The Cassia Thread (see first post for link to FAQs)

[Sissilonghair]

Today I ran another experiment with cassia. I started by making roughly 2 cups of tea using a large amount of sage and a smaller amount of horsetail and rosemary. The sage was for the color and the rosemary and horsetail because they are supposed to be conditioning and I had some on hand. I made this tea the night before and just let it sit and steep all night.
In the morning I warmed the tea back up and strained it. Then I took roughly 1/3 cup of cassia and mixed with it about 2 Tbls of black strap molasses and about 2-3 Tbls of red wine. Then I added enough of the strained tea to make the mixture like a runny pancake batter. I didn't wish to let the cassia mixture sit too long as I was not interested in obtaining a die release from the cassia.
I used the left over tea to wet my hair. I poured it over my head several times as if I were using the sage to color my hair and I really made certain to soak my hair good. I figured if I could get the sage really soaked in, it would prevent me from taking on too much yellow from the cassia.
After wringing out the excess liquid I detangled a bit and began applying the cassia, sectioning my hair as best as I was able considering how that cassia really grabs and matts the hair as I'm applying it. I smooshed it around a bit to make certain to have full coverage, applied a plastic shower cap over my head and topped that with a turbie. I looked absolutely irresistible and prayed that the UPS man wouldn't make a delivery for fear that he would become overwhelmed with desire by my presence at the door.
I then spent the next 1 1/2 to 2 hours making Masoor Dal and starting some Hing valli Brown Basmati to go with dinner tonight. Might as well get something useful done while I was waiting.
As I said, I'm not certain exactly how long the mixture had been sitting on my head but it was at least 1 1/2 and not more than 2 hours.
I then went to the shower and soaked and rinsed the bulk out of my hair before using conditioner to smooth and get the last bits out of my hair.
Then on the theory that cassia raised the cuticle a bit (I figured that's why the hair feels so thick and fluffy) I decided that this would be an excellent time to try and get some oil deeper into the hair shaft. So after toweldrying I applied EVOO to below the ear first and then smoothed the fragile hair around my temples with what little remained on my hands and ran my hair over the crown area as well.
I think I was right about the oil. My hair feels very strong and full. In the past I didn't use the oil and although my hair felt extremely soft, I also felt that it was a bit fragile. The oil was a good idea, at least for me.
As to the color. I didn't notice anything that one would consider coverage on the gray hair but it did seem to give my hair a nice tone that made the gray hair look more like highlights. In the past, using cassia and camomile recipe I found that it made my hair a rather undesirable yellow tone - not a gentle golden but bordering on clown yellow. The sage tea mixture and possibly the molasses helped cut down the brassy color and gave me a richer tone.
I don't know if a picture will help or not. It's not easy to get a good color read with the lighting in my room and the camera on my PC. But I took a photo nonetheless.

I'm very inerested on using sage in my cassia,do you use the fresh leaves or the dry ones?

[Silver & Gold]

I'm very inerested on using sage in my cassia,do you use the fresh leaves or the dry ones?

I used dried leaves, I don't have access to fresh ones.

[Henna Sooq]

I believe most used the dried powder (cassia obovata) and that works very well.

[Medievalhair]

Where should I get Cassia from? and How long do you wait in between Cassia treatments?

[ilovelonghair]

Where can I buy cassia in Australia (I prefer to buy in a store, not online)?

[Riot Crrl]

It's hard to find in a store. And if you do find it you have to be really careful about what is in it, which is sometimes impossible to find out. If it was there it would most likely be in an Indian import store or grocery of some sort. I can't find it at my local ones. Only some questionable henna, and "amla oil" which is mostly mineral oil.

Medievalhair, there's a bunch of places to order it from. I don't want to start linking but any place that is selling good hair henna often has cassia too. Once you have it, you can use it as much as you want. I've heard of people using it from every two months to every week. But it shouldn't be bad for you or anything, you can use it every day if you have the time and patience (and don't get any mechanical damage rinsing it).

[Ms Monnie]

I've got a slop of three parts cassia, two parts amla and one part fenugreek cooking on my head at the moment. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

I think the amla needed to have been sifted though...

[Sissilonghair]

I used dried leaves, I don't have access to fresh ones.

I'm still waiting to do my cassia treatement because I still have some red colour on my hair from last month henna treatement.Next week I think I'm going to try it.This time I would like to develope some golden tones,so I considered to do the mix with chamomille tea , then add honey and like you said sage but how much should I put in the mix?Are you sure that the colour would result more golden then yellow?who told you so?Have you ever tried some walnut husk?Why do you stir red wine in the mix ? Sorry for all the question but I'm very curious and I need to know more about this interesting matter

[Silver & Gold]

I'm still waiting to do my cassia treatement because I still have some red colour on my hair from last month henna treatement.Next week I think I'm going to try it.This time I would like to develope some golden tones,so I considered to do the mix with chamomille tea , then add honey and like you said sage but how much should I put in the mix?Are you sure that the colour would result more golden then yellow?who told you so?Have you ever tried some walnut husk?Why do you stir red wine in the mix ? Sorry for all the question but I'm very curious and I need to know more about this interesting matter

I used the sage because I had it on hand and I had heard that a sage rinse is good for toning grays if you have brown hair. So I figured the sage would tone down the yellow in the cassia as opposed to using camomile which enhances gold tones. I haven't tried walnut husk yet, as I said, I used what I had on hand.
As far as amounts, I made a strong sage tea with roughly 1/4 cup of dried sage leaves to 2 cups of water. But this is only a rough estimate, I don't measure, I eyeball it.
I added the red wine because . . . ummmmm . . . well . . . for some reason it occurred to me to try it, I really have no idea. Sometimes I just try things. I think maybe it was because I heard of someone using ACV in their mix and I think I reasoned that red wine might have some of the same properties but with a richer color than yellow to it. Yes, I think this was my thought process at the time.

[Henna Sooq]

As for how often to do cassia treatments you can do it every 2-4 weeks, but if you wait 4 weeks or so that is fine, depending on how you can balance it out and how your hair takes to it without pushing it too much (like dryness etc if that is an issue).