Providing the highest quality in henna and temporary body art products and services since 2001.
What is Henna?
Henna is a plant that grows in warm regions where even night time temperatures stay above 40 degrees. The plants produce the most dye in areas that are also dry, such as Northern Africa, Northwest India, and the Middle East. You might consider it a small tree or a large bush at 2-6 meters high. The plant produces a red/brown dye in its leaves. They dye loves to stick to protein making it a great dye for hair, skin and even nails..
Everywhere henna grows people have been using it as a dye and a medicine for thousands of years. Only in recent generations has henna spread to to rest of the world. Time, heat, and moisture damage henna reducing its potency. With faster transportation and more advanced packaging powdered henna leaf can be shipped everywhere and still be perfectly fresh when it arrives.
How Does It Work?
The dried leaves of the henna plant are ground into a fine powder. Then the powder is mixed with a slightly acidic liquid such as lemon juice or strong black tea. This breaks down the plant matter and sets the dye molecule free. Certain essential oils such as cajeput, eucalyptus, or lavender are added to dissolve the dye. Sugar is sometimes added to help the paste be more flexible when dry and to stick better to skin. This paste is then applied to skin, and over several hours the dye in that paste is absorbed into the surface layers of skin, and attaches its self to keratin in the skin. When the paste is removed the design remains beneath. At first the henna pattern is an orange color, but matures to a color about like chocolate over a day or two. These designs do not wash off, but will fade over time, as the surface layer of skin slowly wears away and is replaced by fresh, unstained cells.
What's in Henna Paste?
Our henna paste is made from safe, gentle, natural ingredients. We use fresh henna powder, lemon juice, sugar, and cajeput essential oil. For prenatal art, or those with allergy or other health concerns, we make an even more mild recipe with henna, herbal tea, sugar, and lavender essential oil.
A Brief History of Henna
One early written record of henna is in the Ebers Papyrus which was written around 1550 BCE. It is an ancient Egyptian medical guide book filled with ailments and injuries along with herbal and spiritual cures. This text offers many medicinal uses for henna such as rashes and headaches, but does not mention henna's use in body art. The history of women's crafts is often allusive because the traditions are passed verbally from mother to daughter rather than written. In researching the origins of knitting, for example, one would run into similar challenges. No one can pin down a geographic origin or even agree on which millennia it was developed. It's much the same for henna. we'll have to look past the written record and peer into the lives of ancient women.
Where do we begin to look? Knowing that henna loses it's ability to stain from exposure to moisture and sunlight, we can assume that henna use was limited to areas where the plant can grow. This will limit the search to the Mediterranean coast, Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. The next step is to look for evidence of henna use in artifacts in or near the area that henna can grow, and then try to decipher if henna is in fact the substance depicted in the artifacts, or if it is another means of body modification. If this sounds like a daunting task, I agree. Thankfully some scholars have taken interest. Catherine Cartwright-Jones has taken a hearty, 200 page first stab at it with "Developing Guidelines on Henna: A Geographical Approach." It lays out a set of protocols for the systematic study of the history of henna. Noam Sienna has more recently been doing some outstanding research in the history of henna as well.
So, what do we know already? The most widely known use of henna for body art, beyond hair coloring, is the adornment of the bride in an Indian wedding. Contrary to popular belief, this is a fairly recent development. The tradition of wedding mehndi dates back to at least the 1700's in Muslim traditions, but many claim that it wasn't a popular part of Hindu weddings until as late as the 1940's! Even then the wedding mehndi wasn't the detailed and intricate patterns that we see today. When you are confined to using simple tools like a small stick to apply the henna paste you may find that you are artistically limited!
Catherine Cartwright-Jones argues the earliest examples of henna used for body art actually come from what is now Crete, the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, and the West Bank. These date back to between 6000 and 3000 BCE. A lager consensus agues that the first solid evidence of henna on skin was on the fingertips of Egyptian mummies in about 1200 BCE. Texts have been found that suggest henna was widely used as a medicine and dye throughout the Mediterranean, Northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula by 500 BCE. It is unclear as to whether henna was used as a dye for skin decoration at this time.
A warming trend in the Middle Ages saw the use of henna spread as far north as Spain. This was brief, though, as laws banning anything vaguely Islamic were strictly enforced during the inquisition, and women put down the art in order to preserve their lives.
Islamic writings dated to the 8th or 9th century CE mention henna as being used as medicine, hair dye, and in skin adornment. These uses of henna most likely traveled with Islam into India.
Suddenly in the last couple of decades henna has enjoyed a worldwide boom. Ease of transportation and the availably of moisture and air tight containers has made it possible to ship henna all over the globe. The modern obsession with pop culture has made henna a very visible art-form thanks to western fashion pioneers like Madonna and Gwen Stefani.
The most amazing part of the history of henna as body art is that it is still evolving. We are living history right now as we watch an ancient practice take a new worldwide hold. It's kind of like the evolution of jeans, but with more artistic expression and much deeper roots. Oh yeah, and unlike jeans, henna has always been predominately for women!
For more information on Henna history, especially in Jewish traditions, see Noam Sienna's web site here: http://www.hennabysienna.com/
To read the research of Catherine Cartwright-Jones see her web site here: http://www.hennapage.com/henna/encyclopedia/mastersessay/index.html
Is Henna Safe?
Natural, pure henna is safe for almost everyone, but as a person with very sensitive skin myself, I want to make certain that all our clients have every bit of information available! Instances of severe skin reactions and scarring are actually caused by chemical additives used by shady "artists" to produce temporary tattoos that are black and nearly instant. This product is often called "black henna" even though its not really henna at all. Its chemical hair dye, and its not legal for use on skin!
Occasionally I do meet people who are sensitive to natural henna. In a decade in the field I've met about 5 people who have a mild skin allergy to henna. The symptoms are mild itching and redness. The symptoms disappear as soon as the henna paste is removed from the skin. Other people could have an allergy to other ingredients in the mix. Our paste contains henna powder, lemon juice, sugar, and cajeput essential oil. If you have concerns about your allergies, just ask!
Another point in the issue of henna safety relates to a rare disease called G6PD. Infants and children under 6 with this disease can experience extreme and dangers anemia if they have henna on a large percentage of their skin. Again, this condition is quite rare. Please read more about it here: G6PD
Chemically adulterated products with the addition of Paraphenylenediamine (PPD) or other dangerous ingredients can cause sever reactions including scaring, and even internal organ damage. These products are often called "henna" or "black henna" even though they are no such thing. Real henna is never black!
How do you tell safe, natural henna from dangerous, chemically adulterated henna? Its really pretty simple!
Color:
Natural henna paste will be green to dark brown in color, never black. The resulting stain will result shades of red or brown to burgundy, depending on location and skin tone, never black. The biggest difference between natural henna and chemical products is the color of the stain right after the paste is removed. Natural henna will be orange at first and take a day or two to deepen. Chemical products are red, brown, or black right away.
Process:
Though not as obvious as color, there are hints that set natural henna and chemical products appart in the process. Natural henna paste is very rarely applied with a brush. Thin paste that can be applied with a brush is suspicious. Chemicals are often added to regular henna paste and are applied with a cone or bottle, and a few natural henna artists do use a brush, so this is not a sure sign. Just a hint! Chemical products work faster than henna. If the after care instructions don't require you to keep the paste on for at least a few hours, it may be chemically adulterated paste.
Smell:
Natural henna paste smells like herbs, hey, and essential oils. Chemically adulterated paste may smell like kerosene or hair dye.