Holi 'eco-friendly' hai!

By: Anushree Vijaya Harshan

Friends in glee
Class 7 student, Manya Shah, and Class 5 student, Vansh Bhatia, have been celebrating Holi with two other friends in an organic way for two-three years now. Manya said, “We used to get non-toxic colours earlier. This year, we decided to attend a workshop so that we can make colours at home.

Chemicals are not just bad for skin, but also harm aquatic animals, as eventually all goes into the ocean.”
Vansh added, “Chemical colours cause itching and rashes among other skin problems. We learned to prepare yellow,
green, red, blue and purple colours at a workshop at CEE. I prepared the yellow colour, made by mixing besan and haldi. The other colour was green, prepared using leaves.”
Dry colours take time to prepare. Manya revealed,
“These need to be dried under
the sun and need ten to fifteen days to get ready, I didn’t make those. I only prepared orange colour by immersing kesuda in water and the yellow using

haldi. Herbal colours make our skin soft, too.”


An ‘organic’ get-together
Shikha Bhargava, a resident of Indraprasth 3 in Anandnagar, informed how her society has decided to go organic this year, “Being the mother of a toddler, I was concerned about his exposure to chemicals. While searching for alternatives, I happened to come across a campaign surrounding usage of organic colours during Holi through social media.” She added how the society chairperson’s positive response made it possible. “Even he felt the need to go organic, understanding the need for making the new generation aware of alternatives. So, a demonstration was held in our society.”

They learned how to make different organic colours, both in dry and wet form. The kids, especially, learned with great enthusiasm, she added, “I have prepared three herbal colours this year. I bought kesuda flowers yesterday and put them in water overnight to get a saffron tinge. Green was prepared by drying spinach, crushing it and mixing it with wheat flour. I also grated beetroot and put it in water to get magenta colour. We may also create a pool of coloured water using these colours.”

They were also educated about using water judiciously, using pichkaris instead of throwing bucketfuls on each other.




Save your Skin
Dishant Vyas, 20
PDPU
Skin protection 101: I’ve always relied on natural products to save myself from harmful chemicals found in colours. Every year, before heading out to play, I apply ample amount of coconut oil on my hair. For skin, I just apply a high SPF sunscreen that protects my entire body from the heat.

Skincare routine after playing Holi: I make sure to get rid of all colours left on my skin after playing Holi. While playing too, I keep my face wet because if the colour dries out, especially the pucca colour, there are high chances it’ll stay on the skin for 2-3 days. I immediately take a bath after playing Holi and then moisturise my skin with a good lotion to avoid it from drying out.

Taruna Bhasker, 29
Fashion designer
Skin protection 101: I make sure I apply coconut oil on my body, some moisturiser on my face and a coat of sunscreen with high SPF, and I’m good to go. To protect my nails from staining, I apply a dark shade of nail paint. I also wear dark-coloured clothes that are comfortable. I avoid heels or shoes and prefer flip-flops. I make sure everyone uses organic colours and does not waste water. My Holi is always 90% dry.

Skincare routine after playing Holi: Always use cold water to remove colour from your body. Don’t use a soap or facewash, it’ll only make things worse. I use homemade scrubs to remove tan and moisturise dry skin. If colour stain is still visible, I apply lemon on my face, leave it for 10 minutes and then wash it with cold water. For hair, I massage curd on my scalp, it removes all the leftover colour particles from my head.

Dr Dhwani Shah
Consultant dermatologist and cosmetologist
Using organic products is the ideal solution to avoid any form of allergy or skin damage. To protect oneself from harmful colours, one should take serious measures. Applying coconut oil, olive oil or any other edible oil on skin and hair is a good option. Oils that contain fragrance aren’t really helpful to protect your skin. After playing Holi and before taking a bath, dab oil on the colour left on the skin. It is better to apply oil on the dry pigment before cleaning the colour with water. Later, clean it with water and soap. If one combines soap with colour instantly, it’ll create a mess. To remove the tan, people can try homemade remedies. Mixing papaya extract with turmeric and curd an applying it for 10-15 minutes can show significant results. Raw milk and lemon are great organic tan-removers. After taking a bath, make sure you moisturise your skin and apply some serum on your hair to avoid dryness.

If you still haven’t, Prepare organic colours at home

In charge of Information and Facilitation Centre of CEE, Priya Nair, informs us that they visited various schools, colleges, societies and institutions to make people aware of the natural colours and demonstrate the making of these colours.
“We taught ways to prepare organic colours. Preparing colours using kesuda, beetroot shred and turmeric is the easiest.” She shares recipes:


Ever Greens
Dry
1 Use mehendi/henna powder, separately or mix with equal quantity of any suitable flour for a lovely green shade. Use only pure mehendi and not the one mixed with amla as this would be brown in colour. Dry mehendi will not leave colour on your face as it can be easily brushed off. Only when it is a paste (ie when it is mixed in water) will it leave a slight colour on your face. Thus, it can be used as a pucca/fast colour. Many people like smearing other person’s hair with colours. How about doing it with mehendi powder?

2 Dry and finely powder the leaves of gulmohur (delonix regia) tree for a green.
3 Crush the tender leaves of wheat plant to obtain a natural safe green Holi colour.
4 Vegetables like spinach and coriander can also be used to get natural green colour after grinding

Wet
1 Mix 2tsp of mehendi in one litre of water. Stir well.
2 Green colour can also be obtained by mixing a fine paste of leaves like spinach/palak, coriander/dhaniya, mint/pudina, tomato leaves, etc, in water.


Sunny Yellows

Dry
1 Mix 2tsp of haldi/turmeric powder with double quantity of besan (gram flour). Haldi and besan are extremely healthy for our skin, and are also used widely as an ubtan while taking bath. You can use the ordinary haldi or kasturi haldi which is very fragrant and has enhanced therapeutic effects. Besan can be substituted with atta, maida, rice flour, arrowroot powder, fuller’s earth/ multani mitti and even talcum powder.
2 Flowers like amaltas (cassia fistula), marigold/gainda (tagetus erecta), yellow chrysanthemums, black

babul (acacia arabica) yield different shades of yellow.
Dry the petals of these flowers in shade and crush them to obtain a fine powder. Mix appropriate quantity of the powder with besan, etc, or use separately.
3 Dry the rind of the bael fruit (aegle marmelos) and grind to obtain a yellow powder.

Wet
1 Add 1tsp of haldi to two
litres of water and stir well. To dilute or increase the concentration of colour, boil it accordingly.
2 Soak amaltas (cassia fistula) or marigold/ gainda (tagetus erecta) flowers in water. Boil.