Tuesday, September 4, 2012

My Tudung/Hijab styling story and two tutorials :)

Assalamualaikum.

Firstly I would like to very much stress here that I'm not any sort of 'hijabista' or whatever. The word itself confuses me. I'm just a normal woman/girl who likes to dress up and has a little obsession with shoes accessories clothes and bags.

Yes in this department I don't mind being labelled the typical girl :P 

This  post is made especially for those who have asked me about how I wear my hijab, and where I buy my hijabs. Some have even requested a tutorial but I really don't think the way I tie my everyday scarf is special. I feel mostly embarrassed because there are really more stylish hijab wearing girls out there who know better about hijab styling and do this kind of thing for a living.

I mostly play with colours and my favourite go to standard colour is black which is fool proof. My style has been pretty much the same over the years, I started with the bawal scarf, then the syria scarf  and later progressed to shawls.

The change from the bawal to the style I wear now was due to the limited time I had in ironing all the bawal tudung after Ayra was born, the syria tudung was just beginning to gain popularity then and was very hard to source for ( at first I thought I looked really silly wearing the syria as it really emphasized the roundness of my face) but because it was super convenient and fast I stuck with it and later got used to it. Imagine wearing a tudung in thirty seconds it was that fast!!

The syria comprises of an inner cap that is worn close to your head and a tube like outer hijab which you can slide on. But then the short syria tudungs weren't giving me the coverage I needed as it was cut very small sometimes with very itchy and uncomfortable fabric due to limited stocks available.

That's when I tried using shawls with the syria inner caps. Using shawls requires a bit more time but if its the basic style you can be done in three to four minutes. First timers would probably take five to ten minutes tops, depending on the fabric of course. Softer fabrics can take longer to style especially if you're using silk and satin.
back when I was still wearing the tudung bawal.

Then I started wearing syria's

The style I wear in this picture here is a typical Syria tudung which you can see does not have the required length and width that you will be needing. Its best to cover the chest area. 

I would also like to stress that I'm still learning to be a better Muslim insyallah. And have only recently been reading more on Islam and the how to properly wear the hijab which includes covering the chest area and wearing looser clothes. Again my hijab journey has been a complicated one and maybe I will share that story in another post as this post is going to be more on hijab styling.

I don't really like fancy styles of tying the shawl  that hang lose around the face or that required lots of twisting and turning of fabric (because I think I would choke myself hahahaha and I don't think that the true purpose of the hijab is to complicate your life :) as seen in this photo here:

I googled hijab star wars LOL !! although the head covering is super ridiculous Nat Portman of course looks as gorgeous as ever!

 It baffles me how someone can spend hours styling their hijab in front of a mirror especially after prayers in the surau five times in a day, I feel that the time spent on all that twisting and turning ( pun intended) can be used for other things. ( OK slap me lah I'm a mom after all!) 

But of course this is a preference. IF you have oodles of time in your hands why not? For me I can't afford to tie complicated knots on my head mainly because I hate the look my husband gives me when I'm late getting ready, and I need to get my daughter ready as well. My work also requires me to move around a lot so complicated styles are just not very realistic.

From the religious point of view, I've read that your hijab is not suppose to attract a lot of attention anyways. * this topic would also be discussed in another lengthy post whenever I find the timeto properly research my topic.

Usually I measure the difficulty of achieving a certain drape or style by how fast I can put it  back on after prayers and with the least amount of pins.Five minutes is all I'm willing to spend on my everyday hijab.

Babies are also good testing tools for hijabs. The hijab style has to be secure enough so that when babies pull on it, your awrah will not show and your hijab will not look as if its been through a hurricane. :)

Hence I've graduated to this style :

This style is my basic everyday style. My rule nowadays is if my tops are loose I can shorten the length of the hijab but if my outfit is not that loose I lower my hijab or use a hijab that is big and has more fabric. As you can see in the next picture I'am wearing a style that has more drapes in the front but is still styled in the same way.

This is my favourite leopard print hijab by the way matches everything. My sisters also have different styles that I might blog about later

This is also another voluminous style variant of my basic style

For this style you would need an undercap, a shawl one pin to secure the shawl under the chin another pin to secure it on the side. ( This is optional as you can leave it without securing it but this usually is not a good option for ladies who are on the  go)

I've included two tutorial videos here. The first one is by TudungPeople which demonstrates one of the easiest ways to tie a hijab that has a generous amount of fabric. The second video is by 14th Road Productions which demonstrates how to achieve the basic styles for newbies. The way I tie my shawl is the third option which is the basic wrap scarf.  Happy Styling and I hope all of this helps.
http://www.muhajabah.com/hjbscared.htm (This link is also great reading material for those who have just started wearing the hijab. :) thanks for reading)

 


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