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The History of Henna
"Believe it or not, the practice
of Mehndi started out as an answer to the need for air-conditioning
in the desert. The Henna plant, whose botanical name is Lawsonia
Inermis and which comes from the Loosestrife family, has several
medicinal properties, chief among them its ability to cool down
the human body.
When the desert people of Rajasthan, Punjab, and Gujarat became
aware of Henna's cooling properties, they dipped their hands
and feet in a mud or paste made with the crushed leaves of the
plant. Even when the mud was scraped off, they noticed, as long
as the color remained visible, their body temperatures stayed
low.
Eventually some women grew tired of bright red palms and found
that one large central dot in the palm of the hand had the same
effect, while being more pleasing to the eye. Other, smaller
dots were placed around the center dot, which gradually gave
way to the idea of creating outright artistic designs. To that
end, a thin instrument made of silver or ivory (in India) or
wood (in Morocco), then most commonly used for applying kohl
to the eyes, became the instrument of choice for Henna applications,
and it is still in use in desert villages today.
Only in the last decade or so have the popular Indian cone (see
Page 44 in Mehndi, the Art of Henna Body Painting) and Moroccan
syringe, both of which are able to deposit the thinnest filaments
of Henna onto the skin, come into play as modern counterparts
of the simple stick..."
-excerpt from
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