture (of course).

Summer 2012, long layers, hand at classic length

Only henna usually helped much as far as treatments go. A coconut milk soak is nice, but not much different from just using coconut oil in the long run, and I already do that. I apply it rather heavily on wet hair after a (twice weekly) wash. Surprisingly, cones are a help. I've only started experimenting with those since the henna truly wore off; at this time, what's helping is to apply a few drops of Moroccan Oil after the coconut oil mainly toward the ends of my hair. I mean the coney stuff, not pure argan oil. It takes longer to air dry with all the oil, but when it does it's pretty silky and moisturized. Still, the ends are always the worst. Also it doesn't seem to cut down on the "halo" hairs, which my hair is very prone to.

I used to do occasional egg yolk-olive oil soaks. That might help, especially in winter. The main problem I think is the bit of wave, which isn't enough to look nice but just to make frizz. Henna and other coating type treatments weigh that down a bit and make my hair look smoother.

If you used the cassia with henna, that's probably why you noticed golden tones. On its own, you probably wouldn't see any color on your grays, especially if left on for half an hour or so (which is enough time to condition)
I have to add though, that cassia doesn't always make hair feel conditioned, it doesn't for me. It makes mine feel drier, but I use it for volume (when I used to use henna, which I'm now growing out, I did a henna/cassia mix, always with honey added, and my hair never felt smooth)
I know lots of people do find it makes their hair smooth though!

How about protein treatments, specifically? A lot of people who find their hair drastically improves with henna tend to have hair that likes protein. Be sure to follow it up with a moisture treatment -- protein treatments tend to be on the drying side of things, no matter how beneficial they are.

Lady Physis, Lorekeeper of Nature
in the Order of the Long Haired Knights

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