‘Mehndi’ designing art yet underpaid in twin cities

mehandi designs

The ongoing wedding season is witnessing our brides shuttling from one beauty saloon to the other for needful services weeks before their big day and selecting the best ‘mehndi’ patterns and its applier is one of tough tasks.

No bride is complete without this critical feature, which completes her bridal status and onlookers love to notice her ‘mehndi’ design along with her clothes and jewellery, inquiring about the person whose ‘mehndi’ applying skills have been hired for the special day.

Nowadays, local markets and beauty parlours have on offer various ‘mehndi’ patterns unlike the past when everybody would happily go about with the ‘gola’ design (a completely filled big circle in the centre of the palm). Now, one has to be particular about the Arabic, Indian, Lebanese, Sudanese, Aroosa or Chinese ‘mehndi’ designs that are no more restricted to hands and feet only but also adorn full arms and ankle high areas. Moreover, the use of glitter available in different colours is also applied to enhance the ‘mehndi’ pattern after the bride is ready.

Although, it may not seem so but ‘mehndi’ application is a strenuous task, as the time involved depends upon the speed of the person applying it as well as the design’s intricacy that can give the applier a bad back along with aching shoulders. Moreover, the margin of error is zero unlike other beautification procedures, as the colour of henna starts to appear as soon as it comes in contact with the skin. Any attempt to remove it only ends up in ugly brownish mustard coloured spots on the skin.

Given the stress factor of this job, the financial return of the service is not much to talk about. Local neighbourhood beauty parlours charge between Rs150 to Rs300 for both hands from a non-bride, but a bride has to pay something between Rs2,000 to Rs6,000 in accordance with her design demand. This does not equalise with what ends up in the ‘mehndi’ applier’s pocket.

Sadia, an expert in applying ‘mehndi’, while talking to ‘The News’ said she is God gifted in her talent and haven’t learnt ‘mehndi designing’ from any parlour but only through experience and her interest in designing. “In Karachi and Lahore, institutes for special training in ‘mehndi’ designing are available but unfortunately in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, we don’t have any specialised institutes for this purpose and have to undertake a complete beautician course to learn the art of ‘mehndi’ designing,” she said adding, “Due to this reason, the ‘mehndi’ girls here are doing it all on their own and their talent is being wasted, as they are hired by beauty parlours on a monthly wage of Rs2,000-3,000 only. “In such a meagre amount, how can we support our families?” she asked.

In this busy age, the two Eids and the wedding season are the only occasions when women apply ‘mehndi’ on their hands and feet, and come to the parlour for this purpose to free themselves from the hassle. This provides the ‘mehndi’ girls with an opportunity to earn good money out of their talent. To fully exploit such an opportunity, most girls remain in the parlours till late night to cater to a larger number of customers and earn a maximum amount.

“It gets quite hefty on ‘chand raat’ and a day before. The girls work non-stop to meet the demand and that too with full concentration, as the slightest mistake can spoil the client’s Eid day,” said Samira, who works in a beauty parlour. She was of the view that there are many recognised beauticians in the city, who lag behind in the art of ‘mehndi’ and hire experts like her for this job. “Due to certain trends prevailing here, in order to get our talent recognised, we first have to open a complete beauty parlour to create a space for ourselves,” she added.

Off late, some ‘mehndi only’ parlours have come to the fore that are becoming popular among the masses due to innovative techniques such as ‘mehndi’ application with a syringe and that too using a ready-to-wear liquid solution in place of the original henna that produces excellent colour. Skills of these kinds produce high quality results, involving lesser time and have a high potential in the market to earn a well-deserved financial return.