Amateur ‘Mehndi’ artists in Capital become more active for ‘Chand Raat’

Islamabad : As Ramazan draws to an end and Eid’s festivities gear up, many ‘home-based mehndi’ artists from the far-flung areas of the country have also appeared in the capitals markets and established their stalls in front of shops for applying ‘mehndi’ on the special occasion of ‘Chand Raat’.

A report aired by a private news channel said, the capital’s markets are brimming with traditional ‘mehndi’ stalls to attract women, both young and old.

Mostly Women in capital have already starting making appointments with many home based henna artists to get their hands decorated on ‘Chand Raat, according to female customers.

Traditional ‘mehndi’ always remains in fashion, but this time the demand is for something creative, we are applying fusion ‘mehndi’ by blending traditional ‘mehndi’ along with other colours, Henna expert Aqsa Khan said.

Asma Irfan another henna artist came from Multan said, her bookings for Eid rose by 40 to 70 percent over the past two days compared to her routine works and these professional henna artist has been in the business for over five years.

The rates of applying ‘mehndi’ vary from design to design.

The rate of a single vine starts from Rs100, for the full hand we are charging Rs300, while the rates are Rs600 for both hands, another henna artist Javeria Noman informed.

She also has a Facebook page displaying her work, with many women and girls posting comments and asking for appointments.

Home-based Professional ‘mehndi’ artist have been more active by applying beautiful ‘mehndi’ designs on the hands of women, girls and even babies on ‘Chand Raat’, Lubna Arshad said.

Shahnaz Bano, a trainee at a local salon, said she is learning to apply Arabic henna designs on hands because it is a lucrative business in capital on ‘Chand Raat.’

It is the best skill a young girl can learn, and earn a good amount of money with creativity and hard work.

She receives almost 50-100 customers per day on ‘Chand Raat’ and spends almost 15 minutes on each hand.

Commenting on the business, she said, Henna artists do not require a lengthy training period, and accreditation is not necessary.

One needs to acquire the basic knowledge and skills to apply henna before plunging into a henna business.

A housewife Naeema Aslam said, it’s very traditional and I can think of no festival without henna.

The trend seems to lean toward more traditional henna and intricate designs. Although it gets quite late, we patiently wait for the artist to apply it on us.