Counting down days until your next music festival or starting to plan your bohemian holiday wardrobe for the upcoming summer escape? These days our favourite boho style has been taken to a whole new level. Think less feathers and glitter and more artisan expression with beautifully crafted Henna tattoos. Fun and quirky, this exotic body art allows you to express your bohemian side and make a trendy statement at the same time, aka Rhinanna and Beyonce. So to introduce you to this oh-so trendy festival look we have asked Pavan Dhanjal of Pavan Henna Bar to give us a low down on how henna has taken festival fashion by storm...

Henna has been used in bridal ceremonies in the Middle East and on the Asian subcontinent for centuries. Traditionally it is applied two days before a wedding and, according to customs, henna usually symbolises a new beginning (which might be why Beyoncé was seen with a beautiful henna baby bump at her recent baby shower).

More modernised and trend-led forms of henna such as the White Henna and Glitter Henna also lend themselves perfectly for festivals, and we see an increased number of bookings for these types of henna over the Summer. I think it’s amazing how henna has now become more of a fashion statement, worn for absolutely any occasion.

Celebrities such as Beyonce and Rihanna have definitely made henna more popular and mainstream by increasing awareness about this beautiful form of body art and how it can be a both a fashion statement and a form of creative, individual expression. Rihanna even had her henna design made into a real tattoo and we are starting to I see a lot of girls coming into our henna bar to get a ‘trial’ henna tattoo to see how they would like the real thing.

Henna designs are constantly evolving. More so than before, henna can be absolutely whatever you want it to be, it has the ultimate flexibility. As well as the traditional Indian styles that I started working with, there is also Arabic and Morrocan henna which each have wonderfully different design elements. A lot customers are after a mixture of traditional henna with contemporary/westernised elements that match their personal style, from ethnic to quirky style details.

I think the best way to wear henna is always with jewellery – it’s so important to accessorise. This creates a total, complimentary look and both the henna and jewellery accentuate the other. I love to take cues from my clients’ jewellery and incorporate similar design details into their henna looks, it creates a truly personal touch which reflects the individuals character and style. It’s always best to leave jewellery on while creating the henna design so you can see which parts of the skin will be on show and which parts will be covered.

For some beautiful henna design inspirations you can check out my instagram and the website.

To shop gorgeous festival jewellery by Ottoman Hands as picked by me, view the selection below.