Mehendi is a small tropical shrub, whose leaves when dried and ground into a paste, give out a rusty red pigment, suitable for making intricate designs on the hands and feet. The Mehendi has a cooling property and no side effects on the skin. Mehendi is very suitable for creating intricate patterns on different parts of the body, and a pain less alternative to permanent tattoos.
The art of beautifying hands and feet with Mehendi has been in fashion for the past 5,000 years and even though the designs fade the art has withstood the impact of change. Now it is not just hands and feet that are decorated, but also neck, arms, back and navel. The intricate and delicate Rajasthani Mehendi designs have been a traditional favorite but it is the thicker and bold strokes of Arabic Mehendi designs which are in consonance with the aspirations of the bold Y2K generation. Traditional Khujaraho or Mughlai designs, marriage scenes of baraat, doli and even images of Lord Ganesha are very trendy in the Arabic form.
The earliest art of Mehendi has received plenty of fans in the past decade of so for its flexibility and convenience in terms of application of the Mehendi. Also familiar as a form of temporary tattoo, the henna that is applied on body parts are also highly striking and appealing in terms of looks, thus they have appeared as fashion statements of their own. There are diverse advantages of applying the Mehendi on your body, as listed below:
Natural henna is known to possess an herbal background, thus they display healing features for example therapeutic tendencies that help to calm the skin and make it healthier. They also have cooling properties, thus people in hot countries apply Mehendi to help cool down their body.
Mehendi is perfectly natural as henna is made of natural ingredients only, thus they are safe and hazard free. You could use it as much as you desire to without having to worry about harmful side effects such as skin problems, contrary to other tattoos that would leave marks and hurt your skin as well.
It is very easy to make natural henna powder, you would require ground henna leaves in powder form, a little bit of jasmine oil and boiling water to make henna paste. You could also desire to add other substances such as coffee and lemon juice to help preserve the freshness of the henna paste.
There are a variety of designs to decide from when we speak of Mehendi, for instance Pakistani Mehendi, Indian Mehendi and Arabic to name three. Each of these Mehendi designs are different, this also enables you to have plenty of selections and choices to choose from in terms of design and style. Indian Mehendi is probably the most admired choice as it has therapeutic properties, and is also easier to apply and design on your skin.
It is accessible in a large variety of colors, as the demand for natural henna has increased largely over the last decade. These days you can find henna dye and henna color variants such as brown, black, dark red, dark orange and numerous others that are both appealing and attractive, especially to your women.
Easy to use on different body parts such as hands and legs, one main advantage of Mehendi is the fact that you can use henna on your parts conveniently and without annoy, you could use toothpicks or ready made stencils.
The esteem of designs of Mehendi henna body art is growing as a new sensational and temptation trend in the world of tattoos. In-deed this way of decorating body has been quite common for past few centuries in many eastern cultures especially in the wedding ceremonies. This is why wedding Mehendi designs are becoming more admired every other day. With the growing demand to tattoos in recent years, Mehendi henna designs are gaining fame in many other countries besides the native cultures.
Traditional Mehendi tattoos, as a self decoration product, has been verified to be quite helpful for the health and is now being demanded more than any other tattoo techniques that are popular in the world right now.
There are 2 benefits of using Mehendi as a body art technique against the other ways of decorating the body: the pain and hazard comes with other techniques versus the completely natural henna with a pain-less easy way. Because Mehendi is the only natural-herb and a tattoo technique with possibly no side effects if consumed in the pure form.
In past days a friend or family member used to apply Mehendi on the hands and feet of bride to be with elderly ladies singing songs for a happy married life of the to be married couple. The custom has now undergone marvelous change, Professional, Mehendi walis have taken over from amateur relatives and intricate sangeet ceremonies with innovative sequences and well rehearsed and professionally choreographed dancing taking over. This is followed by a grand spread of tasty dishes that are extremely enjoyed by the guests. In fact, those indulging in wealth also send out separate cards to invite relatives and friends for the Mehendi function that is held one day before wedding ceremony.
Even though, traditional designs comprising a baraat, dulha dulhan, doli shehnai, etc., are still in use, modern Indian brides these days desire either Arabic Mehendi or zardozi and studded designs matching their wedding dress. Thanks to the film and television serials and also musical videos popularizing Mehendi ceremonies, the art of Mehendi applying has undergone work and colored Mehendi too are gaining popularity with the hip.
Instant Mehendi of tattoos too have gained fame for those hard pressed on time. Tattoos in loud colors like shocking red, silver golden, navy blue and green and doing them at the most unheard of places like face, navel, neck, waist, back, feet are in fashion.
In modern popular culture, Mehendi has enjoyed a renewal. Hollywood personalities and Western musicians have adopted and altered the tradition so that Mehendi as a temporary, pain free body decoration alternative to tattooing is now the hottest new trend among women and men. As the trend grows in esteem, so grows the list of personalities that have been seen sporting Mehendi patterns.
Three foremost traditions can be recognized aside from the modern use of Mehendi as a trendy temporary tattoo. Usually, Arabic Mehendi features large, floral patterns on hands and feet, while Indian Mehendi uses fine lines, floral, lacy patterns. Apart from these there is the African Mehendi art which involves bold and large geometrically-patterned angles. Usually, African Mehendi patterns use black henna whereas Arabic and Asian Mehendi is regularly reddish brown.
Also in fashion is shaded Mehendi which plays with contrasts of black, maroon and red. This has not only caught consider of several brides who prefer it for the D-day, but is a favorite with party lovers as well. The colored black outlining is done with a chemical dye and later on the design is filled up with regular Mehendi.
Glitter Mehendi is one more variation quite popular with young generation these days. In this, the traditional designs are painted with the use of gold, copper or silver colored glitters which give a shimmering effect; this goes very well with formal dresses. Tiny crystal granules are also used to decorate Mehendi designs giving a rich effect. Mehendi tattoos are really quite popular among college going girls.
