Mark from London asks: Is it true that traditional cultures used to paint the body with henna hair colour? What was the purpose of this? Isn’t it bad for your health?


Even in modern day India, people paint themselves with henna for religious ceremonies. The best known examples of this are at weddings and Diwali, the Hindu New Year.

The Mehndi ritual begins two days before the wedding. All the women come together and spend the days singing and laughing together, while the bride is painted. The ritual is not only used to beautify the skin, it also has a very important social component. The process of painting the hands, lower arms, feet, shins and calves can last at least seven or eight hours. Then comes the finishing treatment, which can also last several hours.

The symbols chosen are to protect the bride and bridegroom, encourage fertility and ensure the marriage will be loving and happy. At some marriage ceremonies, the bridegroom’s name is included in the painting. The marriage can only go ahead once the bride has found these letters amongst the patterns. According to Indian belief, the darker the colour which appears on the skin and the longer it stays, the deeper and more lasting the love between the marriage partners will be.

According to EU regulations, henna paste is damaging to the health when it is painted onto the skin, so the sale of henna products for the purpose of body painting is not allowed.

Created: 09:51 AM | Author: Jörg Dahlmann | Category: Current questions  |  Comments [0]