Calling All Henna Experts!

Ok calling all of you experts out there who have done henna at festivals.....


what do you charge?
different price points like face painting?
Where do you find simple designs?
are there books.............for quick & easy, simple "beginner" designs?
How much henna do you bring to a festival?

I've been reading at henna pages.com and learning alot already and I'd like to add henna to my festivals.
any help/advice would be appreciated!

oooooh... henna pages.com? must add to obsessions... husband isn't going to like this (I already hog the computer with my puppet/facepaint addiction)

things that help maintain good relationships:
2 bathrooms
2 computers.

yup bit by the henna bug

Cost is based on size and complexity. Much like face painting.

Have you down loaded any of the free e-books from hennapage.com? They are VERY helpful for starting out.

Henna Caravan has two books. One is called "Fivers" and the other is called "Tenners". Perfect for pay-per booths.

what do you charge?
At festivals I charge $15 and up for a henna design - standard hand pieces are $20. Some designs are less but I dont quote it unless they ask for the actual design.

different price points like face painting?
yep usually in increments of $5

Where do you find simple designs? are there books.............for quick & easy, simple "beginner" designs?
The Fiver book is REALLY easy, it's a great beginners book.
However Mehndi Masala is my all time favorite book, the designs look complicated but in reality it just building on to simple flowers and tear drops.

How much henna do you bring to a festival?
I bring about 10 cones per artist. BUT that depends on your festival.
I did a festival where I did a BUNCH of $10 hearts on teens, used up 4 cones.
Another festival where I was constantly working on $40 - $50 desgins, used up 9 cones

My profit at both was around $1200 so I would have preferred the $10 teens

I'm so glad you found henna.... it's my first love! You can also try hennatribe.com, they have some free book designs donated by the tribe members. ( I'm in it )

Really prices are dependent on what your area can support and how quickly you can do them.

Mine actually start at $5 for a small floral hand piece, wristband, butterfly, ...for easy things I can hammer out. They go up based on complexity and size from there. Because of the area, we don't generally support higher price points for smaller pieces...but, like face painting, if you can do a bunch of small ones quickly you will make a tidy profit on small things. We've been able to pull in $1k days at 6 hour long festivals this way. It's unusual but it can be done.

Due to the really low overhead of henna, it's easy to make a profit.

I use jaquard bottles because I like the control they give me over a bag. I can generally get a hundred + small designs from one. I take two already filled and a large refill bottle in a cooler, just in case. Henna freezes so what I don't use, I pop in the freezer.

The Tapdancing Lizard books are a really good place to start. However, if you want stuff that's different from what everyone else has, try getting a tattoo basics design book or clip art books from Dover. They come with cd's that you can download images from, and then organize and print out so that you can make your own unique books.

Also, once you get confident, I highly recommend having an "Artist Challenge". My hub, who is my hawker, sprung this on us one day trying to get more people in the booth~ unamusing since we hadn't even discussed such a thing! Not only did it work, we make more money doing it. The patron tells us what they do or don't like, they tell us how much they want to spend (base price of $10) and we freehand design.

Anyway...good luck!!

It would be interesting with a henna challenge here =)

That it would Lonewolf. And seeing the facepaint challenges going on, I think it would be humorous as well. =)

Metzpah wrote:things that help maintain good relationships:
2 bathrooms
2 computers.

Yep!

Lone,
What a GREAT idea!
I'm still at the suck-age level, but I'm willing to give it a go!

Since it's your idea Lone, I think you should start it. :-p ;-)

Oh, I like the idea of a hennah challange. Since henna patterns stay so long I've been afraid to experiment beyond the few patterns I know. It's not like face painting where one baby wipe can fix it.

You can do them on paper with old henna, or with frosting (if you use cones)

yep, I use wax paper, & chocolate frosting mixed with a tad of water! ; )
sucks when you make a mistake. HAHA!~
(as I'm too new to have old henna!)

I'm covered in henna from alicia this weekend - we did a big event together. I pushed myself and was really pleased with myself -I was a bit nervous so it really helped having her with me.

I start my festival henna pricing at $8, and will only do designs that are up to $25 designs at a festival setting. If they want a larger or more elaborate design, I have them take a card and ask that they call and make a private appointment (which starts at $25). That keeps the line moving.