Mehndi Madness

Warning: This post does contain nudity. What can I say, Qajars loved ladies' adornments.

All the previous posts about Mughal India and dancing girls, and mehndi was completely overlooked.

So here's a little bit about mehndi, or as we call it in Iran, henna.

 Image via... well, National Geographic... Says so right there.;)

Henna as the crop and stain originated in the slightly more hot regions of central and southeastern Iran. Kerman and Sistan o Balochestan in particular, were once known for growing wonderful henna crops, and Yazd was famous for its processing of it. In fact, these regions still do produce and process henna for export.

Sadly though, since the Pahlavi dynasty, henna seems to have fallen out of favor with non-Zoroastrian women in Iran. Which is funny, because in India, most Zoroastrian women don't wear henna because it's generally viewed as a Hindu and Muslim tradition. However, I digress.

But Persians were the first people to cultivate and use the crop as we do now. In addition to its capability to create a temporary design that can last several days to a few weeks, its antibacterial properties matched with it's bizarre natural cooling affect made it a prized commodity in the hotter regions farther east.

So modern Iranians can blab about it being Indian all they want, but since we're still cultivating it, and in fact, since in Farsi, the word for the color "orange" (narangi) originally came from the word for "henna colored" (HEnarangi), well, I think it's time we stop being "gharbzadeh" and take credit for this one.

However, how the henna is applied though DOES imply the culture and sometimes the station of the wearer.

Lets take a look at some designs and their significance before I go ahead and give you the recipe I use for bright orange henna stains.

The Dipped Hand Pattern:

The "Dipped Hand Pattern" is one of the most basic henna patterns. However, it's also the one that uses the MOST henna and takes the longest to dry. It's favored by Persians during the Qajar era in shades of bright orange and red. A variation of it is the dipped foot pattern, which is seen often in the kathak dancers of India.

Woman Holding a Diadem via

 

The Corded Pattern:

The corded pattern is used by the Ottomans. The pattern is created by wrapping cords into a pattern around the hands and feet ans then filling in selected areas with the henna paste. It's difficult to find a close-up depicting this style of henna, the times I have seen it, I've forgotten what I typed into the search engine to find it (I do remember that I wasn't looking for henna at the time though). However, this 16th century picture does have, very faintly, an example of the pattern on the hands and feet two ladies at the back left side of the painting.

Illustration from the Codex Vindobonensis via

 

The Pressed Palm:

The "Pressed Palm" pattern is a universal pattern. Consisting of a large circle or square of color centered on the palm and often paired with dipped or coated finger tips; it can be worn by most peoples in the Middle-East and South Asian regions. However, each culture has used the pattern in different ways. Traditionally the Ottomans and those of Turkic descent, for example, used the pattern as part of a wedding ritual. (This is not exclusively a wedding pattern anymore though, it seems)
They would place a large circle of henna onto each hand of the bride, and within that press a coin into it, wrap the hand up, and let it set to dry.
In India, it is the type of henna most associated with dancing girls. The simple pattern, matched with a circle or simple sun pattern on the back of the hand adorns and draws attention to the delicate movements of the hand mudras, but does not overwhelm or distract from them like a more complicated boteh pattern.
The pattern is seen in Qajar Persia as a variation of the dipped hand pattern. It seems to have no special meaning or association, simply a design variation.

On the left, a Turkish child showing the larger squared variationin brown henna via. On the right, a hand in the chandrakala position showing the circle variation in red, via

 

The Boteh Pattern:

The boteh pattern is not restricted solely to what is typically considered a "paisley". Rather, the boteh pattern henna is any ornately designed henna pattern which usually has some floral elements to its design. This ornate henna is usually reserved for the hands and feet of Indian brides and royalty; however, with the West's recent embrace of henna adornment and henna "tattooing", the boteh style of henna is seen more and more.

Mumtaz Mahal, wife of Shah Jahan, with a detailed henna pattern on her hands. Via

Modern palms in a densely decorated henna pattern via

Ok, so now we've discussed some of the traditional mehendi/henna patterns, but what about traditional preparation methods? Not to worry. Henna preparation is extremely easy, you just need to be patient and check up on it.

Here's what you'll need:

• Box of henna powder
• Black tea
• Lime and Lemon juice
• Cardamom powder
• Glass bowl
• Measuring spoon
• Water

Voilà, your necessities! (sans water, of course)

For this project, we're using Mangal brand henna powder. There were two reasons for this, one is that we desire a bright orange stain. Henna can stain naturally anything from brown, to orange, to red, and various mixed shades in between. Mangal brand is from leaves that are more likely to give an orange stain.

Of course reason two is a little sillier. See, it turns out that Mangal brand has been around for 100 years, and really, who are we to turn down historical henna?

You thought I was joking about it, didn't you?

Most Indian grocers carry henna powder. It ranges anywhere from $1-$5 per box/pouch, depending on where you are, what type the henna is, and how much of it is in the box. Be forewarned, a little henna goes a long way. You can easily do your hands and feet in the dipped pattern with a single box, and still have leftovers for your hair.

Some henna/mehndi products will give you instructions on the back to prepare, some leave you hanging. Mangal does give you a very basic recipe on the back, and it's not a bad starting point, to be sure, but it's not what I grew up with. So in favor of tradition, I went ahead and used the same recipe I've been using since I was little.

Henna paste is essentially 1 part henna powder to four parts liquid. What that liquid is though, and how big your batch is definitely affects the quality. The recipe I use is this

• 4 tablespoons henna powder (you can use any measuring spoon you want, it doesn't matter. what does matter though is that you use that SAME unit of measure for the whole recipe)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lime juice (you could theoretically use two tablespoons of either, but I like using one of each.... I'm not sure why. It's probably just out of habit.)
• 2 tablespoons of stove-boiled cardomom infused tea
• 8 tablespoons warm water

Let's start with addressing the "tea" here. This is NOT tea you would ever drink. Oh no. It violates nearly every logic of tea brewing ever. The goal is to get a dark, strong, bitter brew to add as a color enhancer to the henna, and to bring out the essential oils and what not from the cardamom. You need a good black tea to do this and a small pot. Add a lot of leaves in proportion to the water, and then a small spoonful of cardamom. From there you boil the hell out of those leaves until you're left with almost a coffee-like liquid. Then let it cool a bit (but not too much) before you add it. While the tea is boiling you can start spooning out your henna. I recommend a clear glass bowl for this, as it won't get stained (as far as I can tell at least) and it allows you to see your henna from all angles.

This is what it should look like. If it isn't green, DON'T USE IT! I can't stress that enough. The powder NEEDS to be green. different colored powder is a hallmark of tainted or impure henna. All henna, be it brown, orange, or red, in its unaltered state is green. The color comes from how and where the plant was grown, not what color the powder is!

Ok, so you have the powder out. Now it's time to add the lime and lemon juice. Mix that up as much as you can with the henna, then add the tea and do the same. This will save you a lot of trouble when adding the water comes in, otherwise you'll have a mess like I did, and have to carefully stir everything and break up the clumps.

This is what happened the first time. It looks peaceful, but underneath, there's a huge powder reserve that is waiting to clump up the moment I put that spoon in there.

Attempt two, while not as pretty, yielded more consistent and easy to mix henna, simply because I slowly mixed in and added the ingredients.

Once the tea and citrus juice is mixed in, you can start adding the water, but ONLY one spoonful at a time. Depending on how the henna was processed, it may be very wet already and need as few as 6 spoonfuls of water, on the other hand, your henna could be very dry and "thirsty" and absorb up to 10 spoonfuls of water. It's up to you to make the judgement call.

The paste should be just that, paste. It should be able to hold a design if piped, but not so thick that it feels dry before it's even applied, or comes out of the piping bag (or in my house, a plastic zip-baggie with the corner cut off) with much force and in broken lines.

After you're finished mixing and are satisfied with the outcome, you should cover the henna with plastic wrap and set it out somewhere warm for at least an hour. The colder it is where you are, the longer the henna will have to set out. It needs heat to help bring the color out (which is why henna on the palms of the hands is always much more vibrant than the henna on the tops of the hands)

Waiting... Waiting.... It's winter here, so I had to leave my henna out for about 3 hours

 After you've let it set, take a spoon and scrape back the top. You should see a difference between the color of the top part, and the color of the interior. That's a good sign that your henna is letting out its dye and is ready to be used.

Now you can give it one last quick mix before use. 

You may find that your henna has thickened after you've let it set. That's fine. If it's too thick for you, add a few drops of water.

If you're applying the henna in a boteh style pattern, scoop it into a baggy, zip closed the top, and then carefully clip a tiny corner off. If you're doing a dipped or pressed pattern, then you can either use the bag method of application or use a beauty supply spatula to apply it smoothly and evenly.

Of course, you could just dip your hand in it, but you'll need to still scrape off the excess to allow for it to dry properly.

This is a messy version of the pattern I use on my feet for kathak. Normally, if I didn't have things to do, I'd step in the henna, cover my toes in it, and then put a much nicer circle on top. But I'm very busy getting several dresses together (some "Oriental" and some not, you'll see!) for events this spring and summer.

Ideally, you'll want to let the henna set on your skin until it's dry and threatening to crumble. Then carefully apply with a cotton ball a mixture of lemon juice and sugar. This will moisten the henna again and keep it from falling off, which is what you want. The longer you keep the henna on and moist, the better the stain you'll get. You'll want to apply the lemon juice and sugar mixture at least three times before removing the paste entirely.

In the end, you should have something like this. I like my henna "henarangi". This brand of henna combined with this recipe means the henna stays orange. Some hennas are orange at first, then fade to brown. Others start red then fade to brown, some brown turn orange, etc.

 I left the paste for this stain on for about an hour before I scrubbed it off, which you should not do until the henna paste starts falling off on its own, but I had to go somewhere, and the paste had to get removed. You can clearly see how the difference in temperature from the top of my foot to where the toes are affected how the stain took. The warmer toe area took on a brighter stain whereas the cooler top area took on a duller stain.

Part of me also thinks that skin type and temperature play a role in the color of henna. I have no scientific proof about the skin type thing, but I do notice that no matter what color the initial stain is on my hands and feet, it will, inevitably, fade to a shade of orange where friends who have the same henna on their skin will have it turn brown and fade from there. For me, red henna stains turn brown, then orange. Brown henna turns almost neon orange; and orange stains simply become lighter and lighter until I look down one day on the patterns and realize they're gone (as is evidenced by the above picture where on the right foot you can very faintly see the remnants of an older henna stain extending towards the bottom of the picture).

As for temperature, that's actually backed up that warmth increases the stains potency. If your skin has a history of not liking to take the stain, slight heat exposure like holding the dyed skin in front of a heater, or having a warm hairdryer blown on it, might help.

After your henna paste crumbles off, you'll want to rub straight lemon juice on it (the acid helps with the color) and then "seal" it in with some almond oil. The henna can last anywhere from five days to five weeks depending on how long the paste set, how dark the stain turned out, and if you're a "scrubber". Frequently scrubbed henna does not last long. excessive washing is the stains enemy in a sense

Now a little touch on hair henna. I've not dyed my hair with henna in several years, but it's something I recommend for those who wish to dye their hair shades of red and auburn, or for people who have dandruff or suffer from mild alopecia.

I'm not doctoring here, but henna, being antiseptic/antibacterial can help in cases of dandruff, dry scalp, and it stimulates the scalp so that you hold onto your healthy hairs longer... or something like that. I'm quoting something I heard in farsi a long time ago, so the translation might be awkward.

Anyhow, Norooz (Persian New Year) is only a couple of weeks away, so I'll end this here so I can go and start working on the things I need to do before the holiday. I'm going to try, during this month, to be a slightly better blogger here and post updates. We have all these things going on here we can blog about, and yet I've not done any of it.

Oh, and on another note, my cousin gets her cast off of her fingers before Norooz, and we'll see her during the holidays, so I plan to take advantage of the fact and make sure to take photos of the finished garments and discuss in some amount of detail their composition.

But that's a few weeks away. :)