The art of henna

This post is about henna drawing. We had this at the Lung cancer conference at Shangrila Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, early this month. For the gala night, the organisers had a henna-drawing booth and as you can see, the ladies did not hesitate at all to get their hands drawn. The first hand is mine. I was bashful, and decided to have it done in this way so that on a normal working day nobody can see this at work. ( I almost always wear long sleeves)

 And this is the one fingered henna pattern. It looks 3D because we were waiting to have it properly dried. The longer you wait, the darker the stain. And the longer it will last. Mine got smeared even before the first speech when I carried the camera and the strap smeared the drawing making it look err..messy.

 This was a more daring pattern. Rather sexy.

Here we are....washing hands in the nearby toilet. Nice cold water....rub some of those henna bits away. And you're good to go.

Henna block from Lush

Henna block from Lush, originally uploaded by andreaban2009.

Lawsonia Inermis that's the scientific name for henna. ( Wikipedia is brilliant !!). Which makes it sound like a cough syrup or the name of an old nutty aunt. Here's a picture of my henna block. I bought two. One is with AJ and she hasn't done it yet. I did mine on the first day of chinese new year. Rather disappointing. It was more fun doing it than seeing the finish product.My black hair was shinnier which made the whites stand out even more. Sheeesh!!! I am going to tell you what you need if you plan to d this yourself.
1.You will need henna ( obviously) a bowl comb, brush, spoon, newspaper to line the floor and a shower cap( one of those freebies you nick from the hotels)
2. A friend to do it for you. Because I seriously think it will be hard and messy if you do it on your own
3. Pick a day when you do not expect visitors...we did the henna on CNY day 1 and had a guest watch the process. ( I know crazy but fun)
4. Don't expect too much.

Whether it should be done on dry day, clean hair,oily hair, two egg yolks in the pot, lime juice....I have no idea.