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
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