Simplifying your Henna Paste
As a person considering or already in the henna business, you
probably already have some experience making henna, or sourcing pre-made henna
paste. Having plenty of stock is
important if you are in the henna business.
You may end up getting bookings for an event that you were not expecting
and the last thing you want is to be faced with an empty container of henna
cones and an upset client. Nor do you
want to be stuck with making a batch of henna paste last minute without having
the time to test out the paste.
This week’s Henna Business Tips will focus on simplifying your
henna paste. We will go over simplifying
your recipe, simplifying your stock, and simplifying your organization method.
Simplifying your recipe is probably one of the best things you can
do for yourself if you have not already done so. In order to make this happen, you will make a
batch of henna at the beginning of the season (or whenever you get your fresh
henna powder shipment). When you make
this batch of henna, be sure to write down everything you did with it—how many milliliters
of liquid you put in, what essential oils and how much you added, the amount of
sugar (the brand and kind of sugar as well), how long you let the paste rest
and how many cones the batch made. Once
you have a recipe that you like, with the henna being the best texture and
consistency, you will write it down. Once
you have your recipe written, you will replicate the recipe to make sure you
don’t need to tweak it.
So now you have
gone through a few trials of perfecting your recipe and have your recipe
written down, AND you have used that written down recipe to make a second batch
of henna. You have now simplified your
recipe. Perhaps you did this in a 50
gram or 100 gram batch. All you are
going to do for future batches, is to replicate the recipe. If you want to mix a 500 gram batch instead,
you will just multiply your recipe by 10 or 5 to mix the larger batch. You SHOULD NOT tweak or adjust or mess around
with volumes, essential oils, or sugar content.
Once you have your recipe decided, follow that recipe and replicate
it. This helps keep consistency for all
your henna batches.
There will be some times, depending on what part of the world you
live in, that you will need to adjust the sugar and liquid content in your
paste because of fluctuations of humidity.
In order to do that, just follow the steps above to simplify your
recipe. You may end up having 2 recipes—one
for winter and one for summer. Write
down what recipe to use during which months.
Keep your henna recipe simple.
Instead of trying to blend different essential oils and then having to figure
out dye release time or fragrance, just stick to what you have written
down. Yes, it's fun to play around with your options, but operating a henna business means being able to provide consistency. Think about businesses you visit that are consistent throughout--Walmart, Banks, Department Stores, etc.
If you are operating a business,
you should keep consistency in your business.
This keeps things simple in our stock, keeps you organized and you will
have a uniform system implemented for all your events. Yes, there will be scenarios where you will
need to make a new batch for pregnant women, or perhaps a chemotherapy patient—Follow
the same steps. Do your trials and
experiments, write down your results, find a recipe that works for you, write
down the recipe, replicate the recipe, repeat, repeat, repeat!
