HENNA- Why are some stains dark or light?

Henna has long been used for the purpose of beautification and increasing the appeal and worth of the body. It has been regarded as the safest and healthy form of Body Art technique which leaves a provisional burgundy stain on the body. The basic scientific relationship between the Henna and the Skin describes the actual reason for the working and leaving of the burgundy dye behind on the body when the Henna paste is applied. Most intriguing feature of the Henna stains is that they leave imprints of dissimilar brightness on different body parts. This phenomenon can be easily understood by deeply pondering over the structure of the human fabric, Skin. Our skin consists of living tissues covered and protected by the interlocked cell layers of Stratum Corneum. This layer consists of dead and dry cells that exfoliate and desquamate rapidly on daily basis exposing a new layer of dead cells and so the procedure goes on. The Henna dye molecules, when applied on the skin, saturate and dye the dead, dry cells in the Corneum layer. The brightness of these imprints or stains is closely associated with the depth of this respective layer. The areas of the body with the deepest layers tend to give a brighter and darker design colour as greater numbers of cells are dyed and they persist for longer time as these dyed cells are greater in number and consequently, take more time to exfoliate and peel off. The common examples of such regions are the palms of hands and the soles of the feet that contain the greatest number of layers of these cells. Mostly, the nourishment of the body also limits the colour of the stains. As part of common observation, people who are well-nourished, happy and healthy tend to acquire a darker imprint of the Henna design, also those which are long-lasting, whilst those who are poorly-fed and sick, receive a rather lighter stain colour of Henna.