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Monday, March 22, 2010

If at first you don't succeed. . .

So, I've been trying to learn to do henna for awhile now. My first attempts were hideous! No really, they were.I have provided no pictures to document the disastrous results.

Since then, I've practiced sporadically and I'm actually getting better.
Some of my first designs were not so great. Take a look here if you want to see what I'm talking about.

I recently ordered a Moroccan henna syringe and some better quality henna from FreeHandMehndi.  
The syringe is a little tricky to figure out at first, but I think I like it better than rolling cones. Its easy to clean and pretty easy to draw with once you get the hang of it. The only downside is that seems to accumulate pressure occasionally and the henna just keeps flowing out. I like it better than cones though, because I always seem to get leaks in my cone at the top.

So, here are the designs that I did this weekend:

I did these on Friday, then used some of the extra henna to shade parts of it on Saturday. Overall, I am pretty happy with the results. I wasn't able to leave the paste on all night, but this was the color I got after about 4 hrs. Oh, and if you're wondering how I hennaed the tops of both hands, I am somewhat ambidextrous.

Saturday night I got invited to a Somali wedding party for a girl in our ESL program. I got to dress some of the other teachers up in dirac and show them off to the Somali community. I was surprised by how many people I already know in the community here. There were also some girls who recognized me from the You Tube video and had me take pictures with them :-)

The only downside to the night was that I was stuck with Layla because my husband was working at 6am on Sunday. They didn't even serve the food until 12:30 a.m. and we took off immediately after.
I consider myself a night person, but I fail miserably by Somali standards!

Layla was causing me issues, but I was still able to get a few pics during the wedding. Here are me and some of the other teachers with a couple of our ESL student friends

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

It came out really good..Love it.
I can't even paint my right hand when I do my nails.

Aren't those Somali's are a beautiful people!?!

Kris said...

Nice! I love doing henna.. really miss it. I use a toothpick to do mine. So much easier than the cones!

Umm Omar said...

Very nice! I WAS wondering how you did that!

Safiyyah said...

Nice job, the designs look good.

Arg ... the staying up late. I can't take it either, lol.

Stacy K. said...

@Tiff, I know! Somalis are just too cute. I wish I was one, but I do what I can ;-)

@MamaKalila,
Toothpick is easier than cones? Are most of your designs based more on straight lines? You should post some of your work.

@Umm Omar, Yes sometimes I forget that some people can't write with both hands! I don't write nearly as well with my right one though.

@Safiyyah, I used to love staying up. I guess I'm getting old! Layla wakes up by 8 regardless, so I don't have a choice.

Twizzle said...

as-salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah,

oooohhhh MashaAllah beautiful work sister!!

I did henna once for Eid and apparently they had mixed it with petrol (gasoline) and it was burning while I was waiting for it to dry and then for the whole 5-6 weeks that the henna lasted, I had hives everywhere it was painted on. It was disgusting to feel my hands/arms LOL

I haven't done it since, and plus I am not that crazy about the smell.. . inshallah one of these days I'll mix up a batch up at home and get it done.. I'll know at least the mix is all gentle ingredients!

Ciyaalka Xaafadda said...

Exotic stuff.

dust n roses said...

you did a fab job! keep at it and ull only get better