Mehendi 101 - When Should You Apply It, How To Darken It, What Hacks Will Help!

Mehendi is one of the first and most fun functions. Most brides love applying mehendi and a bridal mehendi hand, is the most special of them all. While the age old myth says that if your husband loves you more, the colour will appear darker, new age brides are well beyond that. So we decided to list down a complete 101 on bridal mehendi. When to apply, what to do, the whole works. Make sure you bookmark it before your adorn your hands!

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Application Of Mehendi

Ideally get your mehendi done two days before the big day. So if you are getting married on a Sunday, get you mehendi done on Friday afternoon. Since bridal mehendi usually takes long (3-6 hours), don’t count the actual day of application.

Make sure that you have done all your waxing and manicures before the application, as this will fade the colour of the mehendi, once applied.

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Darkening Hacks

• Wash your hands with a handwash and towel dry them. Make sure you don’t have any cream on your hands before you apply mehendi. It prevents your skin from absorbing the mehendi fully.
• While no cream is allowed, apply a tiny bit of good quality (this is important) Eucalyptus oil before the start of the mehendi application.
• Let your mehendi stay on the skin as long as you can. Don’t scrap it off before it starts falling off on its own.
• While this is an age-old hack, it’s the one that works. A mixture of sugar and lime water should be applied on dried mehendi so that the mehendi stays on for long. Don’t go overboard with it, as it may end up having adverse effects. Apply it all over you mehendi once or max, twice.

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• Mash a few cloves and roast them on the pan. Hold your hands over the clove smoke and let it seep in. Repeat the same activity twice or thrice only. This helps to darken the colour.
• Never wash your hands with water! Scrap off the mehendi by simply rubbing your hands or with a spoon.
• No matter what, do not use a blow dryer to dry the mehndi on your palms and legs. It will mess up the design and even the colour will bleed.
• Don’t sit under direct sunlight once you have applied your mehendi
• While Vicks (the vaporub) helps in a congested chest, it also helps to darken your mehendi. Once you have scraped off all your mehendi, the next morning, apply a dollop of the Vicks and rub it all over your coloured hands. If you allergic to Vicks, apply mustard oil and get the same results.