It’s with both happiness and sadness that we say good bye to Henna Chai. Not a full goodbye though. What does this all mean? Well let’s start at the beginning.
Since 2007, when I founded Henna Chai, this was an event that focused on henna, socializing (hence the chai part of the name, which is a spiced Indian tea) and learning through others about the art of henna. Initially actually I was going to call my event Spring Fling but there was another event that had the same name, which I didn’t realize. So at first I was bummed but then Henna Chai came along and it fit perfectly. As you know I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason and it is destiny.
That was almost ten years ago and whereas I’ve loved and accepted the name Henna Chai, it felt a little stuck. Like it didn’t fully describe what I was doing and didn’t really expand far enough. I don’t know how to explain it but I loved it but it wasn’t perfect. Someone told me the other day that Henna Chai sounded more like a product then an event. That’s kind of true, now that I think about it. We need to make a Henna Chai shampoo bar or some type of Henna Chai product. Right?
I didn’t want to just give the name up nor everything I’ve done so far to build that event up. It started off as just a simple, small get together and has evolved over time. A few years it was a full henna weekend at a retreat center and that was so much fun! Then I brought in different teachers every month and had classes. I was trying to figure out “Henna Chai” and it’s like something just wasn’t there. Something was missing.
I was happy with the turnout and we always had a good time. I just wasn’t getting the majority of clients that typically bought products from us at Henna Sooq. I was missing a good chunk of people that I knew would love and benefit from these events and classes. I was also having a majority of other people teach and felt it was taking away from what I love to do, which is teach.
I had to rediscover what I wanted my event to be and become. I wanted to reach out to more of my sisters and talk about natural hair, our community and how henna is part of our heritage and roots.
A beautiful event called the Goddess Glo Up, inspired me to really rediscover myself. It has been such an empowering journey. The women involved in organizing this event have just been some of the most beautiful people. I really do hope that you all attend one of the Goddess Glo Up events.
We decided that with the next Goddess Glo Up event in DC that we would be a sponsor. I truly believe in what they are doing and am more then happy to be involved. This event started to get my brain to working. I just kept thinking and thinking until an idea popped into my mind. I had already decided to do seasonal photoshoots and I felt that the goddess could be my next theme. This theme could be all the content I needed to promote the Goddess Glo Up event and also be my Spring photoshoot. I also thought, well why not bring out some brand new products?! OMG! Of course. So 3 new goddess products were created.
In all of this I’m thinking well maybe my Henna Chai event can be seasonal too. I think I could easily commit to doing 4 events a year. I just started to brain storm and everything fell into place, one piece at a time. It was so surreal! Incredible. I thought wow, this is going to be amazing.
As a sponsor of the Goddess Glo Up event, I received a 45 minute presentation slot. So I had to get back to the drawing board and figure out what type of topic on henna would be appropriate and relate to the women I’ll be speaking to. “Rituals of Henna”. What could be more perfect then me speaking on the rituals of henna to these beautiful women? Oh absolutely perfect!
So now there are two really sad parts to this process that happened to me. We all have to go through different things because people are going to try to shut us down and sometimes things will happen and we might not understand them at first but again, they are happening for a reason. We just have to open our minds and see it.
I believe in transparency so let me explain what I did next. Henna Chai has been on Facebook for as long as I can remember and also you recall I founded this event in 2007 and have owned the .com for Henna Chai since then as well. Since Rituals of Henna became my new subject for the Goddess Glo Up event and also my theme for Spring, I decided to change my Facebook names to include the theme, so as to define Henna Chai better. It became Henna Chai – Rituals of Henna (exactly as this).
Within hours of me adding that extension onto Henna Chai a fellow peer sent me a message. She stated that she didn’t like that I chose the word Rituals. That this didn’t sit well with her and that she would be taking space. Then she proceeded to block me and cut off all communication. I basically had no words and I was pretty hurt by this. I thought she was a pretty cool person too but then this just happened suddenly. This would be the type of behavior I’d expect from one of my children. When a person has a complaint and just complains without any suggestions they really just don’t care. They feel how they feel and they are going to try to make you be the one to change when they are the ones it bothers. Come with a solution to a situation rather then just talk.
No one owns a word. You can’t trademark rituals. Rituals is a word that means: “a series of actions or type of behavior regularly and invariably followed by someone.” -dictionary.
I’m in a different space in my life right now, so I’m not going to get involved with pettyness. I need to stay focused and celebrate this life I have because it’s a short lifetime. I want to do whatever I can to be of service to others. I’m going to be the best me I can be. I’m here to celebrate you and be with you on your henna journey.
So now there’s that second thing. Now this was the really dumb and stupid thing on my part. I feel so embarrassed about this. I went to go to HennaChai.com and the website wouldn’t load. I didn’t understand what could be wrong. So I checked the hosting and the domain. That’s when I realized that the domain name had expired, literally just days ago. So I completely lost HennaChai.com. I didn’t even know how to feel or what to even do. How did this slip through the cracks? Usually our domain names get auto-renewed and it’s always been really simple. Nope. It’s all gone.
So now what do I do? I have all these things happening around Henna Chai and now even the domain name was gone. How in the world?! So then I thought…well what about Rituals of Henna? Maybe they name truly defines where my event has grown into. Does anyone even own that .com? Can you believe the universe? I mean Rituals of Henna is a really good name for a website, event, class etc…I mean it’s good right?! No one owns it. It’s available. So you know I bought it.
Then I go to Instagram and see, well maybe if I get Henna Chai back, I can set it up on IG. Henna Chai is not available there but you know what?! Rituals of Henna is available. So I scooped that IG page up too.
Like I couldn’t have asked for anything else. It was clearly meant to happen. I honestly was not thinking about changing Henna Chai whatsoever because I’ve put hours of work into that event. Not only hours but years into that event and website as well. With the IG not being available and my .com completely gone…what were my next steps. Rituals of Henna just seemed perfect. Everything was there and available.
I’m so grateful as to how this came together. There were bumps in the road and I absolutely do care about people’s thoughts and concerns. At the same token we can’t live our lives on what other people want us to do. We need to live our own life because it’s our life and honestly it’s none of their business.
We need to celebrate each other and know that there is plenty of blessings to go around. I can’t take what is already destined for you nor can you take from me. God is in control of that. Trust in Him.
I do say all of this because I want someone else out there in this world to read this and know that they aren’t alone. That these things happen and to inspire you be above this. To take what I’ve learned and apply it to your life.
There are just mean people out there and you know what? Let them be mean all on their own. All you can do is lead by example and be a good, kind hearted and loving person. You’re not always going to be perfect but you’re always going to have a pure heart. Only God can judge you.
With all this being said please welcome: Rituals of Henna where we are celebrating and embracing the lifestyle, beauty and healthier living through henna 🌿 Find our next event and classes on our website (which has to be worked on since most of it reflects the old site for Henna Chai).
I want to thank all of you for taking the time to read this very long blog post. I hope that good comes from it and that we all continue to grow in peace, light and love.
I want to say a special thank you to the following people who made the Rituals of Henna come together during this photo and video shoot:
- Our model Eva
- Makeup Machine Jeff
- Photography by Erika
- Videography by Nikki
- Creative Director Sugar
- The Line Hotel DC, our venue
