yep the first beater is traditional, the second one is quite fashionable nowadays for extra fast playing cos its so light - you tend to use just one end of it. you only need to oil the head occassionally. don't know about the effect of any paint on the head though.

You might be interested in my dad's website - he's a bodhran maker called Kevin O'Connell and there's some interesting stuff on there including sound samples of different styles of playing.

http://www.bodhranmaker.com/index.html