Re: Henna and tough skin
Posted by Catherine Cartwright Jones on December 28, 1999 at 03:16:37:
In Reply to: Henna and tough skin posted by Catherine Nielsen on December 28, 1999 at 02:01:33:
Yes!
Last summer I kept one foot hennaed and the other not hennaed, and
going barefoot all summer, the hennaed foot had 1/4 the number of
cracks at the side of the heel compared to the unhennaed foot.
If you look at henna entering keratin (hair) under a microscope, the
hennotannic acid bits slide in under the little scales , and
physically plump up the hair by about 1/4. I suspect that henna
entering skin is not all that different. Henna also seems to draw
water in from the air, and desert women henna their hair to keep it
silky and moist.
When I henna the very soft skin on my belly with very heavy lines, I
can feel the henna lines are very, very slightly raised, as if the
skin had "plumped" just a bit. When henna is used as a skin
conditioner in rural Iran, it is mixed with sheep fat (lanolin?), and
is appreciated for keeping scar tissue from getting dry, hard and
dessicated.