In Morocco for weddings, births or special occasions (especially travel), the women will get henna on their hands and feet. I got henna twice while I was living near Fes, once for my birthday and once when I was preparing to leave and travel to my permanent site in the Christmas Village. 
The henna in northern Morocco tends to be reddish in color and has a sort of floral pattern to it. However, in my site the henna is pretty different. My family actually grows their own henna, and grinds it up. Once the henna is in a powder form it is mixed with water, sometimes other things like lemon juice, paint thinner or petrol.
This is my sister Aziza grinding up the henna so it can be sold/used.
Cool right?
The actual process of getting henna done is a little more complicated. To do the traditional Saharan henna they use this black tape in varying sizes, textures and thicknesses and spend around an hour taping your hands and feet.
After they finished taping, the henna paste is spread onto the taped areas.
After the henna is on, you wrap your hands and feet in scarves, then in plastic bags and you sit. Sit, sit, sit, sit. I sat for about 5 or 6 hours total. One older Moroccan lady sat with me and kept shooing away the children. You aren’t supposed to move your hands or feet so that your skin can become dyed properly. As it started to dry it got very itchy and hot. I was told this was because of the petrol they added. They apparently add things like petrol and paint thinner to give it it’s black color as opposed to the red in the North.
After the tape comes off, it looks like this! Really dark, and most of all… AWESOME! In Morocco this tends to last for a month or two and they always put henna on your nails as well. However, I asked them to not do my nails because of the wedding. My henna is mostly gone on my hands, about 3 weeks later. My feet are still pretty dark.. but its coming off alittle more everyday.
Not too many people have asked me about it. But a handful for sure. I was really proud of my henna in Morocco, because I felt like it was so beautiful. There are women in Marrakech who do henna for tourists. But just quick small designs mostly, they were calling out to us (me and my friends) and asking if we wanted henna (we don’t look Moroccan so we are OBVIOUSLY tourists, right?) Anyway, when they called out to us I just flashed my henna-ed hands and they always wanted to look closer and they asked me where I lived.. in Zagora Province or Tata Province. I do live in Zagora province and I might not be looking foward to the next time I get Saharawie henna, but I”m sure they will talk me into it
When I was at the airport in Marrakech leaving the country, there were several other modern Moroccan ladies on my flight to Madrid, we all had Henna! Adorable.
