“Body Art Quality” henna describes

Henna that has a very high natural dye content. Henna that is very finely cleaned, ground and sifted. Henna that is pure:  ONLY dried, powdered lawsonia inermis leaves. Body Art Quality henna is often referred to as BAQ henna

The best 10% of henna is reserved for body art.  Henna for body art must have a higher dye content and finer sift, so artists can make fine patterns with deep long-lasting stains.  Lawson (the red-orange dye that naturally occurs in henna leaves) ranges from 1% to 3% or higher at harvest. The henna reserved for body art has the highest natural dye content.  The henna leaves with the highest dye content are carefully sorted: dirt, berries and twigs are removed. This is labor-intensive, so body art quality henna costs more.

These clean, top quality leaves are milled and sifted several times.  Every time rough plant material is milled and sifted away, the higher the dye content is in the remaining powder.  Up to 80% of gross weight in rough material may be removed during this process. This makes body art quality henna far more effective at dyeing, but makes it more expensive than poorly sifted, lower dye content henna. 

This high quality henna with very fine sift is not only best for henna artistry, its best for hair! This  body art quality (BAQ) henna is easy to mix and apply to your hair and easy to rinse because of the fine sift. Body art quality henna (BAQ) will permanently dye your hair, especially your gray hair, a robust red to auburn tone.  The color will NOT fade!  It darkens over time. Body art quality henna has absolutely no adulterants: no added chemical dyes, no added metallic salts, no other ingredients that may harm your health or have damaging reactions with synthetic dyes.