Top 44 Cool Henna Designs

Monique | Nov 12, 2018

Henna is a symbol of happiness, beauty and art! It’s meant for everyone because it works on all skin colors and types. You don’t have to have a traditional background with henna to wear it.

What’s henna?

Name henna stands for two things – plant and temporary body tattoo.

Henna plant is a small tree or tall shrub.It’s native to northern Australasia, western and southern Asia and northern Africa. It has been used to dye fingernails, hair, and skin, as well as fabrics including leather, wool, and silk.

Traditionally, henna is traded as a powder. Process of getting henna powder isn’t simple – henna’s leaves need to be dried, crushed and sifted. The resulting powder needs to be mixed with strong tea or lemon juice and made into a creamy paste. Henna paste is then applied to the skin to dye the skin in brown or orange color. Today, henna is commercially packaged and can be bought in many stores.

History of Henna

The body art of henna (also known as mehndi) has been practiced for over 5000 years in India, Pakistan, Middle East, and Africa. Henna was used as natural cooling affect by people in desert. They would soak their feet and palms into a paste of henna to cool down their bodies. As the henna faded away from their skin it left some interesting designs, which led to idea of using henna for decorative purposes. Some researches showed that even Cleopatra used henna.

Henna was used by the rich and poor people. Poor women couldn’t afford jewelry, so they used henna to decorate their bodies. In Africa, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East, henna is used for special occasions like weddings, birthdays and holidays. Brides usually get their henna designs on feet, hands, elbows and sometimes knees. The wedding henna designs are often done by multiple henna artists because drawing can take hours. Wedding henna designs aren’t only for decoration – tradition holds that bride doesn’t have to do any housework, as long as the henna design appears on her skin! Also, the darker the stain the better the mother-in-law and the marriage will be!

Cool Henna Designs

If you want to try and draw your own henna, you don’t have to be creative. There are many stunning henna designs that you can copy. Get inspired by these amazing henna patterns: