Picky Picky

OOO, she wants that blue crinkly moon so bad!

I'm a picker.

I see something, and think, "What's that??" and then I pick at it 'til I figure out what it is or it goes away (and sometimes, if I find a sticky spot on my hand, I will lick it. Unwise, I realize, but I have only had one bad experience with this technique).

For the belly dancing concert, I went out on a limb and decided to get some henna art done. It's not permanent, you know (Yeah, yeah, yeah... I can hear you thinking, "Just add another two Ts, two Os, and take out the R, rearrange the whole lot, and you have 'Tattoo'!"). I figured it would just rub off in a day or two, no biggie. Kinda like I am a giant dry erase board (and I am white enough that the comparison is justifiable.). And for those of you who know me, you know I can't stand having anything "unnatural" on my body (yes, yes, I know henna is all-natural, but I wasn't born with it, so it isn't natural for me). Any nail polish on my body has to be as far away from my hands as possible, hence why I only apply it to my toes.

So, I wandered through some web pages about removing henna. It went something like this:

Henna Removal: 23 Tried and True Methods


(1)Too bad, you are stuck with it until it fades.


(2)However, if you feel like (3)killing a few hours and(4) few gallons of water, (5)hydrogen peroxide, and (6)olive oil (not to mention your weight in (7)salt), be our guest. Be sure to (8-23)scrub REALLY hard, and your skin will become the same exact shade as the henna. Good luck, sucka!

I totally ignored the first step. All the other steps seemed worth a shot. So, I gingerly soaked my feet in salty water with anti-bacterial soap (an additional step not included on that particular website) and took our green dish scrubby and went to town.

*SCRUB SCRUB SCRUB*

"Hmm..." I mused. "I need more salt."

*SCRUB SCRUB SCRUB*

"Hey, I think it's coming off!"

*SCRUB SCRUB SCRUB SCRUB SCRUB*

Seriously, Sharpie has nothing on henna...

At this point it was starting to hurt, so I gave my toes a break and started on my belly. (Honestly, I don't know what possessed me to get a henna design on my tummy. Maybe latent teenage rebellion? The world may never know...)

*SCRUB SCRUB SCRUB*

"Hmmm..."

*SCRUBSCRUBSCRUBSCRUBSCRUB*

Apparently the skin on my belly has no relation to the skin on my feet. I used to think they were all part of the same family, but maybe they are just distant cousins.

I then rubbed olive oil over my now-raw skin and sojourned to the bathroom, where I decided that, since I didn't have any in liquid form, my teeth whitening hydrogen peroxide gel would surely do something for my henna. I think all it did was foam a little and then make my belly smell like peppermint.

"Hmm..."

Then the brightest idea of them all: I got into a very hot shower and took a washcloth to my protesting, red skin.

It worked!

Sorta.

I think all I did was rub off about 14 layers of skin.

I then topped my henna salad with some lemon body butter, which caused a pleasant warm sensation for about .02 seconds and then proceeded to burn.

I figure if I do exactly what I did today for the next couple of days, I will have eaten a hole in my stomach and completely removed my toes. But, hey! At least the henna will be gone!