Henna
This is my new thing:
(image from the Henna Page)
No, not moldy crack. It's henna! Properly applied, it should look something like this:
(image from the Henna Page)
The first time I did henna on myself, last Christmas, it turned out like this:
The stain was pretty dark, but the lines? Terribly chunky. And I also didn't realize that, should one henna one's fingernails, it doesn't fade. Took six months for my nails to finally grow out, and for me to stop getting horrified looks from people that assumed I'd been horribly burned in a freak accident.
That was using a kit I bought from the Earth Henna Web site. (This Web site is cool because of their photos of naked henna chicks.) Now, armed with information -- and samples! -- from The Henna Page, I'm ready to try again.
The keys, apparently, are Mylar (the stuff shiny baloons are made out of -- as well as oven mits, space suits, and those crinkly emergency blankets) and dextrose. If you roll a Mylar fattie -- er, cone -- and fill it with henna, you can razor off the tip of the cone to make as thick or thin of a line as you need. The dextrose is just corn sugar, a monosaccharide that makes the henna more pliable and easier to apply. Plain old table sugar works too, but "dextrose" sounds way more mad scientist.
I think the first time I saw henna was on my Indian coworker after she came back from visiting her husband and family. She was hands-down one of the sweetest people I've ever met. Even though the henna on her palms had faded to a burnt orange color by the time she returned to work, it was still beautiful!
The second time I saw henna was in Morocco. Morocco, Orlando -- as in, the Epcot Center Morocco, at a little kiosk across from a restaurant that usually had a guy in a Genie costume from Disney's Aladdin hanging around. The henna artist looked terribly bored, probably because she was sick of doing henna "tatoos" of butterflies and flowers on pre-teen girls' midrifts. She did my hand and arm for me, but it didn't turn out too well, because I immediately started picking at it, instead of letting it set for the 4-8 hours it usually needs.
This time around, when I get my new stuff in the mail, I want to do my feet and legs in nifty, yoga-inspired patterns. That way I'll have something to cheer me up when I go back to doing yoga again, and I'm sitting there trying to get my index fingers around my big toes and failing miserably.
Ooh, ooh, I know -- I'll do a Japanese theme, and do "ganbare" on my toes. LOL.
Anyway, if you're a geek like me, you should totally read up on henna at The Henna Page. It talks about the culture and history behind henna over many cultures, India and Africa being two big ones. It talks about the chemistry of henna, and how certain ingredients react with the powder to release its dye. Naturally, it gives you plenty of step-by-step henna how-tos, and lots of patterns you can use. And it even has some of that Myth Busters trial-and-error element, because the author of the page has tested mix after mix of henna ingredients, disproving the effects of some and creating whole new recipes using others.
So, that's my new "thing." I'll let you know how it turns out!