THE HIJAB: YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE!

Hello everyone! Welcome or welcome back to the BrainStorms blog. If you are new, then just letting you know that I am Nabeeha Jameel the author behind this blog (curious to know more about me then refer to the About page).

Today I have decided to write an interesting post, something I have been wanting to do for soo long, and I am finally sitting down and drafting this post up, so without further ado, get reading!

Starting off with the basics,

what exactly is the hijab?

According the Oxford Languages-

Quite a simple definition isn’t it. Well for me and for many other Muslim women the hijab means more. The hijab is normally a piece of cloth that Muslim women wear and observe around non- mahram adult men. To break that down to make it seem more understandable I need not wear it in front of my father, brother, grandfathers, husband, father-in- law, sons, my siblings’ sons or in the presence of women. But if I am present with people other than those mentioned in the list then I will have to wear my hijab.

The hijab is a religious commandment from God, for me I wear it to get closer to my God, and it constantly reminds me as to what I stand for as a Muslim woman. The hijab makes whosoever you meet judge you not based on your looks but your personality and intellect. This is empowering. I started wearing the hijab when I was eight and it makes me feel part of this huge hijabi community, till this very day. The hijab is a part of me, and without it I wouldn’t feel whole.

THE TYPES (Head coverings only)

You might be wondering as to why I mentioned head covering only, that is because Muslim women chose to cover themselves in different ways, there is the niqab where you cover your face except your eyes, if you want to find out more about the types of covering then you can google it. Now a nice way to explain the types of head coverings worn, that I know of is to play the generation card. At my house the different types depend on which generation of hijabis you’re from.

The signature square shape!

My grandma wears a square shaped hijab, which in Sri Lanka or at home we commonly refer to as a scarf. Don’t get me wrong there is simply no harm in younger generations wearing a scarf, to be honest I own some myself, even though I have never worn them publicly.

Shawls are more rectangular in shape, and of course longer.

My mum a millennial wears a shawl, that she neatly wraps around her head. She uses pins to keep them in place. After I turned thirteen, I too started wearing a shawl, but I style it in a different way to my mum.

My younger self too afraid to deal with safety pins needed to keep your hijab in place- trust me those pins are a life saver without them my hijab would be a mess and half my hair would be floating as if gravity doesn’t exist– used something that is commonly referred to as a instant hijab instead. This was more like a ready- made hijab or something that looks like a sports hijab but is not soo sticky and has a better shape.

THE UNDER SCARF

I got this picture from Amazon, clicking on it will lead you to the product.

So, many women when they wear a hijab prefer to have an under-scarf underneath it, just to make sure all the hair stays in place. For some women, they need an under scarf to make sure that the shawl sticks to their heads as some hijab materials can be really slippery and absolutely refuse to be conjoined with you. Now, personally I don’t wear an under scarf, I find it unnecessary in my case. But it’s up to the wearer and her preference.

The edges

For many people this simply doesn’t matter but for me at least I am picky when it comes to how the edge of my hijab looks. I hate it when the stitches can be seen and personally prefer a clean stitch. Let me know in the comment section if you guys have preferences like this as well.

Colours

Now finally, the exciting bit! I am not too sure on how many shawls I exactly have but I think it’s a lot. For me, personally most of those shawls are of lighter shade, since I feel the lighter shades complement my skin tone better. I surprisingly don’t own a black shawl, because gosh, it’s too plain. The black shawls I mostly use are my mum’s, and I use it at home when relatives suddenly decide to pop by. If you are a new Hijabi then make sure that you have the basic colors purchased pink, red (a more muted shade not bright), blue, white and a nude colour. One colour that I don’t own/ have never worn in my 8 years of observing the hijab is green, I genuinely don’t know as to why I still don’t have one, but it’s probably because I am not such a fan of green outfits.

---

That is it for this guide! The types and edges of the hijabs may vary from country to country or from region to region, the above guide contains everything that I personally know well of. Since the hijab is universal thing, things I spoke about above may differ. If you have any questions then feel free to leave them down in the comment section and I will answer them to the best of my ability!

A small reminder, BrainStorms does accept guest posts, so if you want to then let me know through contact us! That is it for today, logging off….