The Complete Henna Aftercare
By: Krysteen Lomonaco ~
6/15/2017
Sometimes when you get a henna tattoo there isn’t a lot of time to go over the aftercare in great detail. At places like a party, festival or free henna event we might hand out an aftercare sheet with the basic instructions. Often we only have a sign on the artists table stating the simplest 1-2-3’s. Of course, we always have more details on the website for the ambitious client.
Here’s the complete aftercare information with all the details.
- Choose a spot that clothes won’t touch even after the design is dried. It’ll dry in the first hour. Once the paste is applied be sure to protect the design from anyone or anything touching it or it may smear.
- If the design is in a bend zone, knuckle, wrist, neck, don’t bend until the design is completely dried or the paste may be knocked off prematurely.
- Leave the henna paste on for 4-6 hours or longer. Over night is best. You can secure the paste with breathable medical tape to insure is stays on for the amount of time needed. We always spray the henna with a lemon/sugar solution to help it stay on. However, how quickly the paste falls off will depend on your care, the weather and the henna mixture.
- Let the paste fall off on its own. After the 5-6 hours you can brush it off over a trashcan or use a small amount of oil to dislodge the paste. Do not remove with water.
- Don’t get the design wet for at least 12 hours, 24 hours is better. Getting it wet will stop the activation and it may not get darker over the next 2 days.
- At first, the design will be an orange color then it’ll darken to a brown/red color within 2 days. How dark it gets will depend on where you put it, life style and the quality of the henna mixture.
- Henna stains best on the hands, feet, ankles and wrists because it stains dead layers of skin. Other parts of the body stain lighter due to a thinner skin layer.
- Use lotion or body oil to protect the henna tattoo over the next few weeks. The design should last 1-3 week but depends on how fast your skin exfoliates.
- Don’t exfoliate the area. Hot tubs, swimming pools and salt water will take the design off quickly.
The more you know, the more successful your henna experience will be. Shoot me an email if you still have questions. I’m sure I’ve got the answer: mehndimadness@live.com
Krysteen
