CASSIA RECIPES TO STRENGTHEN & CONDITION HAIR

There is a ‘Mom & Pop’ grocery store in my area that sells coconuts and grates the chosen coconut for its customers. When I want coconut with a lot of oil, I would choose a very mature nut. At home, I placed the grated coconut flesh in a muslin bag to squeeze out the coconut milk. The milk from the first extraction is very rich and thick. 50 percent of coconut flesh comprises lauric acid (a.k.a dodecanoic acid), a fatty acid that is found in smaller quantities in human breast milk. Another fatty acid called capric acid has pharmaceutical and medical uses.

For the second round of extraction, I mixed a little water with the grated coconut before squeezing it into a separate bowl. Normally, milk from the second round of extraction is used for cooking.

Let’s use coconut milk in our first cassia recipe.  If you do not have fresh coconut, use the packaged variety instead. Alternatively, use warm water, honey water or brew a pot of herbal tea to dissolve the cassia powder.

Check out ‘GOOD SKINCARE NATURALLY [3] - Skincare herbs’ for herbs and their properties.

Do NOT use metal utensils to hold and mix your recipes. Use inert materials such as glass/porcelain/wood/bamboo instead.

Cassia for dry hair

POWDER INGREDIENTS:

3 parts cassia powder

1 part amla powder

LIQUID INGREDIENT:

Warm coconut milk

A little oil with ceramides (See previous article)

Essential oil of your choice for fragrance (optional)

METHOD

• Warm up coconut milk from first extraction. (It should not be boiling hot. Boiling first extraction can result in separation of oil and water.)
  
  
• Place Ingredient 1 into a bowl/container. Pour in warm coconut milk and oil gradually, stirring to mix into a paste with pancake batter / yogurt consistency. Wait for 30 minutes.
  (If the weather is cold, place container into a pan of hot water and cover)
  
  
• After 30 minutes, stir in fragrance and spoon cassia batter into a squeeze bottle with enough quantity for one treatment.
  
  
• Put excess cassia batter into container with well- fitting lid and store in the freezer.

Applying cassia treatment

This process may be quite messy if you are doing it for the first time. Thankfully, cassia is not as staining as henna.

1. Apply cassia batter in your bathroom, just before you take a bath.
   
   
2. Divide your hair into sections. If you have long hair, clip up your hair according to section.
   
   
3. Use the squeeze bottle to apply cassia from root of the hair to tip of the hair section-by-section, starting from the back of the head.
   
   
4. When you have finished, cover hair with shower cap and let hair marinate for between 30 minutes to one hour.
   
   
5. Take your beauty bath.
   
   
6. After your hair has marinated long enough, wash off cassia batter. Use your fingers to help to remove residue from the hair.
   
   
7. Wash until all residues are gone.

Note:

You can either apply cassia treatment before or after you have washed your hair.

Depending on hair type, a cassia treatment can last between one to three weeks.

Your hair should feel soft and lustrous. If it feels dry, apply a light coating of oil on the dry parts.

Condition and thicken hair

Cassia-Fenugreek Mask

INGREDIENTS

4 tbsp. cassia powder

1 tsp. fenugreek powder

LIQUID INGREDIENT

Warm water or herbal tea

Essential oil of your choice for fragrance (optional)

METHOD

1. Soak fenugreek powder in 2 tablespoon of very warm water for several hours until mucilage is released.
   
   
2. Mix fenugreek mucilage and warm water/warm herbal tea with cassia powder into yogurt consistency. Wait for 30 minutes.
   (If the weather is cold, place container into a pan of hot water and cover)
   
   
3. After 30 minutes, stir in fragrance and spoon cassia batter into a squeeze bottle and use immediately.

[Refer to ‘ADD MORE BODY TO YOUR HAIR’ for other ingredients and ideas you can add to cassia powder to thicken your hair.]

If you have very greasy, dirty hair, wash your hair before cassia treatment.  For liquid ingredients, besides warm water or herbal water, you can use juices of acidic fruits such as orange or diluted lime/lemon juice, diluted vinegar or citric acid.

Acid can breakdown protein molecules into shorter chains. It is one of the substances to hydrolyze protein. However, the short span of time recommended in the conditioner recipe is not likely to breakdown the protein in cassia. For benefits of acid in a conditioner, refer to PH AND YOUR HAIR.

Check the pH of your preparation to ensure it is not too acidic.