Episode 2: Henna, Eco-Justice, and the Meaning of Beauty with Christine Shahin

 For Episode 2 we are joined by Henna artist and eco-activist Christine Shahin, author of “Natural Hair Coloring” on “how to use henna and other pure herbal pigments for chemical-free beauty,” a step-by-step guide which has been translated into Finish, French, German, Norwegian and Polish.

Christine  is a licensed cosmetologist, holistic beauty practitioner, and eco-human rights activist. She is the former owner and operator of Faces of Astarte,a once popular eco-salon/spa in Little Falls, NY, that attracted clients from across the United States from 2006 to closing a year ago in March 2019.

Christine was catapulted into activism when her rural agricultural community was sited for a regional landfill and incinerator in 1989; she been an environmental, social justice and human rights activist since, her work recognized by the New York State Labor and Environment Network, Parents Magazine, Parenting Magazine, Herkimer County Legislature, and The White House; she was an official delegate to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg South Africa in 2002.

Christine pursued a conventional cosmetology license with the intent of  introducing natural, safe, ecologically responsible approaches to self care. Her new mail order business Goddess Beauty LLC offers pure organic herbs used to color hair with new products coming soon ChristineShahin.com

She is known throughout her community as the “mudder” and has introduced the use of Henna for hair coloring and as a medicine of beauty by “mudding” (henna-ing) women across the United States.

Topics we discuss this episode:

• The pros and cons of “sustainability”

• Natural hair coloring with Henna

• The herbal actions of Henna

• Alopecia-hair loss types and herbal treatments

• The traditional use of Henna by people of the SWANA region

• The word SWANA-South West Africa North Africa

• How to define a deeper understanding of “beauty”

• The art of adornment as a sacred practice

• Eco-justice and how Christine helped fight a landfill

Links:

• Christine’s Book: Natural Hair Coloring

• Christine’s Equinox Retreat: A Retreat & Women Empowerment Spring Equinox Weekend

• Musician Diane Patterson

• The Tswaing Crater, South Africa: Twsaing Crater

• Kids Against Pollution - KAP

• The Babushkas of Chernobyl

• Article by Christine in Arab American National Media Organization: Arab Beauty Naturally: Finding the Goddess in Lebanon

• National Grid Power Authority Green Energy page: Green UP

• Music by Auld Lang Syne: Seeds

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