How to Get a Good Henna Stain on Difficult to Stain Areas
Arms, hands, feet, and legs all stain well with henna. The closer we get in towards the torso, and upwards towards the head, the harder it is to stain. Faces are unpredictable, and often results are blotchy. Necks are notoriously poor staining (not to mention almost impossible not to smudge), as is upper back and the decolletage area. There are things you can do to get better results though, so read on.
Clean the skin.
Most of the more difficult areas of the body to stain with henna, are difficult primarily because the skin is oily. Skin oils are a tri-fold problem.
1) the oil acts as a barrier to the lawsone (the dye in henna)
2) the skin has less layers of dead skin due to the moisturising effects of the oil, meaning less material for the dye to bond to, and
3) the skin may be saturated with oils even if you clean the surface, and not have capacity to soak up anything else.
Use a skin safe method, such as an alcohol wipe or soap and water to clean the area you want to henna to give it the best chance to gobble up those lawsone molecules!
Exfoliate.
Lightly exfoliating the area may assist the stain to last better- but be careful! Hard to stain areas already have very little dead skin layers to work with, and removing too much by enthusiastic exfoliation will result in a disappointing stain. Wiping with an alcohol wipe is probably all the exfoliation it needs.
Keep it on!
Difficult skin to stain needs more care than those places that seem to stain effortlessly like palms and feet. Once you've cleaned the skin as detailed above, it is important that you give the henna paste as much time as possible to do it's job. Keep that paste on the skin for as long as you can. Aim for 8 hours. This is a scenario where sealing is more important. You want that paste to stay put! Read about how and why to seal your henna in place for tips on what kind of sealants are available and what might be suitable for the body part.
Keep it warm!
Keeping your henna warm will speed up the changes, and it will also help to keep your skin slightly moist. Cold skin is usually very dry skin with no perspiration, which allows the henna to dry out completely. You want the henna to stay just moist enough that the dye can keep migrating across into your skin.
AFTERCARE!!!!
Aftercare is vitally important. Follow good aftercare to get the best out all the work you've put in so far. Keep the paste on, keep it warm, and keep it dry for at least 8 hours after taking the paste off.
Expectations.
It is important to have realistic expectations about what kind of stain is typical on what areas of the body. You may be pleasantly surprised, but it's best to be conservative in your estimation especially when making recommendations to a customer.
The last thing you need is a killer paste! Know your product well, using an improperly prepared henna paste will sabotage your efforts from the start. Click here to read about how to mix for best results.
Comment below if you need some guidance, or to share your results on these tricky spots!