Black henna in LA - on a KID!

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Posted by Anne Beltestad on July 06, 2000 at 12:26:09:

In Reply to: Woke up to a black henna conversation this morning posted by Kenzi on July 05, 2000 at 20:34:00:

Worked at 4th of July with Gilded Lilies here in Seattle (GREAT
time! Many fascinated folks!), and a little boy (6 yrs old? maybe?)
told us about black henna he'd gotten in LA on the beach, and how it
itched and burned...his big sister filled in the story that he'd had
a chemical burn for THREE MONTHS!
After we told her about the nastiness of this stuff she went back and
told her parents, and reported back to us.
The good news is that she and her friends and lots of other kids and
teens got the message about so-called black henna. There were a lot
of people new to henna and I'm glad we were there to educate.
Still, it's terrifying these people are only interested in making
money (really, I shouldn't be surprised, but I am an optimist after
all). I would like to think that karma will get them, but I feel
obliged to help the process when they're hurting little kids! Yuck!
Maybe a list of these jerks isn't such a bad idea...and I don't know
who runs the Henna/Mehndi Web Ring, but I did a search for black
henna in infoseek and pulled up "artists" who are members of that
ring and use "black henna"...FYI...


: I thought I'd share a telephone conversation I had this morning
concerning black henna. I got a call from a woman who saw my website
and wanted to order henna, black henna. I gave her my position on
black henna and went into extra inning with it because she didn't
interrupt. She seemed a little taken aback but then asked me a bunch
of questions about why other people are doing black henna, don't
customers know, how come the people keep doing black henna on the
boardwalk etc. I went further into detail and warned her of the
possibilities of lawsuits. She started saying how fortunate she was
that I was the first person she called, she never would have known
about all the dangers, she's so lucky, blah, blah, blah.

: She works at a salon on the boardwalk at Ocean City, Maryland and
said that there are a bunch of black henna artists that work there
and have been working there for the past few years. She said that she
wants to get in on the action but now she's worried about using
something dangerous. I suggest to her that she buy natural henna
powder and explained the process, but she didn't like that it wasn't
instantaneous, allowing her clients to go swimming or whatever right
away. I suggested body paints or temporary tattoos but she really
wants to do henna.

: She told me something very interesting: that health inspectors have
been checking things out with these black henna artists and the rumor
is that the health department there might close them down or force
them to post warnings.

: She decided she was going to try the natural stuff, but then called
me back after talking to her husband; he doesn't want to do the
natural stuff but really wants black henna and they want to order it
from me. I don't carry it! I warn her again about the dangers but
she says she wants to get in the market and make some money before
the health inspectors close them all down! Since I don't have the
black henna she wants to buy designs from me and because I didn't
want to bother with her paying me I sent her a few pages of designs
for free and used the opportunity to send her a printout of the black
henna warning from this page, in living, livid color. sigh.

: I just got another call from her saying she wants the natural henna
after all! That at least shows that the message is getting through
despite massive interference.

: It was a very frustrating conversation because I can understand her
motivation to make money (I hate turning clients away for not having
black henna), but I would hate to know that I am harming someone. I
feel bad enough when someone tells me that their stain didn't get
dark enough.

: Any of you in the Ocean City area who could lobby the health
department to really pick up their efforts to get rid of black
henna? Or just hang around the black henna artists and hand out
flyers.



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