FAQs

What is henna (also known as mehndi)?

The art form gets its’ name from the henna plant, the primary ingredient in henna paste. Henna plants are crushed into a powder, mixed with a few liquids to make a paste, then applied to the skin in various customized designs, leaving a beautiful brown to red/brown stain on your skin that lasts up to 2 weeks.

Wait, henna is a plant? Did someone just figure this henna stain thing out?

Okay, that’s actually 2 questions:
1. Yes, it’s a plant, it grows naturally in hot, dry places. Best known for growing in India, it’s also found throughout north Africa and the Middle East.
2. But no, henna isn’t new. The henna plant has been used since time immemorial, it’s mentioned in passing in the Christian bible and found on Egyptian mummy hair dating to at least 3400 BC.

What’s in your henna paste?

This is the single most important question to ask any henna artist so you know they’re using safe ingredients! Scroll down to see a warning about Black/chemical henna. But don’t worry, Happy Henna Guy uses powder made from crushed leaves of organic henna plants then mixes that with lemon juice, molasses, and a few drops of essential oil (either lavender or cajeput essential oils) to make a creamy, dreamy henna paste that will leave a long-lasting, dark stain on your skin.

Some artists mix their henna powder with water, apple juice, or tea rather than lemon juice (and sugar or honey rather than molasses). All are fine, we just prefer lemon juice (unless you’re allergic, in which case we’ll make a batch with water).

How does it work?

The henna plant has a chemical in the leaves called lawsone. Lawsone, especially when put in a paste solution like in henna paste, interacts with the melanin found in your dead skin cells (which we all have in dense layers on top of our living skin tissue). This makes your melanin darker, creating a “stain” that lasts for up to 2 weeks. This means that even those happy henna friends out there with naturally dark melanin will get a henna stain as well, typically a dark plum color rather than the brownish/red that light skinned folks get.

How old do you have to be?

Due to the slight chance of danger to anyone with G6PD deficiency at a young age, Happy Henna Guy will NOT apply henna to anyone under age 2.
And it’s preferable that henna only be applied to people over age 10. After 5 years of festivals, appointments and parties, it’s become clear that happy henna friends under age 10 usually cannot sit still to receive the henna, and then cannot leave the henna on their skin while it dries and cures over the next 1-4 hours. This creates a mess and waste of money for parents as costs paid for henna art is non-refundable.

How long will my henna last?

It depends. Hand, forearm, and foot stains always last the longest, roughly 2 weeks (give or take). Other body parts last less time. And some people naturally stain darker and longer than others. But generally, 1-2 weeks, often longer, if you take good care of it.

However, if you’re a nurse/doctor, beautician, barkeep, or someone else that washes their hands 20+ times per day, then henna on the hands is not the best option, let’s do your arm, leg or foot instead.

See our Aftercare page for more info.

$$$ How much is it? $$$

At festivals, we charge by the piece. Starting at $8 and going up in $5 increments from there to $50+ (depending on size and time to draw). Find something in our book, choose artist’s choice, or show us a picture on a phone, we’ll size it up and let you know before work starts how much it will be.

But, for private appointments, weddings, and parties, we charge $100-$120 per hour. What do you get for that price? Well, at a festival, our average is an $18 henna, and The Guy can do about 7-10 of those per hour when everything’s grooving just right. At a party you’re paying by the hour, not the piece, so you’re getting roughly $180+ worth of henna for $100. That’s all a rough estimate of course. But also at a private appointment or party, there’s more time to customize or add on to a piece, or do multiple pieces on the same person (birthday celebrants love coming around a second time for more henna). :-) Go to the Book an Appointment page if this sounds good to you!

What other colors of henna do you have?

Henna should always be a brown or reddish brown stain (except on naturally dark melanin happy henna friends, they get more of a deep plum color, which is pretty awesome). Looking on Ebay, Amazon, and many other online retailers, it’s easy to find “red, white, blue, black, green, orange” and other colors of “henna”. These are NOT henna and are NOT safe!

Anything advertised as those colors of “henna” is most likely adulterated with petrochemicals to turn your skin those colors, including (but not limited to) para-phenylenadiamine (PPD) which is known to cause severe allergic reactions and permanent scarring (do a quick internet search for “black henna reaction” in images or news and you’ll quickly find the proof of this claim). Natural, safe henna will always start out light orange, then turn brown over 24-48 hours. Anything else isn’t real henna. If your henna artist, or your friend, or the person/business you’re buying henna from does not know all the ingredients, or refuses to tell you, then please find a provider that will, otherwise you don’t know what’s going on your skin.

Where’s your black henna?

Ach, really, please don’t get black henna. No, I don’t use it. No, I won’t do a design on you using your black henna. See the warning above about any henna that isn’t safe, all-natural henna.
Any person you see using black henna cannot get insurance. Insurance companies know the dangers of black/chemical henna and write in specific wording for henna artists so that we cannot use black/chemical henna and get insurance.

How do I take care of it?

Yeah, just go look at the Aftercare page.

Is it a tattoo? Do you also do tattoos?

Hey, wait, that’s 2 questions again…
1. No, it’s not a tattoo. No needles. No blood. No permanent body art. And besides, there’s way more insurance needed for tattoo artists, and we don’t carry that insurance.
2. No, we don’t also do tattoos. And no, the Happy Henna Guy himself has no tattoos (he just hasn’t found one that he needs to wear to his dying day, but he certainly takes artistic inspiration from them). That said, designing a tattoo for you could be fun. Contact us at happyhennaguy@gmail.com if that’s something you’re interested in.

Will you henna my…..?

The Happy Henna Guy will put henna anywhere except chests, bellies, butts, thighs or other areas not normally seen (or touched) in public. The Guy is happily married and prefers to stay that way!

Are you insured?

Absolutely! As a service provider that constantly interacts with many different happy henna friends, we feel it’s important to protect both ourselves and you, the happy henna friend, from anything that could go wrong.

What could go wrong? In 7+ years as an artist… nothing. But it’s better to be safe than sorry.

We’re insured through beauty&Bodywork Insurance. If you need to know more, contact happyhennaguy@gmail.com directly.

Is it Cultural Misappropriation to do/receive henna if you’re not from that culture?

Oof. This one’s tough. If The Guy blogs on this at some point we’ll but the link here. In the meantime:
The simple answer is No, it’s not cultural misappropriation. But that answer is heavily oversimplified.
The deeper answer is… it’s complicated.
Henna is not from any one particular culture. The henna plant has been used for beautification purposes for thousands of years across hundreds of cultures. It’s on Egyptian mummies. It’s referenced in Song of Songs (a book in both the Christian and Hebrew Bible). It was well known in the ancient Roman world. Today in the United States it’s most recognized as something that people from India and Pakistan use as part of their wedding traditions.
Henna does not belong to one culture or religion, rather it has been used across North Africa, the Middle East, India and the surrounding regions since time immemorial.
That said, The Happy Henna Guy is certainly not related by ancestry to any of these cultures. He is doing what everyone else has done when they encountered henna through the centuries: saw it, thought it was beautiful, and tried it himself. It does not belong to him any more than McDonalds or Starbucks does. He simply uses it to create smiles and happiness wherever, and with whomever, he can. Hopefully that is enough.