Henna is a dye made from dried, powdered leaves of Lawsonia inermis, used to produce reddish stains used in body art. It originates in North Africa and the Middle East, and has been used since at least antiquity across the region, including in ancient Egypt, as well as in ancient Mesopotamia and broader pre-Islamic Arabian cultures, as a hair and body dye, notably in the temporary body art of mehndi (or “henna tattoo”) resulting from the staining of the skin using dyes from the henna plant.
Henna has been used in ancient Egypt, ancient Near East and the Indian subcontinent to dye skin, hair, and fingernails; as well as fabrics including silk, wool, and leather. Historically, Henna originates from North Africa, particularly ancient Egypt and the Maghreb (including present-day Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia), as well as from the Middle East, including the Arabian Peninsula and West Asia. From these regions, its use gradually spread to Carthage and other parts of West Africa, Central Africa, the Horn of Africa, and later to the Indian subcontinent, as well as Eastern Europe; particularly in the Balkan, North Caucasian, Crimean, and Volga regions among Turkic, Slavic, Vlach, Albanian, and Kavkaz peoples.
The name henna is used in other skin and hair dyes, such as black henna and neutral henna, neither of which is derived from the henna plant.
Etymology The word henna comes from the Arabic (ALA-LC: ḥinnāʾ; pronounced ).
History The origins of the initial human uses of henna are uncertain; however, there are records that the plant was marketed in Babylonia, and was used in Ancient Egypt on some mummies to dye their hair, skin, nails, or funeral wrappings. It arrived in the Maghreb region during the Punic civilization through Phoenician Diasporas where it was used as a beautification tool. Pliny the Elder wrote about its use in the Roman Empire as a medicine, a perfume, and a dye.
Preparation and application
Body art Whole, unbroken henna leaves will not stain the skin because the active chemical agent, lawsone, is bound within the plant. However, dried henna leaves will stain the skin if they are mashed into a paste. The lawsone will gradually migrate from the henna paste into the outer layer of the skin and bind to the proteins in it, creating a stain.
Since it is difficult to form intricate patterns from coarsely crushed leaves, henna is commonly traded as a powder made by drying, milling and sifting the leaves. The dry powder is mixed with one of a number of liquids, including water, lemon juice, strong tea, and other ingredients, depending on the tradition. Many artists use sugar or molasses in the paste to improve consistency to keep it stuck to the skin better. The henna mix must rest between one and 48 hours before use in order to release the lawsone from the leaf matter. The timing depends on the crop of henna being used. Essential oils with high levels of monoterpene alcohols, such as tea tree, cajuput, or lavender, will improve skin stain characteristics. Other essential oils, such as eucalyptus and clove, are not used because they can irritate the skin.
The paste can be applied with many traditional and innovative tools, starting with a basic stick or twig. In Morocco, a syringe is common. A plastic cone similar to those used to pipe icing onto cakes is used in India. A light stain may be achieved within minutes, but the longer the paste is left on the skin, the darker and longer lasting the stain will be, so it needs to be left on as long as possible. To prevent it from drying or falling off the skin, the paste is often sealed down by dabbing a sugar/lemon mix over the dried paste or adding some form of sugar to the paste. After some time, the dry paste is simply brushed or scraped away. The paste should be kept on the skin for a minimum of four to six hours, but longer times and even wearing the paste overnight is a common practice. Removal should not be done with water, as water interferes with the oxidation process of stain development. Cooking oil may be used to loosen dry paste.
Henna stains are orange when the paste is first removed but darken over the following three days to a deep reddish brown due to oxidation. Soles and palms have the thickest layer of skin and so take up the most lawsone, and take it to the greatest depth, so that hands and feet will have the darkest and most long-lasting stains. Some also believe that steaming or warming the henna pattern will darken the stain, either during the time the paste is still on the skin or after the paste has been removed. It is debatable whether this adds to the color of the result as well. After the stain reaches its peak color, it holds for a few days, then gradually wears off by way of exfoliation, typically within one to three weeks.
Natural henna pastes containing only henna powder, a liquid (water, lemon juice, etc.) and an essential oil (lavender, cajuput, tea tree etc.) are not "shelf stable," meaning they expire quickly, and cannot be left out on a shelf for over one week without losing their ability to stain the skin.
The leaf of the henna plant contains a finite amount of lawsone. As a result, once the powder has been mixed into a paste, this leaching of dye molecules into the mixture will only occur for an average of two to six days. If a paste will not be used within the first few days after mixing, it can be frozen for up to four months to halt the dye release, for thawing and use at a later time. Commercially packaged pastes that remain able to stain the skin for longer than seven days without refrigeration or freezing contain other chemicals besides henna that may be dangerous to the skin. After the initial seven-day release of lawsone dye, the henna leaf is spent, therefore, any dye created by these commercial cones on the skin after this time period is actually the result of other compounds in the product. These chemicals are often undisclosed on packaging and have a wide range of colors, including what appears to be a natural-looking color stain produced by dyes such as sodium picramate. These products often do not contain any henna. There are many adulterated henna pastes such as these, and others, for sale today that are erroneously marketed as "natural", "pure", or "organic", all containing potentially dangerous undisclosed additives. The length of time a pre-manufactured paste takes to arrive in the hands of consumers is typically longer than the seven-day dye release window of henna, therefore one can reasonably expect that any pre-made mass-produced cone that is not shipped frozen is a potentially harmful adulterated chemical variety. ·
Henna only stains the skin one color, a variation of reddish brown, at full maturity three days after application.
Powdered fresh henna, unlike pre-mixed paste, can be easily shipped around the world and stored for many years in a well-sealed package.
Body art quality henna is often more finely sifted than henna powders for hair.
Hair/eyebrow dye
In Ancient Egypt, Ahmose-Henuttamehu (17th Dynasty, 1574 BC) was probably a daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahmose Inhapy. Smith reports that the mummy of Henuttamehu's own hair had been dyed a bright red at the sides, probably with henna.G. Elliott Smith, The Royal Mummies, Duckworth Publishing; (September 2000) In Europe, henna was popular among women connected to the aesthetic movement and the Pre-Raphaelite artists of England in the 1800s. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's wife and muse, Elizabeth Siddal, had naturally bright red hair. Contrary to the cultural tradition in Britain that considered red hair unattractive, the Pre-Raphaelites fetishized red hair. Siddal was portrayed by Rossetti in many paintings that emphasized her flowing red hair. The other Pre-Raphaelites, including Evelyn De Morgan and Frederick Sandys, academic classicists such as Frederic Leighton, and French painters such as Gaston Bussière and the Impressionists, further popularized the association of henna-dyed hair and young bohemian women.
Opera singer Adelina Patti is sometimes credited with popularizing the use of henna in Europe in the late nineteenth century. Parisian courtesan Cora Pearl was often referred to as La Lune Rousse (the red-haired moon) for dyeing her hair red. In her memoirs, she relates an incident when she dyed her pet dog's fur to match her own hair. By the 1950s, Lucille Ball popularized "henna rinse" as her character, Lucy Ricardo, called it on the television show I Love Lucy. It gained popularity among young people in the 1960s through a growing interest in Eastern cultures.
Commercially packaged henna, intended for use as a cosmetic hair dye, originated in ancient Egypt and the ancient Near East and is now popular in many countries in South Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America. The color that results from dyeing with henna depends on the original color of the hair, as well as the quality of the henna, and can range from orange to auburn to burgundy. Henna can be mixed with other natural hair dyes, including Cassia obovata for lighter shades of red or even blond and indigo to achieve brown and black shades. Some products sold as "henna" include these other natural dyes. Others may include metal salts that can interact with other chemical treatments, oils and waxes that may inhibit the dye, or dyes which may be allergens.
Apart from its use as a hair dye, henna has recently been used as a temporal substitute to eyebrow pencil or even as eyebrow embroidery.
Body art
Henna has been used to adorn young women's bodies as part of social and holiday celebrations since the late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean. The earliest text mentioning henna in the context of marriage and fertility celebrations comes from the Ugaritic legend of Baal and Anath, which has references to women marking themselves with henna in preparation to meet their husbands, and Anath adorning herself with henna to celebrate a victory over the enemies of Baal. Wall paintings excavated at Akrotiri (dating before the eruption of Thera in 1680 BC) show women with markings consistent with henna on their nails, palms and soles, in a tableau consistent with the henna bridal description from Ugarit. Many statuettes of young women dating between 1500 and 500 BC along the Mediterranean coastline have raised hands with markings consistent with henna. This early connection between young, fertile women and henna seems to be the origin of the Night of the Henna, which is now celebrated in all the Middle East.
The Night of the Henna was celebrated by most groups in the areas where henna grew naturally: Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus among others, all celebrated marriages and weddings by adorning the bride, and often the groom, with henna.
Across the henna-growing region, Purim, Eid, Diwali, Karva Chauth, Passover, Mawlid, and most saints' days were celebrated with some henna. Favourite horses, donkeys, and salukis had their hooves, paws, and tails hennaed. Battle victories, births, circumcision, birthdays, Zār, as well as weddings, usually included some henna as part of the celebration. Bridal henna nights remain an important custom in many of these areas, particularly among traditional families.
Henna was regarded as having Barakah ("blessings"), and was applied for luck as well as joy and beauty.Westermarck, E. (1926). Ritual and Belief in Morocco Vols 1 & 2. London, UK: Macmillan and Company, Limited Brides typically had the most henna and the most complex patterns to support their greatest joy and wishes for luck. Some bridal traditions were very complex, such as those in Yemen, where the Jewish bridal henna process took four or five days to complete, with multiple applications and resist work. Specific henna designs may also vary by region. For example, geometric shapes such as triangles and diamonds characteristic of traditional Moroccan beading are represented in Moroccan henna designs.