For the love of mendhi

HAVING practiced mendhi drawing (the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration) since 1993, Shanti Perumal, 48, says, in her experience, wedding night jitters are the main reason for the popularity of artform.

A mother of three children aged 14 to 27, the Tanjung Malim native runs Shanti Colour and Beauty Salon, one floor above Madras Store in Jalan Masjid India. She said that in the old days, adorning the hands of a bride with henna was not only a beautification process, but a way to divert “first-night” anxieties.

“The idea was to divert her nervousness by putting attention to her hands and feet so that she would relax and feel like a princess for the day,” says Shanti, who also offers 10-session mendhi courses for RM800.

At a Punjabi wedding in Bangsar last year, she and her daughter, Jastina Mary Bernard, 23, an airline reservationist whom she has coached since age five, pocketed some RM2,000 during the henna night ceremony, spending six to seven hours at the event which saw a turnout of 150 from the bride’s side.

“When we were done with the bride, there was a long queue comprising the bride’s mother, sister, aunts and one little girl who wanted their hands adorned,” smiles Shanti.

Having learned the art when she took up a bridal course in Jalan Masjid India for RM3,500, she charges between RM300 to RM500 per bride to adorn their hands and feet, adding to the tab on a per-hand basis should there be extra requests from the bride’s family members. Twenty percent of Shanti’s beauty business comes from weddings and she does no less than 10 a year, sometimes accepting agreements amounting to some RM1,000 for up to four hours of henna work.

But Shanti, whose main source of income is tailoring, says that henna art is also popular during the festive season, especially during Hari Raya Aidilfitri and Deepavali. When she set up a booth along Jalan Masjid India last Hari Raya, she made some RM5,000 in 10 days.

“The last three days of Ramadan are usually sleepless nights for us as this is when the last-minute shopping frenzy takes place. This is when we will just pack up our booth at the end of the day and go upstairs our shop to sleep. The traffic makes it impossible for us to go home and come back as we will not have a place to park the car,” says Shanti. Describing her henna drawing services as a “good-will business”, Shanti admits it is hard to take on calculative attitude when it comes to money.

“I have had brides coming to me in tears because of henna drawings that faded the day after. My daughter, Jastina, has done such repair work, spending hours and going all the way to the house to retrace the intricate lines again for only a minimal sum. But we think, ‘Tomorrow is her wedding day’ and it is not proper to take advantage of other’s misfortunes because what goes around, comes around,” says Shanti.

For the budding henna artist, capital outlay is hardly a concern as mendhi powders imported from India only cost RM25 per box at most. These will contain a dozen tubes, with each tube sufficient for approximately four hands. The trick however, is in getting the mix right, a trade secret among henna artists.

For Nooredayu Selim, a 32-year-old motivational trainer who started her henna drawing service Dayu Designs online in 2005, savvy marketing is one way to keep the tradition alive.

The first three years saw this graphic-arts graduate working solo, handling up to four brides a day within Kuala Lumpur.

“Back then, I was only earning RM5,000 a month at most,” says Nooredayu.

Nooredayu’s 3D henna roses and colourful designs caught on with Malay brides, who make up some 95% of her business. Her customers come from as far as Johor, Malacca and Kelantan. During the peak wedding months of November and December, she has to turn away as many as five customers a day, translating to some RM4,000 in lost sales.

Deriving inspiration from the direct-marketing model, she went on a recruitment drive to rope in fellow enthusiasts to join her company, Dayu Designs, as associate henna artists from different states to service her customers.

The plan? To provide them with leads and earnings of a flat commission of RM100 for every assignment given out. To date, Nooredayu has no less than six associates under her wing. One of them is Hazrin Kamari, 28, an executive with a music label who has seen her income increase by 75% since joining Dayu four years ago.

“I do not see it as work. Rather it is a form of therapy. Because I am passionate about the art, I guess it shows and, for me, the biggest reward is not in monetary terms but in the bride’s satisfaction,” says Hazrin who prices range from RM200 to RM460 per bride.

In addition to roping in the “womanpower”, Nooredayu has also packaged her henna kits attractively, sourcing her products from Europe and Middle East.

Unlike traditional henna kits that require artists to fold their own cones, hers come in plastic bottles with nozzles that can be fitted with drawing tips of different sizes. In the past three years, she has sold some 20 kits to interested associate artists and hobbyists, generating RM10,000 in gross sales. Making the deal sweeter is the after-sales tutorials where artists post photos of their work on Facebook for Nooredayu to comment on. However, she insists the core business for Dayu Designs is the art itself.

On average, Dayu Designs adorns 15 brides a month and sales for last year totalled RM20,000. This year Nooredayu is aiming for RM60,000 in sales as the reception to her proposals for henna-drawing services during product launches, family days, road shows and even company dinners has been positive.