Henna is an age-old shrub that has elegantly worked its way into history and literature, much like the vines it’s used to paint. As an art, it’s brought alive through the opinions of Pharaohs and written into the memoirs of Galileo’s company, featured in anything from the works John Baptist Porta to Scheherazade’s hazy and dreamlike danse macabre to gloried Indian ceremonials. Truly, there are very few cloisters of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and South Eastern cultures that don’t feature henna as a recurring art. Egypt’s no exception to this rule – rather, Egypt is the first recorded birthplace of henna. Several ancient Egyptian rulers have been found with henna-stained hair, most famously Rameses II, whose mummified remains included a vivid bed of red-orange hair that stood the test of time. It was also commonly used by the ancients on nails and skin, little adorations that were used on different occasions and directly prior to mummification. Henna is formidable, if only for a history spanning thousands of years. Most commonly, it is powdered or used for dye, harvested young and in bush form. Despite an original leaf-color of green, an array…
