My name is Shaleen Hirji. I am a professional mehndi artist. My start with mehndi stems from my culture, however my personal experience with it has pushed it to a passion I wish to share with the world. When I was younger, I went through a time in my life where I was very sick. I was in the hospital and was scheduled for a surgery that the odds of survival weren’t very high. Before going into surgery a woman approached me about life and its meanings and opportunities we get in our lifetime. She told me that every woman should have the opportunity to be a bride and that with that mehndi is the only thing we can take, culturally, beyond death. I accepted what she said and allowed her to do mehndi on my hands and feet. It was during that interaction that the care and love one shows a bride, I was given the incredible opportunity to feel that. The experience was more than I could have ever imagined as I felt beauty in a way that I never had before and I felt beautiful both inside and out. It allowed me to transport myself from the surgery and hospital situation I was facing to a place where I was at peace and transcendent above what I was physically feeling. This personal experience, once I came out of surgery, gave me the desire to share that feeling with as many as I could so that they could feel as I did. Some of the most magical moments for a bride is the first time they are adorned with Henna as they get to see and feel that in that moment it is about them, when nothing else in our culture is truly solely about a woman during her wedding. There moment that she realizes that all the work and artistry that went into her Henna was done just for her. This is the moment I look forward to as I have become that artist and I get to pay forward a moment that I have always remembered and cherished in my life and share it with others. Another moment that I cherish is when I'm doing henna crowns for those going through difficult times because for that session and the immediate time afterwards they get to see themselves as beautiful and important instead of what they are going through taking the center stage and attention in their lives. This is my why and my passion is mehndi. My name is Shaleen Hirji and I will use my beautiful art to impact and empower women around the world who need someone to see them for their greatness. This is how I will change the world, one woman at a time.