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Women of African descent often straighten and oil their hair. Chemical residue from relaxing and processing hair is left on fingers and this alters the skin's characteristics. The harsh chemicals used to straighten hair damage the outer epidermal skin layer, leaving palms and fingers looking shiny and peeled. Other hair straightening involves pressing with flat irons, and fingertips are often burned in the process. Seared skin, and healing skin is thin and glassy, and does not stain well. Straightened hair also requires grooming oil to repair damage from heat or chemical relaxing. Henna easily stains dry, desiccated skin cells, but palm and finger skin saturated with pressing and conditioning oil resists henna uptake. Henna techniques that do not include steaming or essential oils may give poor results on skin damaged by chemicals or saturated in grooming oil. In addition, people of color oil their skin to look better. Dry, flaky skin on elbows and knees makes dark skin look ashy. Most dark people regularly oil their skin to enhance the natural warm brown tones and avoid dry skin. Cleaning skin with rubbing alcohol will remove most oils, and improve henna staining.
12) Pattern incorporating the word "Saud" meaning "fortunate", and designs from Siwa Oasis, Egypt. This woman's skin is damaged by hair relaxer and saturated with grooming oils, causing uneven henna stains. If red stains are desired on hands damaged by chemical relaxers or that are regularly oiled, leave henna in place overnight and steam or heat the hennaed skin repeatedly while the paste is in place. This will make a more even and richer colored stain.
13) Tunisian traditional henna pattern This woman's hands have skin damaged by hair relaxer, but more even, deeper colored henna stains were achieved with wrapping and additional heat.
For darker palm stains on damaged or oiled skin, clean the skin with rubbing alcohol before applying henna. Include in the henna paste an essential oil with high levels of terpenes such as terpinene, geraniol, or pinene which will react with the henna dye molecule to darken stains on difficult skin. These molecules are small enough to enter the epidermal cells along with the henna, and react with it. Thus adding Neroli essential oil, having moderate levels of these terpenes, darkens henna to a warm brown. Neroli essential oil has a bitter orange fragrance, and is derived from Citrus aurantium.
14) Pattern adapted from traditional Nigerian art. Neroli essential oil was added to the henna paste. Darker brown stains can be achieved on damaged and oiled skin by adding essential oils with high levels of terpinene and pinene to the henna paste. Terpinene and terpinol react particularly well with hennotannic acid within epidermal cells, creating a quick dark stain. Tea Tree oil, frankincense oil, ravensara oil, cajeput oil have high levels of these terpines, and are unlikely to cause any skin irritation. High quality pure essential oils are costly, but will do a superior job to those diluted with filler oils.
Dry Heat, Moist Heat and Sweat: The safest, cheapest and most efficient darkeners for henna, and the most widely used in equatorial countries, are heat and sweat! If you apply henna in a humid climate at 100F and above, the henna will stain quickly and intensely, often staining burgundy-black simply from the heat. Many henna artists dry their client's henna over smoky coal fires, as the heat intensifies the henna color. Heat also encourages perspiration, containing ammonia, which darkens henna to to near black. Steaming the hennaed skin intensifies the stain. A whistling teakettle, a pan of simmering water, or a garment steamer can be used to heat and rehydrate henna paste on skin. If hennaed skin is steamed repeatedly over a period of hours, the resulting stain will be dark! Saunas, hot days, campfires and steam are safe and effective ways to darken henna! For more information on techniques of darkening henna, see: Sirius Miracles, How to mix henna, and the Ammonia trick. PPD Black Henna, P-phenelynediamine Black Hair Dye added to Henna In recent years, PPD black hair
dye has been added to henna or used instead of henna to create jet black
stains. This is dangerous and unnecessary. Though people of
color may feel that a jet black stain is the only thing that will show
on their skin, natural henna colors are beautiful on dark skin, and are
safe. P- phenelynediamine can cause skin blistering and
lesions, often leading to permanent scarring and sensitization to many
products. Link to information on the health hazards of using black
hair dye directly on skin:
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