Henna Process

People seem to have a lot of questions about the henna, so I decided to make a post dedicated to just that process.Here's a step-by-step process for ya:

1. DAY 1:  Henna application is best done by artists. You have to draw out the design, and perhaps cake decorators would be the most comfortable because the henna comes in a tube that you squeeze that is not unlike cake icing.

The silver thing in her hand is the little tube of henna she's squeezing out. It's really important that it come out smoothly and they'll often get it started by squeezing some out on their finger and then wiping it in their hair.
 

You can see on Dipti's arm how when they initially put it on it looks like a line of brown paste: 

Later as it dries a bit it looks darker, like this.

2. It takes time. Of course, it depends on the design you want. My wedding henna took about 8 hours to apply. That's definitely on the wayyyy-long end of the scale. A simple design could take 20 minutes. It depends what you want done. But once the design is on, you should leave it there for an hour or two. Keep it moist by dabbing it with a cotton ball with a mixture of lemon juice and sugar. That way it can soak into your skin better and leave a darker stain.

This was taken probably 3 1/2 hours into the process. I am pretending to sleep in this photo, but later I did actually nap just like this. Probably around hour 5 or 6.

Here you can see the orange color starting to appear underneath the henna. The shininess is caused by the lemon juice and sugar. And the heart detail on my fingers has a D for Deepal and K for Kathryn. The artist also hid our full names in the henna, and Deepal had to play the game of finding them.




3. No touching!! Once it's on you're not supposed to touch anything. This usually means that other people feed you and you don't do any chores. Woot.

4. Scrape it off. Once it has sat there for awhile and it's all dry and crackly you have to scrape it off. Don't just uniformly rub it off as fast as you can because you could still smear the design and lose some detail. You might take a dull knife and kind of shave it off delicately. It will get all caught in any hair you have, and that can be a bit painful.

5. It makes a mess. It doesn't all come off easily and generally there's still bits and patches that fall off later.. all over your bed and home.  hooray!

6. Rub oil over your skin. This helps the dye to set and keep the heat in. The hotter your skin, the darker the stain of the henna.

7. DAY 2: STILL no touching!!.. water that is. You're not supposed to touch water for the whole next day.  Dry objects are ok. I hope you showered before you started.

8. DAY 3: STILLLL no touching!!.. soap. 3rd day you can touch water, but still no soap. For me, that meant having my sister and brother wash my hair for me in the sink before the wedding because I couldn't do it myself. Smaller detail will be more apparent now as the dye settles and darkens.

9. Your skin takes on the color of the henna gradually. The first day or so the color will look very orange. Then over the next two days it will darken to whatever color it will be. A popular tradition believes that the darker the color comes, the more your spouse loves you. Deepal's mom would actually compete with me to see whose hands were darker. heh. And pretty much everyone who came to the wedding would grab my hand and look at it's palm to see how dark my henna was. When they saw how black it was they would give me smiles and pats of approval. The darkness of the color really depends on the heat of your skin. The warmer your skin temperature the darker the color comes. For that reason the palms are usually the darkest part of the henna and the forearms are much lighter.

Here is the color of my henna on the 2nd day during the Henna Function. It was really hot at the henna function, and that probably helped my henna become so dark by the next day.

This is the color my henna became by the 3rd day, the day of the wedding ceremony. One hand is yellower than the other because I had tumeric rubbed on it as part of the wedding ceremony.

10. After about a week it starts to come off in patches, and can begin to look like an odd skin disease. Anyone in India probably doesn't think so because they're so used to it, but to us Westerners it tends to look like you're sick or just plain dirty. Don't you wash your hands? These patches can last for several weeks. It's been over a month now and I still have henna on my feet. Hands go much quicker than the feet.

Here's some more pictures of my wedding henna design: 

Another heart with Deepal and I drawn in the middle. Our names are hidden on my pinky fingers. I don't know if you can see them in the picture, though.

My sister Jean and I showing the color of our henna. Looks like our husbands really love us. :)

Close up of the images drawn on my forearms. It is supposed to be Deepal and I. Drawings of people and instruments are traditional for the bride's henna. 

Mike, Mom, and Jean's henna

Joy, Mom, and Jean's henna