Full Description.
Your Mombasa City walking Tour can't be full without a fascinating henna art design painting on your body.The art of henna painting has been practised for over 5,000 years, but walking around Mombasa-a city with a high population of Muslims, you rarely see any advertisement directing a person on where to get the best painter.

Traditionally, henna is used for self expression, celebration of special occasions and for beauty.Today, people from other cultures have adopted the art, decorating their bodies with different designs.

The designs depend on status, for little girls normally a small simple design pattern suffices. For a single girl, the art goes just up to the wrist of the hand whereas for married women it is not restricted.It is believed that a woman must always adorn her hands with henna to look beautiful for her husband so that whenever she is with him, he sees the beautiful and colourful artwork.

Bridal designs are different from the other designs because it is the bride’s first night with her husband she has to look extra beautiful.Different cultures have specific designs; you can Indian design Mehndi or United Arab Emirates Khaleeji style, also Sudanese black dye style.

The process includes mixing the henna powder with water, and the designer puts the wet henna in a cone which is used to draw with. Once the henna is applied on your skin, you wait for about forty five minutes to one hour for it to dry.After that, you just peel off the dried henna and normally you are advised not to touch water for 6-8 hours so the henna can darken preferably overnight. These days henna is mixed with a thinner which speeds up the process of drying.

There are endless designs or art to choose from including bird, vines and creepers, sun, moon, reptile and Mandala designs.