Mystical Mehendi - The Secrets of Indian Henna Art - Part 2

As promised, I am back with a henna art DIY. The traditional henna art requires patience and practise. It begins with collecting henna leaves, drying them, cleaning them and grinding them into fine powder before making them into a usable paste. Other ingredients are added to add aroma and enhance the colour. I am not going to share with you the traditional preparation as it may not be as easy a job to find henna leaves first. So, let get on with easy to us henna cones easily available in market, making the DIY lot more easy, quick and fun. That doesn't mean that the art itself doesn't require patience and not to mention the waiting time after you've applied henna to a specific area in your body. Before you start with applying the henna, you need to know few things. Henna is like a temporary, herbal tattoo. That means, the art remains in your skin for at least  a week, if not longer. Henna when touches your hair/nails or fabric may stay longer than if it was in your skin. A word of CAUTION: Finger print scanners in places like visa/passport application centres and other regulatory bodies do not accept fingerprints taken with henna prints on your hand. So, if you are planning to have some form of biometric, finish that before you apply your henna.

Now to the DIY. Here is what you will need.
 - Henna paste in a cone
 - A design template of your choice
 - Sugary water (sugar mixed in water) or black tea
 - Eucalyptus oil preferred. If not, some other oil like olive oil.

You can buy henna cones at Amazon. There are many varieties but I am going to share the product that I have used and has been successful. I am not sure about the other products. They may or may not work. If you think some other product is better, let us know by leaving a comment.
http://www.amazon.com/Singh-special-Henna-cone/dp/B003XKKENW/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1349456187&sr=8-9&keywords=mehendi+cone

So, once you have a cone, all you need to do is nip the tip of the cone. Nip it really small, so that just a thin line would come out of the tip. Now it is just like decorating a cake with cone and nozzle. The design is upto you but if you want something traditional, here is a beautiful peacock design by Sowmya Ranganathan, you might want to try.

Of course this requires practice. You may want to try out small patterns like flowers and motifs before you get into a full fledged design. If you are just learning, then you may end up creating wrong patterns or may have smears of henna here and there. Keep a wet paper towel near you and wipe the smears before they cling to your skin. Also remember that henna dries up and the cone may become unusable after the henna in the cone dries. Try to finish the cone once you cut it open.

Once you've applied the pattern to your hands/feet, leave the henna to dry. My daughters usually have their henna done after supper. That way, they can give their hands a rest. Once you apply henna to a body part, feet/hand, you'll have to keep them dry and unused for a long time. My girls always let their henna dry in their body overnight although some people say a couple of hours should be enough. After about one hour of leaving your henna to dry, apply a thin coat of sugary water (mixture of sugar and water) over the henna design. Do not add to much of sugar water as it may ruin the design. Some people use black tea instead of sugary water.   Leave another one hour for the henna to dry and then you can sleep with your henna on. Remember henna stains may happen even after they dry so you might want to take precautions to protect your expensive pillow and blankets. If you think you cannot sleep with your henna on, then try this. Let the henna dry couple of hours before you go to sleep. Once the henna in your hand is dry and flaky, remove the dry henna by rubbing your palms against each other or by scrubbing them with your fingers. DO NOT wash them with water. After you've removed the flaky henna, apply eucalyptus oil to your empty palm. The colour by now could be orange to a darker orange in shade. Don't worry. Since you haven't washed your hand, the residual henna will work on your body overnight. The henna will be dark orange or deep maroon by morning. In the morning, add a lit bit of eucalyptus oil before you shower or bath. Basically, the colour stays longer if water exposer is lesser. Adding eucalyptus does just that. Eucalyptus is preferred for it's aroma and it's non staining property. I think it also enhances the colour. Ideally, the henna should stay at least a week.

By the way, Indian henna art was intended for hands and feet. These days for commercial purposes the henna is applied to other body parts like how tattoos are used. They are not traditionally Indian and the above tips may not work for other body parts due to varying skin texture.

Mystical Mehendi - The Secrets of Indian Henna Art - Part 1

Mehendi (Indian Henna) has been a traditional symbol of India for the ages. The beauty in its colour, its fragrance and mystical feeling attached to it have ensured that this art has been passed on from generation to generation. Not to mention the herbal benefits of this naturally available plant.

Henna Plant

Over the centuries, henna has been used for various medicinal purposes. Although I do not know all of it's medicinal purposes, I do know that henna is good for hair treatment, and for skin treatment. It's cooling property also makes it a great herb in the Indian sub continent where in certain part of the country, temperature could go very high. One thing is sure, if there is some herb being used by Indians, it will have direct or indirect medicinal benefits. However, today, many people use mehendi as fashion element. Be it fashion or medicinal, henna will remain a part of the Indian culture.

Before I write about how to go about creating your art, I'd like to brief a bit about the traditional aspect of mehendi in various parts of India. I remember that when my children were young, I used to collect henna leaves from the henna shrub in our front yard, grind them to a soft paste and keep them in their tiny palms. My idea was to cool down their body temperature as the place we used to live in got extremely hot during summers. The kids liked the colour of the henna and the smell of it and it solved two purposes, to keep the kids entertained and to ensure their body temperature was maintained. The fragrance was good too. I always used them during summer and never applied henna during at winter as it could lead to lowered body temperature. But in many parts of the country, there are rich traditions and legends tied to the application of mehendi (henna). In most parts of northern India, mehendi plays a significant role during weddings. Bride-to-be is made to sit in a beautiful stage and ladies adorn the bride's hand and feet with henna a day before the wedding. The henna application is done amidst lively music and singing and the singing sometimes goes on throughout the night. In some parts of the northern India, legend has that if the colour left behind by the henna on the bride's palm is dark and deep, the groom will take good care of the bride and the bride will be loved by her in-laws. Thus all types of tricks are done to get the colour deep and dark, and believe me, they always get it dark and deep :). In few parts of the country, the grooms names is intricately hidden with the complex henna patterns drawn in the brides palm. After the wedding, the groom is asked to find the hidden name from the bride's palm, with bride's sisters teasing the groom. If he finds it, he wins and doesn't have to pay the bride's sisters. If he loses, he gets to pay out a huge sum of money as a ransom to be with his bride. By the way, these are just fun traditions to keep the wedding lively.

Bride's feet being adorned

North Indian Bride showing of her deep henna colour

In my next post, I will write about how you can get your henna art done, a DIY. Till then, Namaste!

All About the Gorgeous Saree - Part 3

Let's get straight to the continuation of my previous post in this series....

Border and Pallu

The border and pallu of the saree play a significant role in making the saree look perfect for any given occasion. If you plan to wear the pallu un-pleated, make sure you've got a great pallu. If there is little or no design on the pallu, you may consider wearing it pleated, although it cannot be considered a rule-of-thumb. The photo below shows a pallu with minimal design and this looks great with a perfect pleat at near the shoulder.

However, if you've got a great pallu design, then as a rule-of-thumb, leave the pallu unpleated. The dramatic pallu in the below photo looks great because it's left un-pleated. Had this been pleated, the beautiful artwork in the pallu would have gone unnoticed.

So those are pretty much the 3 most important tips while picking up your saree. Now let's quickly touch the subject of Saree Care.

Caring for Your Beautiful Silk Saree

Traditionally, most Indian women own atleast a couple of silk sarees. In the southern part of India, no wedding is complete without a silk saree as most south Indian brides clad themselves in costly silk sarees for their D-Day. Having said that, it is critical to care for their high cost saree, especially if it is their wedding silk.  In India, the wedding dress of the bride is a gift from the groom, that means a lot more sentiment is attached to the saree. Thus traditionally, women have cared for their sentimental saree. Here are quick and easy ways to take care of your saree.

Indian Bride in Traditional Silk Saree

• Never wash your silk saree on a machine or by hand. If you must clean your silk saree, go to a dry cleaner who knows how to clean a silk saree. 
• If you hardly wear your silk saree, remember to at least open the silk saree fully and change the folds the next time you store. When you keep folding the silk saree the same way and keep in storage for a long time, the folded area of the silk become weak increasing the chances of a tear. Unfolding and folding the silk differently ensures that the entire saree is equally strong. Unfolding and folding can be done once in 3 or 6 months. 
• If you do not plan on dry cleaning due to a short period of wear, spread the saree in a dry place for 3 to 4 hours and then store in a clean dry place. This ensures that any water/sweat in the saree dries before being stored. 

This series on Sarees comes to an end here. There are a whole lot of other things about sarees but they aren't something we need to know for a rare use of sarees. If you need to know anything more about sarees, leave a comment here and I will be sure to clarify it for you. My next series of post will be titled Mystical Mehendi - a series on Henna art. Till we meet again - Vanakkam!