to 7 p.m.Ĭhronicle Fashion Editor Trish Donnally heads to Allah's Sacred Earth in Berkeley, where she finds folks waiting up to 90 minutes for henna body painting. By appointment on weekends only.īombay Bazar, 548 Valencia St., San Francisco. Though she's sold out of her $2.99 henna paste cones, she's expecting another delivery tomorrow.Īllah's Sacred Earth, 2041 University Ave., Berkeley. "We were so busy last weekend! We sold 1,500 cones," says Bharti Parmar, owner of Bombay Bazar, an Indian grocery store in San Francisco. Many are simply heading to the closest Persian, Middle Eastern or Indian grocery store to buy henna paste for do-it-at-home applications. It's like going to a spa, it's one-on-one treatment where someone is totally focused on you for half an hour," says Henderson.īut not everyone who has been hit by this mehndi madness is going to salons. And you're constantly touching the client.
#India ink drawing skin
"We oil their skin with citrusy oil that helps open the pores. It smells great, it feels great," says Sonja Henderson, 30, an Allah's Sacred Earth mehndi artist who has a master's of fine arts from UC Berkeley. How do artists feel about this new crush of customers? "I like the idea you could get something different every time," he says. He chose henna painting because it isn't permanent. Vincent High School in Vallejo, waited over an an hour to have a Sagittarius symbol painted on the back of his neck.
Jarron Magallanes, 17, a recent graduate of St. "This gave her a lot of confidence," says Annette Gagnon, 26, the mehndi artist who applied it.Ī conservative doctor from North Carolina, troubled by the progress of certain patients, had healing symbols applied to her hands.Ī grandmother had an Egyptian symbol applied simply to shock her children.Ĭrystal Polk, 18, a student from the University of California at Santa Barbara, who had a mehndi armband applied, says, "I'm interested in tattoos, but I never had the guts to get one, and also my parents - I didn't know what they would say." A rock climber, for instance, requested that a scene of a beautiful Tibetan woman walking through the mountains be painted on her back.Ī breast cancer survivor, about to go on her second honeymoon, was self-conscious of her scars, so she had a lovely bird painted over her entire breast. What motivates people to have henna body painting is varied. While treating Chara Schreyer to a birthday dinner in a nice restaurant, the trio surprised her by lifting their shirts in unison. MacTavish had "Birthday" applied to hers. Schreyer's little sister, Natalie, had the word "Happy" painted in henna on her stomach. "It's a nice way to do something funky that has no permanence."īrown University sophomore Justine Schreyer, who is from Tiburon, was prompted, after two hours of coaxing, by her mother's friend, Heather MacTavish, to get a henna tattoo to celebrate her mother's 50th birthday. "I'm waiting for him, and wanted to do something different, and I can't shop for clothes right now," says Franklin. But on a recent visit to Allah's Sacred Earth, not a bride is to be found, and people are having diverse parts of their bodies painted.įor instance, Pam Franklin, 30, of Berkeley, who is eight months pregnant, had a Victorian ivy design applied around her left ankle. Mehndi traditionally is used on brides who have their hands and feet decorated for the wedding.
Costs range from $20 for a hand to $100 for the entire back.
What remains is a rich, burnt orange stain that lasts from one to four weeks, depending on a person's chemistry and how often he or she washes the area. This dark green paste takes about five hours to dry before it flakes off the skin.
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