Mehndi for Beginners: Your First Design in 7 Steps
Holding the cone, controlling pressure, and the four strokes that make up almost every simple mehndi design.
Step 1: Get the cone right
A good cone is firm but not hard, with a tip opening about the width of a pin. Snip a tiny amount and test on paper — you can always cut more, never less.
Step 2: How to hold it
Hold the cone like a pen but higher up, and rest your little finger on the skin for stability. The tip should hover just above the skin, not press into it — you are laying a line down, not drawing.
Step 3: Learn four strokes
The dot, the teardrop, the comma and the wavy line. Almost every simple mehndi design is a rearrangement of these four. Fill a sheet of paper with each one before touching skin.
Step 4: Start with a round tikki
Draw a dot at the centre of the palm, circle it, then keep adding rings alternating between petals, dots and zigzags. It is impossible to get badly wrong and looks complete at any stage.
Step 5: Then try an Arabic vine
On the back of the hand, draw a wavy line from the index finger to the wrist. Add a flower at every bend, leaves in the gaps, and dots along the edges.
Step 6: Fixing mistakes
Wipe wet paste off immediately with a damp cotton bud. If it has dried, do not scrub — absorb it into the design by turning the blob into a deliberate dot or petal.
Step 7: Aftercare
Let it dry for 30 minutes, dab lemon-sugar, keep it on for 6 hours minimum, scrape rather than wash, and oil afterwards. Your first design will be darker than you expect if you follow only this step properly.