The first hijab I fell in love with was a large white cotton triangle bordered with three inches of dangling lace fringe. I tied the scarf in the only style that all truly cool hijabis were sporting: a twisty headband rolled on top, with a bandana underneath. The scarf was held together with safety pins, and most closely resembled my mom’s lace curtains.
I looked gooooood. Like, 1990s big-hair good.
I strutted around in this getup for most of junior high school, before graduating to the second hijab style that was trending. This involved a rectangular scarf that was pinned up, leaving the long end to dangle behind your back.
I still looked goooooood.
This was hijab chic in the ’90s. Those were simpler times. Back then the only places you could buy hijabs were small shops that also sold prayer beads, religious texts, exotic vegetables such as okra and bitter melon, and a few halal cows. It was your basic Walmart Supercentre for the newly immigrated set.