Henna is a plant.
It's leaves are ground up and dissolved in tea to make a liquid dye that can be painted on the skin to decorate it for a time.
Cleopatra was probably painted with Henna. It's been around a while.
At a hippie party (really a "Whole Earth Festival" but what is the difference?) in Davis, CA this weekend, I saw a few booths that were painting with Henna on flesh and I had to try it.
For the most part, the booths were filled with teen aged girls getting little accent pieces applied on publicly revealable areas, a couple guys getting arm band patterns around biceps and me, a 45 year old overweight computer nerd.
No one else was getting anything done on the face, and I found that one reason is that the face doesn't dye as well as the rest of the body. While Henna will last up to 3 weeks on hands or feet, I was told that any pattern on my face would only last about 1 week, and that it would never get as dark or consistent as if done elsewhere on the body.
Apparently, the skin of the face is oilier and the Henna can't stick as well. I'm guessing that the skin of the face probably shoughs off quicker than other places as well.
I gave Jamie-the guy that drew my face pattern-free rein to draw what he wanted by one eye after giving some size and cost constraints. I was glad when he drew a pseudo-Mauri pattern.
Mauris are the native people that pre-existed when the Europeans got to New Zealand. I met a few when I visited that beautiful country, and felt as if this was one of the only places on earth where the native population was holding its own against the white invaders.
Painted faces and grimacing poses seem to go together in my mind's image of a Mauri Warrior.
Jamie painted on through a mid-day downpour that started as he started and soaked the horde down. By the time he had finished, the rain was mostly gone, but a bit of mist persisted.
With the end of the rain, the frisbees were out, and after a couple hours of tossing with a guy I met with a disk, I was pretty streaked and chipped and had Henna running down my face.
I went back to the booth after they had just finished packing up, and Jamie, joined by 2-3 others, offered to give me a second coat. Much appreciated after all the damage I had managed to do.
These photos are being taken by me holding the camera at arms length, so are limited in variety. I'm taking them at 4am after driving for a couple hours to get to my camera, but I wanted to show what the dried henna looks like on the skin, knowing that once I scraped it off, the pattern would never be as dark again.
Can you tell I have a hard time smiling to the camera?
I slept with the Henna still on and scraped it off in the morning. This is what it looked like then. It starts out light orange, darkens over the next 30 hours or so and then slow fades as the skin sheds away.
About 24 hours has passed and the patterns is about as dark as it is going to get, I'm guessing. Parts are darker than others-high up on the cheek (nearest the eye) it is lightly dyed.
From a distance, most of the folks I work with either don't notice it, or think I've burned myself and so don't say anything. It is only from about 3-4 feet that it can be seen in all it's detail.
Well, I like it. It is a whole lot less involved and permanent than a tattoo, but gives the same ability to mke some sort of strange statement about your willingness to mark up your body.
I think I'll have my hands done next time!