This is me, looking mostly like myself, presenting to the 2016 IFSCC Conference (International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists), “Address the Epidemic of Para-Phenylenediamine Sensitization and Aid Marginal Farmers in a Changing Climate.” The short form of the title would be “use henna.’’ The abstract is here: https://www.mehandi.com/Articles.asp?ID=258
The cosmetic industry didn’t pick up on what I said here, but somebody from the UN did, and forwarded it to plant henna in the Green Wall project in Africa to keep people on their land, taking care of their families, instead of becoming climate refugees, stabilize the soil and prevent desertification.
This also was when a head chemist from Garnier patted my hair and said, “OOOOOOO what is that? It’s PERFECT.” I said, it’s just henna and indigo (2 step henna and indigo jet black). If the word “incredulous” were a facial expression, that would have been hers.
This time I had some of the majors approach me about expanding into henna. This would be encouraging, except that they’re still thinking in terms of pre-mixes and water and refuse to believe that the 16th century method women in the hammam had it right. One kept persisting, “But you MUST have pre-mixes to get different results. We MUST able to develop a product line or it’s useless to us.” I ended up responding rather tartly, “There are a hundred ways of fixing eggs for breakfast, but you ALWAYS START BY PICKING UP A COUPLE OF EGGS.” Sigh. They’ll catch on; maybe. High-end scientists and corporate developers are still newbs. Just newbs with PhDs and suits and a firm and unshakable belief that they know everything.
This is a metaphoric image of an artificial swan dribbling venom and a very tired old stroked-out woman after presenting http://www.hennapage.com/…/ccj/IFSCC2016/greenwall_CCJ.ppt and http://www.hennapage.com/…/ccj/IFSCC2016/intopast_CCJ.ppt to a few thousand scientists and executives of the global cosmetic industry. Yeh, the placement of the pattern on the front of my dress was REAL DAMNED INTENTIONAL.
After two days of presenting on henna at the international cosmetic chemistry conference. I was BEYOND TIRED. Subsequent to simultaneously finishing my PhD and running 3 small businesses, I had an ischemic stroke, (gosh what a surprise), but I asked my daughter to drill me on speaking until I could present without slurring, because I was NOT going to give up what I’d worked so hard for, to at least stand before the heads of the chemical hair dye industry and talk about henna and indigo. They didn’t pick up on what I was saying because they said, “if we can’t make a product line, it’s useless”. I kept leaning on, “give people a body of knowledge so they can create their own beauty safely.” They didn’t want to hear it. They wanted to make profits. (That swan is seriously metaphoric …. looking like perfect chemical beauty while spewing venom.)
Disneyworld and the International Federation of the Societies of Cosmetic Chemistry made me rather uncomfortable, in a “try to not think about this too hard or you’re going to get very depressed” sort of way. It is in the best financial interests of multinational corporations to infantilize women and keep them dependent on corporate products and endless consumption coupled with endless anxiety (Are we pretty enough? Are we happy enough?) … which coincidentally keeps us submissive and beholden to the male gaze.
The woman leaning towards me is asking, “I’m allergic to PPD, so when I go to the Indian store, how do I know what’s a good henna to buy?” and, “A hairdresser put indigo on my hair and it just didn’t do anything.” Ah, the learning curve. I ended up writing ANCIENT SUNRISE HENNA FOR HAIR ebook on a piece of paper and said, “Google this. I wrote it. That’s got EVERYTHING you need to know.” and they all leaned forward and photographed the words with their cell phones.
