Egyptian History fun for Belly Dancers! - Nail Polish

Well, it's no wonder Belly dancers that have a thing for nail polish - it seems the Egyptians have been doing it for millennia! Apparently the tradition of polished nails came from the Chinese in 3000BC. The Ancient Egyptians also liked to colour their nails - often with Henna. Cleopatra painted her nails red as did all Egyptian Royalty and was apparently most fond of a deep red. While the famous beauty Nefertiti preferred a brighter ruby red. But it was not just the gals. Military commanders would paint their nails in the queen's favourite colour to show loyalty!! It would be weird if that was still done today. Australian PM Julia Gillard normally sports a clear polish but here she is with a coloured nail polish. So I started wondering who is the head of the Australian Army and what would it look like if he followed the Ancient Egyptian practice of showing his loyalty. Unfortunately there are not too many photos of him showing his hands but I found one .. applied a little photoshop and we can see (just).... he he he :) Found a better one and had to add it - because I am silly! (For the record - all pictures of the army chief look extremely manly and he is not wearing any polish I could see.) Also, kilt wearing Scottish soldiers used to wear ladies stockings in trench warfare to protect themselves from gas attacks - not at all belly dance related but seeing tough soldiers in nail polish just kind of reminded me of it. ;)