Henna after Melanoma

The skin is the body’s largest organ. It protects your body from injury, infection, heat and ultraviolet light from the sun. The skin helps control your body temperature and gets rid of waste materials through the sweat glands. It also makes vitamin D and stores water and fat.

The skin has 2 main layers. The top layer at the surface is called the epidermis. Below the epidermis is the inner layer, called the dermis. The dermis contains nerves, blood vessels, sweat glands, oil (sebaceous) glands and hair follicles. The epidermis is made up of 3 types of cells:

• Squamous cells are thin flat cells on the surface of the skin.
• Basal cells are round cells that lie under the squamous cells. They are continually made deep in the epidermis. Newly made basal cells push the older cells toward the surface of the skin, where they become squamous cells.
• Melanocytes are also found deep in the epidermis, in between the basal cells. Melanocytes make melanin, which gives colour to your skin. When skin is exposed to the sun, the melanocytes make more melanin and cause the skin to tan or darken. Sometimes melanocytes cluster together and form moles (also called nevi). Moles are common and are usually not cancerous.

Melanoma is a cancer that most often starts in the skin. 

Having cancer is not only physically difficult, but also emotionally demanding. And surviving cancer is a reward that is worth a thousand nights!

An artist with Henna Art had the pleasure of meeting a melanoma survivor.  Rosa was a dynamic and powerful woman who had overcome the worst imaginable.  Rosa came to Nitasha for henna as a celebration  of overcoming the challenges of melanoma.  She came with her friend and supporter.

Her faith was stronger and her doubts were weaker.  Rosa puts it in her own words here:  http://rose-gardendiary.blogspot.ca/2013/08/one-year-melanoma-update.html

Before booking her appointment, Rosa called to find out the ingredients on the henna paste.  While we always use essential oils to add to our henna mix, Rosa was concerned about the use of essential oils.  She had a huge sensitivity to almost every fragrance, especially tea tree.  So instead of using the standard henna recipe in our Signature paste, we suggested applying lavender paste, often used for pregnancy henna applications.  However, with concerns of increased sensitivities, we opted to not use our lavender paste either.  Instead, we used just plain henna and warm water for the application.

Rosa was excited about the henna application and had done some research and found a design that she specifically wanted.  Rosa wanted the design from a Houston based artist, Soniya, of The Original Henna Company.

This is Rosa's design with the henna paste on the skin.

 And this is the stain that Rosa got after paste removal.  Considering there were no essential oils in the paste, the stain is pretty nice.