*what I did with Henna on my holidays" (bit long)

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Posted by Sian on August 12, 2001 at 13:00:17:

Hello again. I'm new to henna and posted here before asking about
Henna on scars and things. I thought I'd post about my experiences!
Right I ordered some Henna from pirates hoard *plug plug* and it's
good! it smells wonderful, I got some Mehndi oil, tea tree oil and
Cajeput oil too. (get the black coconut incense it's wonderful!)
Because I'm no good at thinking up my own designs I got a pile of
transfers too. Anyway it arrived and the postman asked what was in it
because it smelled so strong.
I mixed up the first lot using the Sirius mix recipe thing as a guide
(thank you for whoever invented that! sorry I can't remember your
name)
I used two heaped table spoons of Henna powder that I sifted through
the fish net from the fish tank. then I added half a teaspoon each of
Cajeput and Tea tree, a tablespoon of sugar, a teaspoon of Mehndi oil
and enough lemon juice (from a bottle, cheap homebrand) to make it so
it just about glopped off the spoon. Then I left it overnight covered
in clingfilm in a cool cupboard.
While it was sitting there I had to find an applicator. I tried
making a bag out of a shopping bag but I'm not a crafty person so I
gave up when it fell apart on the second try. Then I decided to take
a break and dye my hair. It was a true lightbulb moment. The thing
for putting the dye in your hair was like a giant Jacquard bottle, so
I washed that out and the next morning I put my Henna mix in that,
using my little brother as my first guinea pig a tried my first
design.
The lines came out a little thick for my taste and the bottle wasn't
too easy to control but then I had another lightbulb moment. The best
thing I have found so far is a syringe and a blunt needle from my
printer refill kit. The lines are nice and thin, if you hold the
syringe right it's just like drawing with a pen! It's great. And the
hair dye bottle is perfect for filling the syringes up from the top.
The needles are blunt like the sharp bit has been cut off so you cant
poke yourself by accident. The only problem is I don't know where to
get just blunt needles instead of buying a huge bottle of ink just to
get the syringe and needle that comes with it! any ideas?
I drew a celtic circle type design on the top of my brothers hand, we
did try the a lemon sugar mix to stop it from drying but we got it
abit wrong and got all sticky, ick...
He left it on for about an hour and a half before he couldn't stand
the sticky anymore then he washed it off with water. The colour was
very pale wishy washy orange but the next morning it was the most
amazing milk chocolate brown! I nearly fell over when I saw it! It
was almost the exact same colour as a Hershey's kiss.
The next day was my turn, using the same mix I did some drawings on
the soles of my feet, the tops of my feet, the tops and palms of my
hands and my arms. I left it on for about three hours then WOW!
Overnight the ones on the soles of my feet and the palms of my hands
had turned black. The ones on the tops of my feet and hands had
turned a very rich dark chocolate colour and the ones on my arms had
turned the most beautiful mahogany brown.
After a week the one on my brothers hand had just started to fade and
the ones on my arms had nearly gone. My brother has done his entire
arm now in a tribal sort of design and now he looks amazing, I have
also done a "Chakotay" Tattoo From Star Trek voyager on his forehead
that has gone a milk chocolate brown. He loves it! He's 17 and now I
have spent the week doing all his friends too. And their parents
can't complain because it isn't permanent. I got paid for the first
time yesterday!
I looked for New Skin in the chemist but it was £5 for a tiny little
bottle and because I am very short on funds I thought that was a bit
much, BUT next to it was an arosole spray called "OpSite" spray, it
is a spray on wound dressing. It was £3 for a 40ml can. It puts a
film over the Henna. I put it on when the Henna is still wet and the
spray dries into a kind of thin rubbery skin over the Henna, you can
poke it and the Henna doesn't come off. You have to be careful not to
rub it hard but I put TubiGrip over it aswell to protect it. It's
easy to get off too.
I posted here before asking about Henna on scars. And I have just
read the post about Henna and self injury. I have horrible scars on
my wrists from several botched suicide attempts and a collection of
milder scars on my arms from razors and burns. I haven't been able to
wear short sleeves for years and that's why I first looked into Henna
because I wanted a tattoo on each wrist to hide those scars but I
have to wait two years for them to fade before I can.
I suffer from very bad depression and anxiety, self injury for me is
a way to put the pain in my head on the outside and turn it into a
pain I can understand and the resulting cuts and burns and scars are
a way of having the injury on the outside not the inside. It also
makes me focus because I have the attention span of a pickled walnut.
It took me several years to find out exactly why I do this instead of
just assuming I was a freak.
I could rarely go a day without cutting or burning but I don't want
to be corny Henna has changed all of that. The process of putting
Henna on my skin, the way you can completely focus and block out
every other thought except the drawing, the feel of the Henna going
on and the stain afterwards, it's like SI without the life wrecking
scars and the health risks. The only thing it doesn't replace is the
physical pain of SI, but I am learning to cope with the pain in my
head and very slowly I don't need the pain from SI anymore.
Now when I am having a bad time or a panic attack instead of turning
to the razors and lighters I go for the Henna, I have run out of
space for new drawings so now I just go over the old ones. And as a
wonderful side effect I am now wearing short sleeves for the first
time in three years and I am not shy about people staring at my arms.
People have even stopped me and asked about the Henna.
I have cut once in just over a week, for me that is one hell of an
achievement. And that one time was a panic attack at work when I
didn't have any Henna handy. A while ago I tried just drawing on
myself with a pen but that didn't work, in fact it just made me want
to cut more to get rid of the urge, but for some reason Henna is
different. I think it's the whole thing of Henna, the mixing, the
picking out the designs, then the putting it on and the feeling of it
going on, then picking it off and waiting for it to darken. I'm still
in shock.
Henna takes to scars very very well. It goes on old ones and new ones
in exactly the same way as it does on healthy skin. Once the Henna is
on you can't tell that there is a scar there at all. The only thing
it is not so good on is Kaloid scars (raised scars) The colour still
takes but the raisedness (is that a word?) of the scar gives it away.
It fades at exactly the same rate as the rest of your skin. The only
thing you have to be very careful of is to not get Henna in any new
cuts or broken skin, stings like hell and I'm sure it isn't too
healthy either.........
I think that's about it. Sorry for going on and on I just wanted to
share. I'm so pleased with it all! I never knew Henna was an art form
in itself. I always thought it was "fake" tattoos. My brother is just
a big a fan as I am now and his friends are converts. Thank you all
so much for all of your ideas and answering all my questions when I
posted before. Henna has literally changed my life!

Sian

 

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