RIYADH: Women visiting the Janadriyah festival flocked to the Eastern Province’s pavilion to have their hands decorated with beautiful henna designs by Maryam Al-Shrida. Henna art is an ancient tradition, which continues to be popular among women in the Middle East and the subcontinent. Its popularity has now even reached the West. Henna is a herbal dye used for temporary tattooing. Al-Shrida turns the hands of her clients into works of art, reflecting a hobby and a craft passed down to her from her mother.She also introduced some modern modifications to her henna designs.“Henna is used for treating hair and skin diseases and for cosmetic purposes, like dyeing the hair and the skin,” she explained. According to Al-Shrida, women adore henna designs, which come in many types — Indian mehndi, Sudanese, Emirati, Bahraini, Moroccan, and many others. “Most young women prefer simple designs, Indian designs, flowers, bracelet designs, and letters, as well as having their names written on their palms,” she said, “especially during Eid holidays and weddings.”Al-Shrida added: “Most women prefer to mix henna with other ingredients, such as sugar, Prunus mahaleb, vinegar, orange juice, lemon juice, coffee, oil, and others, in order to create the desired color or create a hair mask.”She pointed out henna used for drawing body art is usually prepared using ground green henna, lemon juice, and ground sugar.