Thursday March 28th, 2024
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Beit El Henna Brings a ContemporaryTouch to Traditional Body Art

‘Beit El Henna’ reworks the ways in which we perceive the cultural tradition of henna altogether.

Farida El Shafie

Beit El Henna Brings a ContemporaryTouch to Traditional Body Art

Having modeled for UpFuse, worked alongside Kojak, and styled the Egyptian rap scene, Rawan El Naggar has left no creative outlet untapped. Since she was 11 years old, our artist on the rise found an inexplicable gravitational pull toward the world of henna, and now - almost 15 years later - El Naggar has founded ‘Beit El Henna’, and reworked the ways in which we perceive the cultural tradition altogether. 


“I’d spend hours admiring my relatives as they drew henna designs,” El Naggar tells #CairoScene. “So I began practicing on myself, with a particular focus on traditional henna because that was what was common at the time.” 


While the art form came easy for El Naggar, she never felt entirely settled when it came to traditional henna. She felt lost in the style as it failed to encompass the verisimilitude of her self expression. “After years of sticking to one thing, I found myself getting bored and losing track of my artistic side  because of it,” El Naggar says. “As soon as I stopped drawing as a hobby, I knew something had to change.” 


Committing to lifelong body art was never in the works for our budding entrepreneur, her Libra-esque free-flowing nature never felt inclined to abide by stylistic contracts, “I’ve always wanted tattoos, and I’m talking like, full sleeves of tattoos,” El Naggar says. “I get bored really easily, I always find myself wanting to try new things all the time.” The result is a fresh take on a gorgeous tradition, to create something that is very much of and for its own present moment.