Buxus dioica AKA katam

**eaglefeather71** · January 28th, 2010, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by Henna Sooq

So glad that at least it was a test strip and not the full head (since she wasn't that happy). an hour to leave it on is not really long enough as usually you'd leave in any herbal hair dye treatment for at least 3-4 hours. I personally don't feel katam needs to sit out for 9 hrs but sometimes people do leave it out for 12 hours, I have heard, and I think they've had no problems. but to me, the katam can be treated like indigo, as far as dye release goes.
Mix katam and let it sit seperately from the henna, for about 15--20 mins and then mix with the henna and then use. make sure the liquid you are using is warm as well.

I hope this helps!

Just to clarify too what color did she want? Like a reddish-brown?

She wants Med-dark Ash Blond and her hair is already that color at the roots, but her ends are pretty light, more of a light ash blond.

Thanks for the clarification. I bought some cassia and will do another test with 2pt cassia, 1pt buxus, and 1 pt henna. I think letting the Henna and cassia dye release for a few hours separately, and mixing the buxus just before application. Thanks again!

**Henna Sooq** · January 28th, 2010, 05:25 PM

sounds perfect!!

**Pakeezah** · January 29th, 2010, 10:32 PM

Its taken me the entire day to read this thread ...but it was worth it...even if I dont have enough posts yet to see any pics!!

I am a Muslim and after reading some Islamic information about how the Prophet Muhammad preferred Henna AND Khatam to Henna alone...I decided to research Khatam. I did not realize how much non Muslims seem to know about this. No Muslim I have spoken to have heard of Khatam (Of course, they havent heard of Indigo either!!)

So I have bought some Yemen henna and some Khatam and waiting for it to arrive. My question is:

How is everyones Khatam trials coming along? Any believers...or have you become Indigo reverts?

**Pakeezah** · January 29th, 2010, 10:35 PM

@HennaSooq:

I bought some Yemen henna and I have some old 2008 Jamila BAQ henna. I read somewhere that the Yemen henna may make the henna/khatam mix give more reddish tones which I ABSOLUTELY do not want!! (Red does not suit my skin tone!)

So do I swap the Yemen for the Jamila so that the henna depth is less or do I want to use the Yemen henna to obtain a more reddish tone so that the red combines with the blue/green tones of khatam to give a more chocolate brown tone that I want?

**Henna Sooq** · February 1st, 2010, 11:59 AM

indigo is stronger at making darker tones. Any henna powder can give you red tones. Do you have any amla powder on hand? Jamila can be very vibrant for some people too, but yemeni can usually be the more redder of both in more cases, in my experience.

So when using katam and deciding to use that, it's usually because a person wants reddish-brown tones to a brown with red hints in it. Indigo cuts out that red hints much more, as it is a stronger herb. amla powder will tone it down too.

So use at least 60-70% katam and then rest 40-30% henna and if you have amla powder, add at least 3-4 tbsp per 100 grams. since you already have katam on hand.

**shadowclaw** · February 9th, 2010, 11:14 AM

Hey everyone! I've just ordered some buxus and I intend to use it to tone my orange hair. Based on the recommendations I've received so far, I plan on doing a series of buxus glosses until I get the level of toning I desire.

I looked through most of the posts about glossing, and it seems the people have gotten the color to stick best by either 1) using cones to seal it in, or 2) applying it on top of henna.

I have bleached henna on my hair right now that I am toning to blonde. Do you think buxus will stick as well as on nonbleached henna? I think I will try the cone route anyway, to be sure.

Also, it has been suggested that I start with 1-2 teaspoons of buxus in my gloss and go up from there. A lot of the pictures aren't visible anymore in the thread, so I can't see the results of glosses or full buxus treatments for that matter, so I'm having a hard time figuring out what ratio I should use of buxus to conditioner. This is the current state of my hair:

and a close up that is most true-to-life:

I've also read through various posts across the Internet about how to best tone orange hair. The general consensus is to use purple (violet), although some have suggested blue. I was just looking at caribou's fabulous tests on Flickr, and I saw the huge difference between preparing buxus with room temperature water and cold lemon juice. The water produced a bluish gray, while the lemon produced purple.

Do you think it would be to my advantage to prepare my buxus with lemon to try to achieve a purple tone, or would blue be the better choice for toning my orange?

**caribou55313** · February 9th, 2010, 11:27 AM

Hi Shadowclaw,

I think you may have seen Jenianne's flickr page (hennamuse) where she compared lemon vs water vs lemon with 6 hours sitting time, vs water with 6 hours sitting time:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9962201...7622452766772/

Notice how much stronger one of these samples is (the water mix used immediately). All the other 3 are weaker in dye intensity. That pretty purplish shade is a weaker dye effect. Then again, these tests are on mohair so they can only give hints as to what the same mixes will do on human hair - hope you have lots of hairballs to test with

**shadowclaw** · February 9th, 2010, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by caribou55313

Hi Shadowclaw,

I think you may have seen Jenianne's flickr page (hennamuse) where she compared lemon vs water vs lemon with 6 hours sitting time, vs water with 6 hours sitting time:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9962201...7622452766772/

Notice how much stronger one of these samples is (the water mix used immediately). All the other 3 are weaker in dye intensity. That pretty purplish shade is a weaker dye effect. Then again, these tests are on mohair so they can only give hints as to what the same mixes will do on human hair - hope you have lots of hairballs to test with

The photos I was referring to were from your photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39335752@N04/3713938670/

You didn't specifically compare lemon vs water, just several preparations of cassia, henna, and buxus, all oxidized over 12 weeks.

I have just found the rest of your mohair tests and I see that the buxus and lemon created a very blue/green color initially.

**caribou55313** · February 9th, 2010, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by shadowclaw

The photos I was referring to were from your photostream:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39335752@N04/3713938670/

You didn't specifically compare lemon vs water, just several preparations of cassia, henna, and buxus, all oxidized over 12 weeks.

I have just found the rest of your mohair tests and I see that the buxus and lemon created a very blue/green color initially.

Oh, haha - you're right, I was looking for this in my pics and couldn't find it, thanks for pointing it out. In my testing I just haven't had much luck getting a strong buxus color on human hair using lemon juice or amla, so I just go with water nowadays. But some people do and prefer it, so it may be worth trying it both ways.

**~~redneckprincess~~** · February 12th, 2010, 08:41 AM

I am getting ready to jump in to this henna craze head-on, ordering some buxus as well as other herbs...I just need to know what it the dye releace time frame of buxus- Im looking for a very light brown, some call it dark blonde even...my mix is mostly cassia (50&#37

then amla (about 25%) for curl, and equal parts (10%) henna (marocon) and buxus and about 5-10% shakikkia
do i mix it all together and let it sit for ?? hours then apply for ?? hours, or mix one, add another some hours later...Im confused