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Henna has been used for special occasions and weddings for over 5,000 years. Henna is a natural dye that is applied to the skin, primarily the hands and feet and is considered a more natural form of tattooing or makeup by many. Traditional henna is popular in the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia, where it is a part of local culture. It usually depicts shapes, patterns, and flowers. Azra Khamissa, on the other hand, wants to bring henna into the mainstream.
Khamissa is a Canadian South African chiropractor based in Dubai who studied medicine in Australia. She’s also a fashion designer and the founder of Azra, a company that specializes in high-quality, minimalistic outfits made with locally sourced materials. She began working on Emirati-style henna in 2017 and then moved on to Tunisian and Libyan designs.
She began experimenting with modern designs by the time she attended a Luna bag launch event. Her first modern henna style, which depicted crescent moons, received its first exposure on her Instagram account (@dr.azra), which has over 119,000 followers. Surprisingly, it received overwhelmingly positive feedback, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Khamissa has been promoting modern henna for everyday use since then, creating stunning, contemporary designs that appeal to a broader audience than traditional patterns. As a result, she has been receiving clients from all over the world and conducting workshops throughout the UAE.
She also discovered henna to be a shared interest that can bring women together. In addition, Khamissa has enlisted the help of many women in modernizing henna for everyday use. Use the hashtag #thehennaarchive to find some examples on social media. Khamissa is currently looking to reshape how henna is distributed and sold in order to reach a wider audience.
