Belly Henna? Anyone else do this?

[Birth Goddess]

Hello Everyone,

I just got out my henna stuff again after a couple year hiatus. I want to do some daily practice to get my skills up to snuff again, so I can do belly henna (and other stuff). I just thought I'd check in here to see if others do this either as part of your practice or as well as doula work. I'm hoping by summer to be good enough to add this permanently as part of my services, both for doula clients and for belly blessings/mama blessings.

If anyone else out there does this, what do you charge? Anyone out there want to swap recipes? Here are a few wonderful links I've found about pregnancy & henna I want to share:

http://www.hennacaravan.com/pregnancy.html
http://www.hennapage.com/henna/encyc...rth/index.html
http://www.hennalounge.com/bellies.html

There's even a new book out with nothing but designs for pregnant bellies called La Belly Luna! How cool is that?

http://www.tapdancinglizard.com/labellyluna/

And I found one website with an artist who specializes in pregnant bellies, so I included that, too. Check out her gallery! Amazing!

http://www.bellybeautifulhenna.com./start.html

I can't wait to start doing this again,

Jacquie.

[DoulaMorgan]

OHHH! How cool! I am so not blessed with that kind of ability but I would think clients would love to have that offered as part of the "package!" Again, very cool.

[laboroflovedoula]

i hennaed my daughter when she was pregnant with her second- i loved doing it- but not sure i want to make it part of my services- depending on the mom's skin when it is stretched that much it may or may not last for very long- so i would hate to do it and it not last- julie's lasted about a week. we did it the day of her blessingway so it was done for everyone to see that night.

the one pic is soon after i did it- the blessingway was the next night- after she had showered.

[laboroflovedoula]

i loved the links- great pics- if you love doing this i am sure you will do it great and moms will be interested- they are way cool!

[WaterMoon]

I've Always wanted to learn how to do henna

[1stimestar]

Heeheee if you do a search for them you will find a whole lot of my henna pictures. Or you could look at my henna album where most of them are.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v40/1stimestar/Henna/

I'm also 1stimestar on the Henna Page.

Try the Yemen Summer 2006 crop, it is awesome!

[SabbathD]

I had it done with my pregnancy at my shower. I was planning on trying it out on clients as well!

[skyyogastudio]

I have never done pregnant bellies, but I do henna art on bellydancers, and am booked this next weekend for a Sisters Weekend.
I charge $5 for small designs, $10 for large designs (just because I prefer not to do them in this type of setting).
I buy my henna at the local indian food store, its $2 a box and has enough to split and use on several occassions. I mix the henna with lemon juice straight from a lemon or from those squeezy ones you get at the grocery store. Then I use lemon juice and sugar on the henna to get it to set darker once it is dried.

You can also color in the the designs with Tumeric (the spice) and a paintbrush to make some cool effects.

Thanks for all the links, there is some great work out there.

[1stimestar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laboroflovedoula i hennaed my daughter when she was pregnant with her second- i loved doing it- but not sure i want to make it part of my services- depending on the mom's skin when it is stretched that much it may or may not last for very long- so i would hate to do it and it not last- julie's lasted about a week. we did it the day of her blessingway so it was done for everyone to see that night.

Yes, henna stains the molecules of the skin and since there are not very many in pregnant belly skin, the stain tends to be light and not last as long. The palms of our hands and soles of our feet, even though they get the most use, have the most layers of skin to stain, so they get darker stain and it lasts longer. Also, if you are buying henna that has not been stored properply (in a freezer) or in any other way, old, then it will not work as well. I order mine from a certified dealer to make sure it is fresh. But if you are not really into doing it, then it is probably more work then most care to do.

[SabbathD]

I loved getting mine done! It was very light, but it was more symbolic than pretty for me.

[emmabella]

That is so cool! I wanted to have it done when I hit my due date with Ethan but our local Henna artist didn't have time that day. If it was me I would charge by the hour or half hour, including prep time. This would be a very cool thing to add to doula services, but it does require quite a bit of artistic ability!

[SabbathD]

Not quite as much as you might think. The stencils or patterns you can buy, can be transferred right onto the skin and you essentially just....fill it in, or trace over it. It's a lot of fun! And easy to practice, and VERY easy to find willing people to practice on, LOL!!

[skyyogastudio]

I didn't even know there were stencils and transfer paper until I read the last post and went back through some of the links

[b'earth angel]

Thanks for all of the great info! I'm soooo wanting to try this just haven't taken the time or worked up the courage!

[1stimestar]

Stencils don't really work well and most henna artists wont use them. There are some cases that transfers work good, especially if a client wants a very specific, detailed design. But mostly, if you are going to become a henna artist, you need to learn to do it freehand. Also, you might not realize that there is a lot more involved in henna then just doing the design, that is the easy part. Mixing a good paste is an education in chemistry. There is no one recepie. You have to learn to mix depending on the type of henna, that particular crop of henna, your climate (humidity and tempratures) the ph balance of your client's skin, allergies and sensitivities, etc. It's a fun project but expect to put in several months of research and practice, before being good enough to do anything too public.