The HennaPage Oral History Project

During the mid-1990s, henna use in the West could easily have been dismissed as yet another passing fad but a decade later, henna use has increased among Westerners and appears likely to continue increasing for some time to come.

The growth of acceptance and use of henna outside of the cultures where its use is the norm has been partly due to the migration of people from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia to the US and Europe. The change has also been driven by the people who practice the art in the West, both those whose roots are in the traditional henna-using cultures and Western practitioners who have taken up the craft.

Henna artists are an important part of the history of henna and the goal of the HennaPage Oral History Project is to preserve some of that story in the words of the artists themselves. This transcript is the first of what will be a continuing series of interivews. Whenever possible, we will record interviews with people active in the craft and present them here, in text, audio or video form.

Writers and researchers are welcome to use quotes and excerpts from these interviews. Please cite http://www.hennapage.com and The HennaPage Oral History Project as the source.