The Muslim Girl’s Guide for New Hijabis

So before we begin the Muslim Girl’s Guide for New Hijabis: congratulations on making the decision to wear hijab! It’s a monumental and life-changing decision that has huge impacts on your life. So congrats on taking this step, and may Allah reward you for it!

The hardest part of the process of becoming a hijabi is done: making the decision.

The rest of it isn’t difficult, but it can be a bit tricky to navigate the new terrain of life as a hijabi and so this guide is meant to make things a little easier for you and provide you with some tips and tricks. So let’s get started!

Scarves

Scarves are probably the first thing on your mind as you transition into life as a hijabi. But there’s no need to fret! There has been an explosion of scarves on the retail market over the past few years, and so finding scarves of every colour, shade, shape, and texture is so much easier than it used to be a few years ago. Whether you’re prefer square hijabs or rectangle hijabs, you won’t need to search any speciality stores to find ones you love.

My favourite place to shop for plain hijabs, in every colour of the rainbow, is Pearl Daisy. Amena’s shop is the first place I check when I’m looking for a specific colour, especially when I want to match it to a particular outfit. Her prices are reasonable as well, and the quality of the scarves is wonderful! I plan on doing a full review on Pearl Daisy’s scarves so keep checking back!

For patterned scarves, I love shopping at H&M and Forever 21. Both carry a selection of lightweight, patterned scarves that come in an array of textures. Both of their selections change with the season, and so they’re not really good if you’re looking for a specific colour. But if you’re in the mood for some florals during Spring and Summer, you can be sure that they’ll be both carrying it!

Undersarves

Some hijabis get by without wearing underscarves, while for some it’s absolutely crucial! For some, the benefit of an underscarf is keeping your hair from constantly coming out of your hijab and keeping the hijab secure. Depending on the kind of hijab you’re wearing, you might be okay without it. But I find with silk or satin scarves, an underscarf is important to keep your hijab in place. They also come in handy when pinning your hijab down.

You can find in many Muslim clothing stores and stalls, or you can get them online. Pearl Daisy also sells them, and has a wide variety of different colours and styles to choose from.

Pins

Pins are necessary for keeping your hijab in place and not moving all over the place. Some girls prefer having a pin under the chin for when they lay the fabric down on their head. You can use safety pins for this, but often the fabric of your scarf gets caught in safety pins which then ruins your hijab!

My favourite solution to this are no-snag hijab pins; they’re designed in such a way that they prevent your scarf from snagging. They aren’t the prettiest, but are easy to tuck under with layers of fabric. You can find some here.

For more colourful and pretty pins, you can find them almost anywhere! Some girls use broaches, while some choose to stick with straight pins. You can find colourful straight pins at Wal-Mart for cheap, and they last forever!

If you’re looking for jazzier pins with some design, again, you can check out stalls at Islamic conferences or online hijab retailers. You can even check out Etsy and Ebay, as they often have beautiful ones that are very inexpensive!

Clothing

Clothing might be the something else that’s on your mind as you make the decision of hijab. Some of you might even be wondering if you have to wear abayas or jilbabs to follow the criteria of modesty. This is a matter of personal opinion, and you will need to decide what works for you and what you personally believe in.

My personal belief is that modesty and fashion are not mutually exclusive, and so my suggestions for where to buy clothes are based around this belief that you can look stylish, yet be modest at the same time.

Now, you might be wondering if you have to chuck out your old wardrobe completely in order to transform it into a hijabi wardrobe. No, you don’t! There are so many ways to modify non-modest clothes so that they can become modest.

One of my favourite ways to do this is add a cardigan on top or a long-sleeve t-shirt underneath. Voila, instant coverage! If you’re into maxi skirts or dresses, then those are easy to modify and make more hijab-friendly, since they cover up so beautifully anyways. For some suggestions on how to style Maxi Skirts, check out my post here. If you’re not into maxi skirts or dresses, then simply wearing short dresses as tops, on top of pants is another way to stay covered but still be cute!

If you are looking to purchase a whole new wardrobe or even some new clothes, my favourite hijab-friendly (and budget-friendly!) shops to shop at are: H&M, Forever 21, Zara, and Target. All of these always carry cute clothes, that can be easily modified by adding long-sleeve t-shirts, trousers, or cardigans to make them modest. I’ll be doing a review on all the hijab-friendly stores I just mentioned so watch this space!

Modesty and Confidence

These last two things might seem paradoxical, but in truth, they’re not. Both of them are equally important.

Whatever you wear, however you choose to wear your hijab, whatever pins you use to keep it all in place, be modest. The whole point of hijab is to be modest, and there is no point of covering up your hair and neck if your actions aren’t humble. So don’t use the hijab as an excuse and think that your work is a Muslim is done; be the best person you can be.

Be modest, but at the same time, be confident. And by confidence I don’t mean ‘strut-your-stuff-down-the-runway- confidence, but courage and fearlessness.

The transition to becoming a hijabi isn’t an easy one. The people around you may or may not be supportive. Sometimes the ones you think will be supportive will be aghast at your decision and try to convince you otherwise. Sometimes the ones you think will mock you will cheer you on and tell you how happy they are. People may change how they interact with you; it might be the people closest to you or the people you see randomly.

But don’t let all that bog you down. Stand by your decision to be modest. Explain it to people. Be proud of yourself. When people ask you about your hijab, answer gracefully and humbly. Keep your chin up and keep smiling.

More important than the clothes, the scarves, the pins, the accessories, etc. is your desire to be the best you can be for Allah.

Be true to your intentions to please Allah and may He reward you.

I hope you girls found this guide useful! If you have anything you’d like me to add or address, feel free to comment or ask me on the Ask The Muslim Girl page!

With love.

Other than the first and last photo, the rest of the photos do not belong to me. To visit the original website, please click the images.