Auto news on Youtube Mar 31 2018

After one of my outings, I decided to try Mehendi, or traditional henna body art.

The mehendi artist starts by decorates my hand with a swastika, which in India, symbolizes

the sun, prosperity, and good fortune.

Henna comes from the dried leaves of the plant Lawsonia Inermis.

If the plant sounds like it has origins in the west, it's because it's botanical

name was given by the famed Swedish Botanist Carl Linnaeus, who named it after his assistant,

the Scottish physician Isaac Lawson.

The dried leaves of the plant are crushed and ground into a fine powder that's mixed

with oils and water to create a paste.

THIS paste uses water and clove oil - which smells spicy and left a cooling sensation

on my skin.

The paste is packed into cone-shaped containers and the fine point is used to create delicate

patterns on the body.

The molecule that's responsible for the staining of the skin is lawsone, known by

its chemical name 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone, (yes, even natural henna is made of chemicals)

also known as hennotannic acid or orange #6.

Lawson is unusually small for a dye molecule and once on skin, it slowly migrates from

the paste into the outer layer of skin, binding to the keratin proteins and creating a stain.

The longer you leave the paste on, the darker the stain will be.

Applying mehendi to layers where the skin is thicker, like the hands and the feet also

take up more lawsone, yielding a darker, longer-lasting stain.

4 hours later, I scrubbed off the dried paste to reveal a bright orange stain.

Over the next 3 days, the lawsone molecule oxidizes and becomes a reddish - brown.

Over the next two weeks, the upper layer of skin cells shed, and the henna stain fades

until it eventually disappears.

This is different from a permanent tattoo, where pigment is injected into the living

layer of tissue.

Bonus!

Because henna is temporary, you can put your boyfriend's name on your skin… and not

have to live with it when he becomes your ex!

This chhoti sherni loved her mehendi.Thank you so much for watching and don't forget

to subscribe if you want to join the pack.