Ziziphus spina cristi/ sedr/ lotus powder

**Lilou** · April 5th, 2017, 02:54 PM

I'm very interested in using this as an alternative to henna for thickening my fine/straight/ chemically damaged hair. I have ordered some today (took me a while to find some that delivers cheaply in the UK but eventually I did). I have been trying to find photos of other people's results with this treatment but havent managed to find any of results on straight hair. Does anyone have any photos/links?

**Beeboo123** · January 22nd, 2018, 09:31 AM

Bump! Does anyone have experience with this? Would love to try it out, for the shine, but I don’t want my strands to seem coarser ._.

**divinedobbie** · January 27th, 2018, 03:22 AM

Also have some of this stuff in my cart but would love to hear any feedback before committing.

**pandabarrier** · January 28th, 2018, 03:24 PM

There are older threads with more info, maybe the mods could merge them so that the information doesn’t get lost?

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...d.php?t=109500
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...ad.php?t=12995

I used sedr yesterday night! I mixed 50g with very hot water until it got consistency of yogurt, and let it sit for ~40min. Then I applied the paste in dirty dry pre-oiled hair (oil on length only because I have SD), since I heard it could be drying.

That amount wasn’t nearly enough to cover all my hair, maybe I would need at least 100g. I covered my hair with a shower cap for 40min, then I rinsed out with a lot of warm water. I dunked my head a couple of times in a large bowl of water first. It was still easier to rinse out sedr than cassia and henna gloss that I’ve used in the past.

Then I did the usual CWC with ACV rinse. I read sedr is used for cleaning hair too, and it seemed so because I didn’t have to use as much shampoo as usual, and the pre-poo oiling wasn’t difficult to remove as usual.

I don’t think it made my hair coarser, but my hair does feel stronger and well-conditioned. As for shine, I’m not sure, my hair already has some shine. But I’ll keep doing sedr pastes as deep conditioning, and next time I’ll use a blender to mix the paste because my mix blended by hand came out a bit lumpy.

**Katia_k** · January 28th, 2018, 06:42 PM

I've had a packet of this in my cupboard for ages. I've read both the old threads, but if anyone has updated stories, or recipes they've used to avoid some of the drying effects, I'd be really interested.

I had a deep conditioning treatment go wrong, which left my hair super oily on the first day after washing, so maybe this would be a good time to try this out...

**Katia_k** · January 29th, 2018, 01:34 PM

I ended up trying it out. Mixed my 100 gram packet with warm water, slapped a bunch on my head, and am sitting around doing my swamp monster impression.

I applied it in a dumb way though, so I'm anticipating a lot of tangles and sadness when I rinse out. But hopefully I'll still get the effects.

The 100 grams was more than enough to cover my hair, but did come out lumpy, so the above suggestion of the blender might not be a bad idea. It was not smooth like henna.

**pandabarrier** · January 29th, 2018, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by Katia_k

I ended up trying it out. Mixed my 100 gram packet with warm water, slapped a bunch on my head, and am sitting around doing my swamp monster impression.

I applied it in a dumb way though, so I'm anticipating a lot of tangles and sadness when I rinse out. But hopefully I'll still get the effects.

The 100 grams was more than enough to cover my hair, but did come out lumpy, so the above suggestion of the blender might not be a bad idea. It was not smooth like henna.

Oh, no, hopefully you were able to rinse out without too many tangles.

I’ve only used cheaper cassia and henna bought at local Indian grocer, not finely sifted, so comparing sedr from Henna Sooq to those, rinsing was a breeze!

As for the suggestion of less drying effects, maybe add aloe vera powder, or fresh aloe vera mixed in a blender with the sedr?

**Katia_k** · January 29th, 2018, 09:32 PM

The powder itself was beautifully sifted; the mixture itself was just lumpy. I probably needed to add more water, but ran out of room in my mixing bowl. It rinsed out really well...except where there were lumps and it didn't want to come out at all. It was legitimately like having slime in my hair. Like 4 hours after my shower I was messing with my hair and just found a giant lump hiding out in a clump of strands.

So to clarify, the parts that had the smooth mixture in them rinsed out beautifully, and the parts with lumps...decided they would never rinse out.

I ended up with fab curls though, and so much body, it's awesome. I think I'll reorder, and try mixing it in with some more moisturizing stuff like aloe, because my hair is indeed dry. Or maybe I'll just use conditioner to get it out like I do henna, and get the moisture that way. Either way, pretty simple, and if I blend it better, a decent success. Not something I'd do on the regular (because of swamp-monster clean-up in the shower), but a nice treat for when my hair's feeling thin and sad.

**Beeboo123** · January 29th, 2018, 11:51 PM

Does it bind permanently to hair the way henna does?

**Katia_k** · January 30th, 2018, 07:17 AM

It coats it, but like cassia, the effects are not permanent. No color deposit, and I think you'd have to do it relatively often to keep the thickening benefits.

I'll let you know how long it lasts in my hair.