Hitting the road early the next morning with a bag of patterns and fresh henna from the Tropical Island store we hitchhiked down to Brighton arriving late in the evening. The next day we strolled down to the seafront where we pitched next to each other henna on one-side and hair wraps on the other.

This was the day I became hooked on henna for life. Within minutes of being there I became very busy - so busy that my friend packed up her items and become sales/crowd control - forming a queue of eager customers. I worked from 10am until 6pm at which point my back and the rest of my body decided enough was enough and we had to turn people away asking them to come back tomorrow.

The rise of the Henna Boy had begun! I returned to Nottingham and moved to Brighton a month later.

The trade in Brighton has continued from there although it is somewhat different now. After many years of trading along the seafront, the street traders have almost gone due to changes in local legislation - something to do with not enough sales in ice cream, I believe!

However after quite a good few years and having met other very good henna artists we decided to focus at first on festivals and then on obtaining a studio.

Festivals are great fun to do although quite a lot of organisation. Travelling across the UK (meeting my partner through henna - henna holds such good luck for me!) and across Europe into Denmark for the Roskilde festival we managed to have great fun mixing street trade with official festival work wherever we went.