While I'm at the how-to's...henna body art

PS!!!

All-natural henna is *never* black, blue, pink or any other color than it's natural brown to red-brick in shade. Anything that claims to give other colors may possibly have dangerous PPD chemicals added to it. Understand before you let someone put anything on your skin -- to read about all-natural vs. PPD henna, please click here.

Updated Henna How-To
When I simplified my henna websites to be just five-pager basics, I nixed all the FAQs and how-to's in the hope of using this blog as the more dynamic interaction between moi and readers. So this is an updated how-to for doing henna body art, illustrated with photos my lovely Hawk took for me. [The first thing you need is a silly smile like the one Hawk caught on my face in this first pic! That sneaky photog!]

Sourcing Reliable Henna Powder
The most important item for a successful henna body art session is to have good, fresh henna in the first place! My very favorite sources are Darcy over at HennaLounge.com -- she gets her henna directly from a family farm and can tell you the date of harvest and everything. I appreciated knowing I'm getting the freshest henna possible from her. The other source is Jamila which date stamps their boxes on the bottom to show you the harvest date also. You can set up ordering from them, but I also find that many local henna artists often sell Jamila, also. Both of these sources are, not only fresh, but also extra extra sifted! This is important for body art because you are going to be decorating via a very tiny tip on a cone. If there are lots of twigs from stems and roots of the henna plant in the powder, then the tip of your cone is going to clog a lot! So I appreciate finely sifted powder like these two sources provide! And my favorite way to use these powders is to mix 1/2 Darcy's and 1/2 Jamila.

A Good Henna Paste Mix

photo right: by Hawk Jones/Kotagraph
shows leaves of a real henna plant;
hand and fingernails still have henna paste on them
-- this is not stain, it is paste!

You need to then use that fresh powder to make a good, stringy paste for decorating the skin. While my hubby is constantly telling me I need to experiment to find the perfect measurements for recipe, I find that it's much more intuitive for me. I mix by sight and feel. But there is a general recipe I follow:

1Tbsp. Darcy's henna
1Tbsp. Jamila
Mix 1 Tbsp. molasses into a cup of hot, strong black tea

Using a mixer on low, whip up the henna powder adding enough tea/molasses mix to make the paste stringy. It's like very stringy, sticky, thick cake batter. If I stick my fingers in the bowl, sort of pinch the paste and pull my fingers out, then the paste will string along for a bit before breaking. See what I mean?? Intuitive. :)

Once I have the paste like that, then I sprinkle in:

Highest quality body & aromatherapy grade lavender oil I can find!

Again, there is no recipe amount for this. The best I can say is that henna paste smells like hay or wet grass when you first mix it. So you want to sprinkle in enough lavender for the paste to begin to smell like lavender instead of hay.

Then cover your bowl with a towel and set it out overnight in a somewhat warm, dry place. You'll see the paste turn from a greenish to a dark brown. When it is dark brown, it is ready!

Applicators
There are lots of choices and ways to apply henna. Some people use j-bottles, some use icing bags and metal tips. I prefer to roll my own cones out of that mylar wrap like florists use when wrapping bunches of flowers. That way I can make the tip as big or small as I wish. I tape cones up with one piece of tape along the seem.

I put the whole batch of henna in an icing cone and use that as a way to funnel the paste into my small, handrolled cones. And then I close the tops of the cones by using those non-snagging hair thingys. These are great because you can just slid them down the cone as it empties, and you continuously get a nice steady stream of henna without killing your hands squeezing or doing weird holds.

Patterns
There are so many place to find patterns of "traditional" henna designs. But I also encourage you to think of henna as any other paint. What do you like to paint? Well just paint that! You can start by practicing on paper or canvas and then move to skin if you wish, of course. But if you really want to explore some the traditional patterns, try some of these sources:

• Free PDF ebooks from talented Henna Tribe artists!
• Darcy has a great book of her self-styled Indo-Arabian patterns
• Amira has several wonderful pattern books -- though on her HennaSpirit site, it looks now like you have to take a workshop to get the books -- but you could always email and ask her if they are available separately.
• And you can always do a Google search for "henna patterns" and see what turns up in the "Images" -- there are TONS of photos and patterns out there.

Actually Applying the Henna
When I sit down to apply henna on a client, I do whatever I need to do to be comfortable and have easy access to their whole hand or foot or whatever they are having henna'd. Don't be afraid to take their hand and move them closer to you. Let them adjust their chair so they aren't over-reaching or hurting their backs. Use a step stool to prop their feet higher when you sit on the floor. Experiment. See what feels right.

Then I keep a rag towel in my lap while I'm henna'ing. If the tip of the cone clogs or gets messy, I can wipe it easily on the towel.

I usually keep a small bottle of lavender oil with me, too. If someone decides they want me to henna their foot, well, it can be a little unsanitary, you know? So I will do quick rub down with lavender which acts as an antiseptic and can quickly freshen the smell of any foot :)

Also keep flat head toothpicks near by, too. These are great for quickly swiping away mistakes, but more importantly, they are fabulous for doing shading. So I do an extra thick line of henna, say for a flower petal. Then I take the flat part of the toothpick and drag bits of the henna inside the petal area. This causes a shaded streaking which is really pretty in a the stain.

And just as an added treat, sometimes I keep cones of body glitter mixed with hair gel, too. You can use this to sort of make jewels and decorations of color around the paste/design. It doesn't do anything for the stain because it just washes off later. But it can act as a sort of sealer to keep the paste on the skin for as long as possible. And it just looks glittery and fun.

Last thing I still offer, if people want it, is a thick lemon, sugary mix. I soak a cotton ball in this and then dab it lightly over the *dried* paste. This definitely acts as a seal keeping the lines of paste stuck to the skin for as long as possible. The natural tendency for the henna paste will be to dry, flake, and fall off the skin. But you will get the best, darkest, longest-lasting stain by keeping the paste in contact with the skin for as long as possible. So I like using lemon/sugar seal to aid this. But it is a balancing act. You don't want to put so much liquid that it washes out the lines or makes them run. You just want to dab to seal. If that makes sense?

Aftercare of Henna

photo right: by Hawk Jones/Kotagraph
shows hand with paste freshly scraped off
the top/finger area and dried paste still
remaining on the bottom area below fingers.
Fresh stain is orange first.

You'll want to leave the paste in contact with the skin for at least 4 to 6 hours. Overnight is best. Stay warm. Henna acts as a coolant (in herbal remedy terms it is sometimes used as a fever reducer even!), so you want to stay warm. In Morocco, the women even do their henna in the steam baths! And if you are pregnant getting a full belly henna, you want to be sure you are full term. A drop in body temperature is known to be a possible trigger for the start of labor, so to be safe safe safe and extra cautious, I just always tell moms to be sure they are full term when getting henna'd.

When the henna paste first comes off, it will be a bright, light, orange color. And then it will take 24 to 48 hours to oxidize to its fullest brownish red color. Think of cutting an apple in half and how the air and light make it turn brown and oxidize. Same basic thing with henna only it takes the skin cells 24 to 48 hours to let the stain oxidize.

photo right: by Hawk Jones/Kotagraph shows hand
24 hours after paste was scraped off. Stain has begun
to oxidize to its natural brown-brick color.

Left Over Henna Paste
After a body art gig, I often have henna paste left over. Because it has a short shelf life, I don't usually save it for doing body art because the staining quality will decrease quickly. BUT I do set it aside for making art! One of my favorite ways to use it is on one of my "organic" canvases like you see here.

So I basically just soak the canvas in tea or beet water or blue potato water or cloves -- or some mix thereof. I like to let one layer of it dry and then add another layer with a different food base. Once I get the background the way I like it, then I take out the left over henna cones and do some henna designing. The only part of these canvas pieces that isn't "organic" is that I do seal them -- either with a "fixatif" or an actual acrylic sealer. If I don't do something like that, then the paste will flake off after it dries. You do get some staining on the canvas, but it doesn't pop the way the paste does when it is left on the canvas. So I do break the "organic" rule in the last step of the process.

Photos of Henna
Lastly, of course, I highly recommend having a hubby like my Hawk who will bring his lenses along and capture your henna experience as he has done for me here :)

Hope you all have fun playing with henna!
Miracles!!
k-