The Ancient Art of Henna

Colleen the Henna Lady

Today we had Colleen Heller, the Henna Lady, come and do a program at North Avenue for the teens, her third of four programs for RPL. She gave a brief, but informative presentation on the history and uses of Henna. I have been looking forward to this program for months, and was especially interested to see the different styles and cultural uses.

After her presentation, she did a small henna for each of the 25 young adult attendees (and even one for me:) Since she mixes her own paste, it smells absolutely wonderful! Some opted for traditional designs, or to let her creatively free hand a design. Some asked for animals or even their initials. Some even asked glitter.

Colleen was professional amazing and you can follow her on Twitter or like her on Facebook! I would recommend her for group events and library programs.

My Henna

One of the things about Henna, is that if properly taken care of it will last for a few weeks.

The first picture is of my Henna immediately after it was done. It is dark and thick because the Henna paste is still on it. I allowed it to dry, and tried not to remove the dry paste for about 6 hours.

When the paste first flaked off, it left a pale yellow design on my skin. Colleen told us that the design would continue to grow darker till day 2.

The second picture was the following morning. The color was darkening, but was almost like a faded orange.

The third picture was taken on day 2. It looks lighter in the photograph, but the beautiful pattern on my wrist is a rich, chocolaty brown.

I love it! I have received so many compliments on it, and I have been thrilled!