The Henna Incident
Saturday, September 10, 2005
WARNING: DO NOT EVER USE BLACK HENNA!
It is not the real plant-based henna which when painted on leaves a brown or reddish colour on your skin.
The black henna looks pretty but it is likely to contain POISONOUS dyes and chemicals and can cause SEVERE ALLERGIC REACTIONS in as many as one in ten ( not always on the first application which may only sensitize you to it, so if you have ever got one of these black henna patterns done without incident, please don't get it done again.)
Remember when I said the two dollars admission fee to the Mnarani Natural Aquarium was the best two dollars I ever spent? Well, this was the WORST three dollars I ever spent.
I got this done in front of my beach hotel in Nungwi, Zanzibar by a very nice local woman. She painted a very beautiful design. Unfortunately, this whole experience was a nightmare afterwards.
The design felt okay at first, but I had second thoughts about having done this almost right away, and tried to peel the henna paste off only ten minutes later (they recommend you leave it on for an hour). I ran up to the bathroom in our room and tried to wash it off, but as was common in our hotel the water was not currently working.
Fortunately they got the pump going withing the hour and I took off what I could. It still felt okay, but that inner little voice of mine was already telling me that this had been a bad, bad, idea. I tried to hush it. After all, I've had henna applied many, many times in my life and never had a problem: at bellydance parties in Canada, in the city of Marrakech in Morrocco. But that was real henna, not the black henna.
It was during the night (when my arm began to itch and burn) that I began to realize I was having an allergic reaction and by the time I was on the flight from Nairobi to England I was nauseous and the blisters were at least an inch high. I wouldn't have thought it possible for your skin to contain so much fluid...
Flashforward: This Black Henna resulted in visiting two hospitals over the next several days after I arrived back in London, England. I received a severe second-degree chemical burn which resulted in huge painful blisters and blackened tissue. My arm weeped pus for several weeks and had to be swaddled in a rubberized second-skin and bandages. I took antibiotics for the blood poisoning that occurred.
A year and a half later I consider myself very fortunate to not have a disfiguring scar. But I still have faint outlines on my arm where the black henna was painted on even now.
Yeah, don't do what I did on vacation, folks.
WARNING: DO NOT EVER USE BLACK HENNA!
It is not the real plant-based henna which when painted on leaves a brown or reddish colour on your skin.
The black henna looks pretty but it is likely to contain POISONOUS dyes and chemicals and can cause SEVERE ALLERGIC REACTIONS in as many as one in ten ( not always on the first application which may only sensitize you to it, so if you have ever got one of these black henna patterns done without incident, please don't get it done again.)
Remember when I said the two dollars admission fee to the Mnarani Natural Aquarium was the best two dollars I ever spent? Well, this was the WORST three dollars I ever spent.
I got this done in front of my beach hotel in Nungwi, Zanzibar by a very nice local woman. She painted a very beautiful design. Unfortunately, this whole experience was a nightmare afterwards.
The design felt okay at first, but I had second thoughts about having done this almost right away, and tried to peel the henna paste off only ten minutes later (they recommend you leave it on for an hour). I ran up to the bathroom in our room and tried to wash it off, but as was common in our hotel the water was not currently working.
Fortunately they got the pump going withing the hour and I took off what I could. It still felt okay, but that inner little voice of mine was already telling me that this had been a bad, bad, idea. I tried to hush it. After all, I've had henna applied many, many times in my life and never had a problem: at bellydance parties in Canada, in the city of Marrakech in Morrocco. But that was real henna, not the black henna.
It was during the night (when my arm began to itch and burn) that I began to realize I was having an allergic reaction and by the time I was on the flight from Nairobi to England I was nauseous and the blisters were at least an inch high. I wouldn't have thought it possible for your skin to contain so much fluid...
Flashforward: This Black Henna resulted in visiting two hospitals over the next several days after I arrived back in London, England. I received a severe second-degree chemical burn which resulted in huge painful blisters and blackened tissue. My arm weeped pus for several weeks and had to be swaddled in a rubberized second-skin and bandages. I took antibiotics for the blood poisoning that occurred.
A year and a half later I consider myself very fortunate to not have a disfiguring scar. But I still have faint outlines on my arm where the black henna was painted on even now.
Yeah, don't do what I did on vacation, folks.
Labels: black henna burn, vacation disaster, Zanzibar
posted by Spider Girl | 1:13 PM
9 Comments:
If I am not whipped, I may have these bad thoughts whenever I play at astronomy, and worse acyclovir still at the geography game.. I can't head him, cried zyprexa Podington.. For my part, Sister Susan Spicer, wife of nasonex the Methodist minister, remarked as she took another tuck in a fourteen-year-old girl's skirt for a ten-year-old--for my part, I can't see why Deacon Hawkins and Kate Stimson don't see the error of their ways and depart from them...
I don't think I've ever gasped so long and hard; I'm still trying to catch my breath. What a heinous experience; I'm glad you're okay! Wow. Just wow.
Yeesh, that is nasty.
I would love for my girlfirend's name to be Zyprexa Podington. It's exotic!
Yikes!! What a scary incident. Good thing you sought out treatment in the UK! Thanks for visiting my "garden"; I'm going to poke around your blogs tonight, and find my way through your garden, too. :-)
I am using the scar picture for my Facebook Group "Petition to ban Black Henna", If you do not have Facebook, join and then Join the group, it is open to the public. I would love for you to share your story with the rest of the community!
Daniel "Katmandew" Lasris
I am glad I searched henna before stumbling on a black henna booth in fairs and such.
Thanks for this post!
I am doing my PhD dissertation on PPD Black Henna. Would you be wiling to correspond with me on your experience? Catherine Cartwright-Jones reverndbunny@earthlink.net
I am doing my PhD dissertation on PPD Black Henna. Would you be wiling to correspond with me on your experience? Catherine Cartwright-Jones reverndbunny@earthlink.net
Ouch! I could not stop reading this. That photograph looks horrible! I am so sorry for that experience. Lesson well earned about getting tattoos from nice local women.
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