Moroccan Culture
Henna - Waiting

The finished "wet" design on one hand. Front and back, this took about 45 minutes, and began to hurt after about 10. Most people feel only a cooling sensation, but I am mildly allergic to iodine (I think henna contains iodine, but I haven't yet found proof) and so my skin burned and felt extremely cold at the same time.

Warming my ice-cold hands over a brazier. The glass on the table has a mixture of lemon juice, olive oil, and sugar, which was generously applied to the henna in order to alleviate the discomfort (it didn't help much). You can see a drop running down my right wrist, which is quite pink due to my allergy.

When the henna is more or less dry, the hands are "gloved": they are wrapped in thin cotton sheets so that the finished design is not disturbed. The woman who applied my henna told me to keep the gloves on overnight and wash my hands in the morning, but I only kept them on for a couple of hours.

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