How the hijab made me love my face
We all wear the hijab for one specific reason. Not because we just want to or because it makes us feel good. We do it for God and only Him. But, even if hijab comes with a lot of rules and, for most of us, some major life changes, it does bring some really positive side effects I personally didn’t expect. One of them being that I started to feel more confident about my body and more precisely : I started to love my face.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t look in the mirror and think “beauty queen”. However, this is how I love to see myself: with a hijab on. There is a certain power to only showing your bare face. No ears with jewelry on, no neck to elongate your shape, no silky hair to distract the eyes. Just you, to the bare minimum. It takes some courage for some of us to actually go outside with a hijab on, leaving behind what used to make us feel beautiful. But what a power move ! Here I was, outside in public, concealing “my beauty” and yet feeling better than ever. I had nothing to prove to anyone. If I had to talk to a man he had nothing to look at (sorry but not sorry bro). I didn’t worry about my body because it was under loose clothes. I felt free and most importantly : I felt so beautiful. For the first time in my life I knew I was dressed in a way that pleased God, not society.
"Here I was, outside in public, concealing “my beauty” and yet feeling better than ever"
Since covid, like many of us around the world, I spent a lot of time at home not wearing my hijab. I was born with this hair, this neck, those arms showing. And yet, every time I got to go outside and wear my hijab again, I would look at myself in the mirror one last time and think “This is me. This is how I look the best”. But it wasn’t always that way. I remember how weird it felt the first few times. I loved becoming a hijabi but it required some serious adjustments. Three years later, I sometimes can’t even remember my life before my hijab.
Today, I still don’t consider myself a beauty queen, but I learned to invest more in my skincare and less in makeup. I take care of my face because it’s the one thing showing not only to others but to me once I have my hijab on. Like most sisters, I don’t wear makeup on a daily basis since it’s difficult to maintain with prayers and ablutions. So Islam made me learn how to go back to basics. This self love about my face, my appearance, is just the visible reflection of what is happening inside. I started to focus on learning who I was truly, what mattered honestly. I was dropping toxic beauty standards as well as behaviours. Hijab made me love my face but what it really did was make me look at myself in the eyes and ask the questions : who I am ? Who do I want to be when I die ? Spoiler alert : I want to be the best muslim I can be, Ameen.
