I was given the opportunity to visit a typical Saudi abode and I together with my housemates had experienced a superb hospitality, the Arab way. So this is how they treat visitors, from over flowing drinks,sweets and other stuffs we will have a free henna tattoo. OMG! i'm gonna have a henna tattoo! I was at first hesitant 'coz they say it will last for a couple of weeks. Just thinking of the time it is on my skin make me think twice and thrice if i will do it. But upon seeing how good the henna artist was, and how intricate she does it, i was in!
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| this is my hand after the henna was done, it's still wet, and look at the design, isn't it cool and lovely? |
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see i can still manage to smile huh! i don't know for other henna procedures, but ours is something different
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And i said
hotta hotta henna! Honestly this is one of a kind stuff, first while the artist makes her way in creating a superb design you can feel the cold wiggles of henna touching your bare skin, and it was fun and cool. But the real deal is, as it gets to dry in your hands, it will produce a rather
stingy and
hot chilly sensation on your skin. Oh boy, believe me, it was one hot, i mean
super hot experience. You would want to scratch your skin to ease the spicy feeling on it. I was even telling myself, "dada this is the first and last time you'll do this".
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| see my hands? pretty design isn't it? |
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| showing off my newly painted hands |
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| ethel's design was another thing to behold |
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krizel's hand just right after her session, she still manages to make a few laugh,
after that hotta, hotta henna too! |
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| shella's design was rather huge and she chose to have her other fingers designed too! |
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| this was my henna art |
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| i need to wait a little longer for the henna to stick to my hands |
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| one last picture before scrapping the residue |
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| this is how it looks like after scrapping off the henna powder residue |
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| the design is not that visible yet |
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| they adviced us to rub oil to it to make it more intact and stay long on the skin |
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| it's a little bit light at the moment, but as days will pass it will darken |
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| see! now the color changes, from a lighter shade now its brownish- orangy |
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| krizel's hand is changing it's color too |
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| the day i went to work with my henna tattoo..saudi co-workers, patients and other personnel would utter "mashallah" as a way of praising my hand. |
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| Saudi females who saw my hand while dispensing medicines would usually hold my hand and say " mashallah". |
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| It's overwhelming hearing how they loved my hand and how they appreciate that we, non-Saudi likes their art too |
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| taken a week after it was made, look how the color has changed right now. |
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| as the shade gets darker, the more visually you notice the small details of the design |
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| i just can't get enough of this beauty |
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| i just love this art work on my hands |
I enjoyed this experience despite the hotta hotta sojourn of it. Now you maybe asking me, am I ready for a next henna session? Well, i would love to try this again and i wanna do it just few days before I will go home to the Philippines for a vacation. I want to show to my friends and family how nice it is to sometimes experience and try other people's art and way of life. I say way of life, because henna is part of saudi females, its part of their culture. A thing i'm most proud of that I have tried.
Henna tattoo the Saudi way was indeed something i'll never forget.
