Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions
What services are covered under a henna salon license?
The license covers the application of henna designs to women's hands as the salon's core service. That includes bridal mehndi, guest designs for events, Eid and festival bookings, and walk-in designs, all performed at a licensed ladies-only salon location.
Why does the license specifically reference ladies' salons?
The activity code aligns with how henna application sits in the wider beauty group: a ladies-only specialty, with female artists serving female clients, in a salon space configured for that scope. That is the scope the license is written to cover.
What does Dubai Municipality look at when approving the salon space?
DM reviews the premises: hygiene and sanitation standards, treatment area setup, ventilation, product safety, and artist qualifications. The approval is for the physical location, not the trade license itself, and is handled separately from the Meydan Free Zone process.
How does a henna salon typically structure its pricing and bookings?
Pricing usually runs per design, scaled by complexity and duration. A 20-minute guest design sits at one end; a 3-hour bridal mehndi sits at the other. Bridal packages, group bookings, and wedding-season retainers add a layer of recurring revenue.
Can the salon offer other beauty services alongside henna?
Not under this license alone. Hair, nails, facials, and make-up each have their own sub-codes in the same beauty group. A salon planning to combine henna with other treatments would need to hold the relevant activities together.
How to Start a Henna Salon Business with Meydan Free Zone
From a Palm Jumeirah wedding to an Eid gathering in Sharjah's reach, henna marks nearly every celebration in the Emirates. For the salons that specialise in it, the calendar is full most of the year: bridal parties, festival rushes, graduations, and the family bookings in between.
Henna is a cultural staple with a real commercial market behind it. The global henna and mehndi market was worth USD 1.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 2.3 billion by 2033, growing at 5.8 percent a year, according to DataHorizon Research¹. And the UAE sits at the centre of the demand.
The GCC destination wedding market was valued at USD 3.7 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach USD 8.7 billion by 2035, with the UAE leading the region and luxury Dubai weddings costing anywhere from AED 350,000 to over AED 10 million each, per Future Market Insights².
For a Dubai-licensed henna salon, that is a calendar packed with bridal parties, Eid bookings and event-led footfall all year.
The Wedding Market Behind a Dubai Henna Salon. A Dubai-licensed henna salon plugs into a GCC destination wedding market worth $3.7 billion in 2025, growing at 8.9 percent a year and led regionally by the UAE.
Source: Future Market Insights GCC Destination Wedding Market 2025-2035 and DataHorizon Research Henna/Mehndi Market 2024-2033, via Future Market Insights
A Thursday before Eid runs to a predictable rhythm. Early bookings are family groups wanting matching designs. Mid-afternoon brings a bride in for a three-hour sitting, her bridesmaids nearby for shorter work. Late evenings fill with walk-ins. The paste sets, the next chair fills, and revenue stacks through per-design pricing, packages and group rates.
Whether you are an individual henna artist going independent, a bridal mehndi specialist, or a salon running a full team of artists, this business license turns a chair and a booking line into a licensed business.
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Who is this for?
- Bridal henna specialists: Operators focused on bridal mehndi, including multi-hour bridal sittings, bridesmaid designs, and pre-wedding family group bookings.
- Event and festival henna salons: Businesses serving Eid, weddings, graduations, baby showers, and other calendar-led bookings with a mix of detailed and walk-in designs.
- Luxury and bespoke henna studios: Firms offering high-end, custom designs by senior artists, often with longer waitlists and tied to high-spend bridal and luxury wedding parties.
Meydan Free Zone offers 100% foreign ownership, zero percent corporate tax on qualifying income, full profit repatriation, and a fully digital licensing process. It is a regulated, cost-efficient base for a henna salon, in a country where the wedding and event calendar drives steady, year-round demand for the service.
9602.90 - Henna Salon
Under this activity, your business is licensed to operate a ladies' salon specialising in the application of henna designs to women's hands.
A henna salon is a service business with one specialty: applying henna designs to women's hands. The work is artistic and time-intensive. A bridal client can sit for two to four hours having intricate patterns drawn across both hands and forearms.
A guest design takes minutes. The salon is staffed with artists trained in Khaleeji, Arabic, and Indian styles, stocks natural and chemical-free henna paste, and operates from a ladies-only premises. Revenue runs on per-design pricing, bridal packages, and group bookings around weddings and major calendar events.
This license is for one thing: applying henna designs to women's hands in a licensed ladies' salon. Hair services, manicure and pedicure, facial massage, and make-up each fall under separate sub-codes in the same beauty group. Henna applied as a hair dye, henna product retail, and tattoo studios applying ink fall outside this scope.
If you run a henna salon for women's hand designs, you are in. If you offer hair, nails, facials, make-up, ink tattoos, or sell henna products, the right license is elsewhere.
Third-Party Approval: No third-party approval is required for this business activity.
Anti-Money Laundering Compliance: This business activity is exempt from AML compliance requirements.
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Note: Dubai Municipality (DM) approval is required for the physical salon location.
Citations
¹ DataHorizon Research. Henna/Mehndi Market Size, Growth & Forecast Report - 2033. DataHorizon Research, 2025.
² Future Market Insights. GCC Destination Wedding Market Size & Trends 2025-2035. Future Market Insights, 2025.
