I love henna!

Asalam waliykum sisters,

I want to do a post on one of my most love hobbies!! Apart from cooking, sewing, quilling, painting and photography I also love to henna!!! Firstly who loves henna? Who doesnt? Some dislike the smell, the texture, even the designs are not appealing to some. However, for me, I love everything about henna. I remember from a very young age I always loved henna, and associated it with Weddings, and Eids. Silly as it sounds I remember one Eid not having any henna on my hands and for me it ruined the Eid, I must of been 7-8 years old at the time.

Henna is a plant grown in Africa as well as Asia, its known as Mendi in Asia. But its Henna in the Arab world and western world. Its grown in Morocco, and is cheap to buy. The henna stains from the Moroccan type of plant is a deep orange to a deep brown stain. This is when it is used naturally with only lemon juice and sugar/honey and water. If a terp is added then the colour can be dark brown/black. Of course this causes skin irritation and even severe reactions in some people. However, this is used widely in Morocco and even on my henna night, the artist put terp in the mixture. Alhamdulillah my skin never reacts badly and I only experience a slight tingling sensation which is not comfortable at all especially on your' henna night when you need to remain seated, still and poised, and not waving your hands around like a mad woman! 

So if you travel to Morocco and have it done, do a small patch test if it contains a terp you will know within 10mins-30mins. If it starts to tingle wash off and keep clear of it. Over the many years I have learnt which henna gives the best stain. Moroccan henna is great for use on hair to give you an orange burgundy colour, and if you like the light stain on the hands. Pakistani henna powder (only certain crops though) give the best stains for hands if you want the dark browns nearing to black colour. Iranian henna is also similar with a more black reddish tone. Only if used naturally with honey/sugar and lemon juice.

***In regards to black henna, keep well away from it, even if you do not have a bad reaction it may have other effects on you. I only use henna which has natural ingredients, and the least amount of ingredients.***

Back to the story...As I grew older, I noticed the other Muslim Moroccan girls using henna less and less on Eid and weddings. I never really understood why until a few years later, I realised that to some English people it was something strange and therefore mocked by some ignorant teenagers and adults, who often thought you had a disease or something (True story!). Therefore, the girls in my community were ashamed to wear it, ashamed to be different and of their culture. Even to this day at some Moroccan weddings the brides refuse to use henna and think its backwards, or old fashioned and opt for a more western style wedding and hen party. 

However, a lot of the negative attitude changed after more and more people were heading off to Arab countries on holiday, and coming back adorned with henna. Then it became popular once more with the Moroccans. Sounds strange I know! Anyway, I love henna so much that I started to draw designs and learn to henna all on my own from the age of 6, my design book has grown and now I have books of my henna designs. I used myself and my family to practise on. Now Alhamdulillah I don't need to draw out my designs, and most of the designs I have remembered. I have gotten a lot quicker at applying the henna too, but not to the degree were the design is messed up. This I find with many "professionals" who rush in order to complete the design quickly, but in the process ruin the design and it looks tacky and a right mess. I have been to a few events recently, and henna parties where they hire women for a lot of money to do henna and you end up with one finger and a little bit on the back of the hand which is messy and tacky looking.

Anyway, I also learnt the perfect consistency and mixture to obtain the darkest stains and easy application, inshallah will do a 'how to' in another post. For the last 2 years i have used Henna by Afruza, If you Google the name it will take you to her website. So far I found her henna to be the best in quality, value for money and service. 

I just want to show case some of my designs, some of these are from my university days, 2007-2009 and some are more recent. Enjoy and please let me know what you think. oh, and I do henna feet, but due to feet being part of a woman's awrah I wont be posting any photos, sorry.

I wanted to show some of my own designs but I have lost my henna design book :(

Also I had many more photos, unfortunately they have disappeared and can't be found on my laptop or Camera.

Feel free to share the images, and re-post I just ask you reference my blog, so Inshallah its is fine with me.

Hope you liked the Henna, Inshallah hope to do some more soon, and share with you all.

Jazakallah khier for reading

Wasalam -x-