Back in secondary school, some of my classmates (Mauritians of Indian descent) were applying mehndi (also written as mehendi/mehandi and known as henna) on their hands during lunch break and they applied some on me and on anyone else who wanted to try. It was kind of fashionable at that time. That was fun. :) I even bought an expensive book on mehndi designs back then but unfortunately, I wasn’t good at applying mehndi on myself.

Today,one of my friends who is from India brought henna paste (the cone type) and she applied it on my hand. While she was applying the paste on my hand, I was thinking of my secondary school days. I miss those days. :(

I didn’t have a particular design in mind and she chose one for me; flowers, leaves,butterflies,vines etc. Next time, I’ll see if she can help me do a more complicated design. She did a peacock on another girl’s hand and it looked great!

I took a few photos of my hand after she was done:
hand-mehndi

hand-mehndi

hand-mehndi
I remember that my Mauritian friends were saying that lime and some sugar are supposed to be applied on the design to make the color become darker or last longer. I’m not sure which one it is.

We didn’t have lime or sugar with us. About 1 hour later when the henna paste was completely dry, I scratched it off my hand but I didn’t wash my hand. I have to avoid contact with water if I want the color to darken.
hand-mehndi
The color is orange in this photo but now it has turned dark brown. I’ll try to take another photo tomorrow.
The mehndi design will fade away after about 2 weeks.

I was looking around for mehndi designs and came across this page. Nice huh? :) It’s a bit too much for me but this one is still okay. :)

I just found my Indian bangles. I bought many bangles in Mauritius and my sisters also sent me some when I was in Shanghai. I also have some bindis. :P I’ll wear some of them to class tomorrow. (the bangles, not the bindis! :mrgreen: )
Here’s a photo of my blues bangles.
bangles
(this photo was previously posted in an entry back in 2006)

17 Responses to “Mehndi on my hand”

  • 1
    Angele

    I like the design on your hand :mrgreen: Not too much!

    Hehe my friends used to apply mehendi on my hands when I was at school. I remember we were seated at the back and while the teacher was in class, we were busy applying mehendi on our hands! The good old times. *sigh*

  • 2
    Shah

    Wow!!! First – your hands are lovely. Second – your hands are lovelier with the henna. Kudos to the friend.

    The shiny golden ‘paste’ is just a mixture ‘gold’ dust and glue. It can lead to itch. Stick with the conventional henna. No rash shall come near Lynn’s lovely hands.

    *Aww* effect @ the bangles. Do you have a blue dress/skirt?

    *beep*
    *cuteness overload.cuteness storage device full*
    *faint*
    >SYSTEM ONLINE
    >|

  • 3
    david

    you should use pink colour better ! :)

  • 4
    morinn

    The henna looks great on your hand!
    I’ve always wanted to learn those designs but never could draw them appropriately. I always make simple vines and leaves on my hands! :P

  • 5
    yusha

    the bracelet is really beautiful

  • 6
    waz

    simply beautiful – the design, the bracelet and the model! well, maybe not the model! :P

  • 7
    waz

    OMG!!!
    it didn’t go thru the SPAM detector!!!
    SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!
    SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!

  • 8
    waz

    SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!

  • 9
    waz

    :laughing:

  • 10
    TOLANIC.com

    The orange color looks like ‘inai’. Ehh, I can see the butterflies.

  • 11
    Brenda

    Whoa, this reminds me of secondary school as well! Only that my school was rather strict and so this wasn’t quite allowed, so the girls in my class will be applying them on ‘hard to see’ places such as on their legs (hidden by the skirt), ankles (hidden by socks) or their arms (hidden by sleeves).

  • 12
    aline

    waz: How come your comments went through? :laughing: Now stop spamming me. :P

  • 13
    waz

    SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!
    SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!SPAM!

    hey aline,
    the song is broken strings…
    you can download it here!
    it’s beautiful huh!?! :D

  • 14
    Zhu

    I used to do it in high school do. Many French of Northern African origin do, and it was quite popular at school. I remember the smell… and the lemon oil you rub on your skin after to make the color darker…

    Love the design on your hand!

  • 15
    aline

    waz: thanks for the link! I usually don’t listen to English songs but I like this one.

    Zhu : thanks. :) wow. It seems that a lot of people went through the mehendi craze at some point. :P

  • 16
    waz

    no prob… :wink:

  • 17
    Patrick Ng

    In one word: beautiful.

Leave a Reply