Nowadays I am a little hesitant when needing to trim my fingernails.
This is because I will have only a couple of weeks left before the henna dye on my fingernails will be completely gone. And that will end virtually the only physical mark of my wedding.
This is what my hands look like freshly painted on the wedding dinner
Its a Malay custom to have the hands and feet decorated with henna for their wedding. This is to symbolise the couple’s upcoming wedding occasion.
And these are the palms
There are basically two types of henna that you could use, either fresh ones from crushed henna leaves or the one prepackaged from most Indian Shops.
When I had my hand and feet to be decorated with henna, it took about 30 minutes to be drawn for each limb and I had to concentrate to keep still the entire duration so that the henna doesn’t smudge.
Here is a video I’ve recorded via Ustream of the henna drawing.
But it was the waiting for the henna to dry part. It would usually take at least 2 hours for the henna to dry before you peel it off. The longer the person lets it dry, the more vibrant the colour.
And there I was on the couch, with my hands stretched out on the sofa arms, motionless like a dynasty empress. Unable to even change the channel on the tv, and all the while worrying about the wedding preparations that is going on the void deck.
I really liked my henna. Days after the wedding, it was fun to show them and do ala magician’s flourishes.
Now my nails look like this
It feels like I’m losing the wedding radiance 
Even Cart said so!
Me : I’m losing my radiance, the air here is making my skin dry, I’ll probably age faster.
Cart : When have you been radiant?
Ok, we have our language differences … but still …
Sidenote : Ridz sent me a postcard all the way from Singapore! I love it! How thoughtful 🙂
that’s the thing about this kind of henna. mine was henna from Makkah and lasted a loonngg time! from my wedding in September til I was about 2mths pregnant in February!
Zoo
You mean the henna pattern on the hands or your nails only? Thats a very long time for the henna to stay! I wish I knew about it earlier 🙂
I love henna. There’s just something about the dye that makes everything so much nicer.
Mintea
How do you use it?
i didn’t have patterns like yours. just applied to each finger up to the knuckles, the old fashioned way 🙂
kak marina!!! i mishhheuuu. hope ur fine there =D
*HUGHUGHS*
Mine dah lagi satu minggu hilang already! I’m a growing girl. ^_^
Zoo
Actually the day before the solemnization I had the traditional one. My mum forced me to sprawl out on the floor and made me sleep the entire night without moving.
It was one of the most horrible nights in my life.
Syah2
How are you doing? 🙂
I am doing ok here, hope that everything is going great there!
Diana
Huh? Where? On the fingernail?
Hey, glad you got the card! It didn’t take as long as you thought it would did it? ;p
I’m surprised at how fast it was. Now I wonder how it would be like otherwise, from Italy to Singapore 😛