Today I went to the library. I usually go to the library the very first day I arrive in town but since I landed on a Sunday I could not go and get my truck out of storage.As usual I borrowed many more books than what I could possibly read just because I enjoy having the choice.
I also bought a few books from the discard: a few mysteries to read on the plane cheap enough to leave behind once I am done with them and a book on mehndi (you have to admit that the timing on that one is amazing). I was reading parts of it when I realized that I never did say anything about the process of having henna drawings on my hands (this is mehndi for those who do not know).
In the book they go over recipes for the paste, this I cannot say anything about. The paste was mixed already. But I did notice that while I was having my hands done some local women came and bought the paste from the place where I was.
In the book they also say that the henna should stay on overnight. I had mine on for an hour.
They say that once the henna is dry you have to apply a mixture of lemon and sugar and leave it on for a long time. We did no such thing.
But they do say that warmth applied while the henna is drying makes the colour more intense. I do not know if this is true but they did have little electric heaters at the beauty salon where I was. Also, as described in the book, the women did scrape the paste off my hands with a dull knife and did tell me not to wash my hand until the next morning.
Another interesting thing that the book mention and which is true is that the colour gets darker in the following 24 hours...after you remove the henna. This is really weird if you think about it. Also the henna, in my case, lasted a lot longer in my palms than on the back of my hands even though it is counter intuitive since the inside of my hands is exposed to much more, but I had also noticed that the henna inside my hands was darker even though I couldn't understand why.
Overall I was really surprised at the amount of comments I got over the designs on my hands. I move my hands a lot when I talk and I know that I touch my face a lot, so my hands are quite visible, but still I was surprised. One woman who commented noticed my hands when I was washing them after using the bathroom at the mall. Lots of people commented.
Anyway this is just my two cents worth on the subject.
