A bitter rant about the havoc of allergic reactions.

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Posted by Shanon Lavender on December 03, 1999 at 20:41:26:

In Reply to: About Mehndi Oil posted by Jenna on December 02, 1999 at 20:54:37:

I have done a test on my thigh where I swabbed clove oil on the skin
for one side of the design and had clean skin for the other side of
the design. All other after care was equal and the clove side came
out lighter. I believe it came between the paste and the skin and
slowed down the dye transfer. I did a similar test with a few drops
of clove oil in the paste. The clove paste may have been a little
darker but the difference did not seem worth the risk of inflicting
an allergic reaction on anyone. If you like adding oil to your mix
for texture and to slow the drying process olive oil works fine and
does not seem to have the same potential for allergic reactions as
the mystery oils/concentrated essential oils that are sold out there
for henna.
Perhaps I sound overly cautious but on Wednesday I started to have an
overwhelming allergic response to an unknown allergen. Although it
is not connected to henna let me share with you the havoc allergic
reations can play with your life or your clients' life. The
prednisone that is keeping my lung inflamation to a minimum gives me
severe problems with heartburn, water retention, and headaches but I
really like unhindered breathing. My inhaler is a cousin of
adrenaline and I shake like a small nervous dog for about 40 minutes
after using it. I now have yet another prescription for the
heartburn in hopes that I may go to sleep sometime soon. These side
effects have kept me awake for the last 26 hours. I will probably
miss at least three days of work(unpaid). If my doctor had not been
able to work me in I would have ended up in the emergency room. I do
not share these details to gain sympathy. I want you to know just
how unpleasant and costly an allergic reaction short of anphalactic
shock can be before you use oils that seem to have
minimal/questionable effect on the outcome. If you can't identify it
with certainty don't use it. If you can identify patch test it.
Since this can be inconvenient in a festival atmosphere consider
using a simple paste of quality henna and not risking those who may
unknowingly have sensitivities. They will not give you good
advertising. Really good henna is the best predictor of outcome. It
is far cheaper than treatment for an allergic reaction or the loss of
repeat business should a client have problem with what goes in your
paste. Excuse my rant but sometimes allergic reactions do more than
itch. Don't even get me started on black henna.

Shanon


: I finally decided to get some Mehndi oil, especially since it
seems ,
: from my reserch , that it helps with color very much to apply it
: before you henna and then after. Also, there were many questions as
to
: what was in the oil. Well, when I opened the bottle I was shocked
to
: smell citronella torch oil! Nobody else could seem to place this
smell
: I guess, and just to make sure, I went out and bought torch oil. It
is
: advertised as being clove and lemmon oil, but I put those two oils
: together and did not come up with that smell at all. Has anyone
else
: discovered this or already knows? I'm not saying that it is torch
: oil, but my nose works very well, and I would like another opinion
on
: this. By the way, the oil does make a difference in the color
: (darker), but so does clove , camphor, & eucalyptus.



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