Cassia Obovata or Natural Henna
is the ultimate natural treatment for damaged hair meant to strengthen thin and flat hair, whether it's chemically treated or not. Hair that needs volume and shine. Cassia treats hair without leaving any hint of color.
Cassia,
known wrongly as neutral henna in the market, comes from the plant Cassia Obovata (or Cassia Italica or Senna Italica). After it's fully grown, the plant is dried and powdered. The better the quality, the more its consistency is similar to the talc consistency. It has a green, slightly yellow color, like in the photo below.
In order to be sure you are using a 100% pure quality powder herb you need to read the ingredients names of the herb you bought, and you should see only one name in the list, that is the name of the plant: "cassia obovata" or "cassia italica" or "senna italica". Especially if you don't want it to dye your hair you need to make sure it is 100% pure as often it has lawsonia in it...
Cassia Obovata - Neutral Henna: properties?
- Hair restructuring
- Shine-enhancing
- Volumizing
- Conditioning
Also, thanks to its antifungal, astringent and antibacterial properties, it's perfect to cleanse the scalp and fight dandruff. If applied constantly, it helps strengthen brittle and thin hair.
The video tutorials are in Italian, but English subtitles are available!
Cassia Obovata - Neutral Henna: How to use it?
It can be used as:
- a highlighting or lightening hair treatment on naturally blonde hair
- a strengthening and volumizing hair mask for damaged and thin hair.
Since you dedicate a lot of time to the hair mask, be sure to apply Cassia on clean hair (within 24 hours tops from the moment you washed it). So you can be sure that sebum won't prevent Cassia to do its job on your damaged hair as a natural conditioning, restructuring and strengthening hair treatment.
For the same reason, I would avoid adding to the Cassia mix any other oily ingredient (like vegetable oils or butters) that could film the hair, preventing Cassia to do its job as a shine-enhancing and volumizing agent.
Cassia: highlighting or lightening hair mask
If left to oxidize for at least 12 hours and acidified with an acid ingredient (like yoghurt or lemon juice) and if mixed with an infusion of chamomile, Cassia can release light and golden highlights. Attention: this highlighting action can be used only on natural blonde / light hair! This happens because Cassia contains a molecule with a very small coloring power, which is activated with acidification and oxidation.
Pay attention not to use it on bleached hair as it may leave on the hair some not so pleasant highlights. Remember to always make a trial test on a hidden strand of hair.
Cassia is often used like this, in order to lighten hair a little, but remember that this natural technique uses lemon juice as a lightening agent, so only after a constant use, you can obtain small changes in your hair color.
It must be said that herbal hair colors have a slight tendency to dry hair, so lemon juice can lead to further dryness. So, before adding lemon juice to your hair treatment, please, weigh in the pros and cons of doing it.
On dark hair (brown or black), you won't see any differences before and after using Cassia. So you can use it as a natural strengthening, restructuring & shine-enhancing treatment for damaged hair.
Cassia: Dirty blond?
If you want to obtain a dirty blond hair color (starting from a light hair color), and should you wish to cover your gray hair, you can apply a mix of Cassia and Katam.
The percentages of your mix will vary depending on the color you obtain after the test on your hidden strand of hair, in order to obtain a color similar to the one you wish for. The higher the percentage of katam the darker the dirty blond..the higher the percentage of cassia the lighter will be the color you will obtain.
Cassia: various brown shades?
Cassia can be used in herbal hair colors mixes with red henna (lawsonia inermis) and katam or indigo to dilute the final color, resulting in different shades of brown hair color.
Cassia Obovata: Restructuring, strengthening and volumizing hair mask for damaged and thin hair <- read the dedicated blog post!
CURIOSITIES!
Cassia obovata was between the first species discovered by botanists. It grew in Italy in the first half of the XVI century, that's why it's called sena d'italia or Fiorentina (italic or florentine senna) (Source).
Cassia Obovata (neutral henna):
- cleanses the scalp
- cures sebum excess, dandruff and irritations
- is a perfect conditioner: it leaves soft and voluminous hair and restructures & strengthens thin hair.
Cassia is a perfect DIY natural beauty treatment for your damaged or healthy hair, and it's the ultimate natural homemade treatment to strengthen fine and brittle hair.
If you have never used it, give it a chance, your hair will thank you!
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Take care of your skin and hair consciously. You'll find everything you need (even herbal hair colors) on our online shop. Click HERE to visit it!
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