For those of you who are familiar with hijabi youtubers/youtube guru's you might know Aalia also known as Alz786UK founder of princess rockz. She is a sister on youtube who shares her hijab styles as well as vlogs, hauls, cooking and OOTD video's. Recently Aalia published a book called 'Aalia's Hijab Styling Guide' it's a book that she's been working on for over a year and finally I got my hands on a copy to review for all you lovely people (=
The book costs £14.99 (p&p depends on your location so find out before you order), it's a 115 page paper back book in full colour. My first impressions of the book were very good, it's glossy, high quality and well worth it.
It has a vintage look and feel running through it. She signed the first 50 books (I think) and I got a signed copy too =D
So this is her contents page, as you can see she has more than just hijab tutorials in the book as she's included storage ideas and helpful tips throughout as well as outfit ideas at the end.
In the first section she has pictures and descriptions for things you will need in order to wrap your hijab, when I saw this I thought it would be a great gift for a new Muslimah or someone new to wearing hijab because it really does explain everything clearly and simply.
Each hijab style has Polaroid pictures of Aalia herself (looking lovely as always mashaAllah) showing you how to do the steps, under each picture is a description to explain how its done. What I really liked about this was the bit at the top telling you the level of difficulty, how long it should take and what things you'll need for the style, like a proper recipe you can't really go wrong.
So the book starts off with beginner styles at the beginning of each section, goes on to intermediate and then to advanced which makes it a book for everyone and gives beginners a chance to progress and develop their skills as they go through the book.
My favourite styles were the ones towards the end (party & bridal styles) because the ones at the beginning seemed too easy for me, but as I said they'd be perfect for those who are new to wearing hijab.
Half way through the book you come across some storage ideas where Aalia tells you about different ways you can store your hijab essentials as well as shoes/ jewellery and other girly things. I liked this part of the book, I felt like a kid again going through a picture book lifting the flaps and browsing the pictures.
The book comes with a pull out face shapes guide which has 6 common face shapes with pictures and a description to explain how you can find out if that is your face shape.
The most read post on my blog is the one titled 'hijab styles to suite your face shape' I have had the most comments on that post and even though I wrote it a while ago now I still get inundated with emails from sisters asking me to help them find out which face shape they are and which styles suite them, so this pull out guide is very much in demand. I think it would have been nice if Aalia linked the guide to the styles in the actual book, giving examples as to which styles in the book would suit the face shape in the guide, but I suppose you could try them all out for yourself and then add the styles you think would go with your face shape in the notes section at the end of the guide.
The whole book has a very personal touch to it so it feels like Aalia really is guiding you through the process of wearing hijab, which I think was very sweet and thoughtful, you can really tell how much effort has gone into this book.
Overall I really liked the book and would like to congratulate Aalia for coming up with a much needed book to encourage and inspire sisters to wear hijab. I thought some of the styles were very similar and would have liked to see more of a variety so perhaps in another edition of the styling book Aalia could add different styles as well as styles with different types of hijab like jersey and silk scarves.
I'd recommend this book to younger sisters who are thinking about starting to wear hijab as well as new Muslimah's and those just looking for some inspiration.
Although these types of books might be popular and common in places like Indonesia and Malaysia it's the first of it's kind in the UK and I would love to see more of these types of books pop up in bookstores libraries across the Western world.
For more information about which stores in the UK are stocking these books as well as information about getting your hands on a copy contact Aalia via her facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/aaliahijabstyles?fref=ts
Also check out her Youtube channel for her videos and hijab tutorials:
http://www.youtube.com/alz786uk
If you already have a copy of Aalia's book leave a comment to say what you think...
iHijabi x
The book costs £14.99 (p&p depends on your location so find out before you order), it's a 115 page paper back book in full colour. My first impressions of the book were very good, it's glossy, high quality and well worth it.
It has a vintage look and feel running through it. She signed the first 50 books (I think) and I got a signed copy too =D
So this is her contents page, as you can see she has more than just hijab tutorials in the book as she's included storage ideas and helpful tips throughout as well as outfit ideas at the end.
In the first section she has pictures and descriptions for things you will need in order to wrap your hijab, when I saw this I thought it would be a great gift for a new Muslimah or someone new to wearing hijab because it really does explain everything clearly and simply.
Each hijab style has Polaroid pictures of Aalia herself (looking lovely as always mashaAllah) showing you how to do the steps, under each picture is a description to explain how its done. What I really liked about this was the bit at the top telling you the level of difficulty, how long it should take and what things you'll need for the style, like a proper recipe you can't really go wrong.
So the book starts off with beginner styles at the beginning of each section, goes on to intermediate and then to advanced which makes it a book for everyone and gives beginners a chance to progress and develop their skills as they go through the book.
My favourite styles were the ones towards the end (party & bridal styles) because the ones at the beginning seemed too easy for me, but as I said they'd be perfect for those who are new to wearing hijab.
Half way through the book you come across some storage ideas where Aalia tells you about different ways you can store your hijab essentials as well as shoes/ jewellery and other girly things. I liked this part of the book, I felt like a kid again going through a picture book lifting the flaps and browsing the pictures.
The book comes with a pull out face shapes guide which has 6 common face shapes with pictures and a description to explain how you can find out if that is your face shape.
The most read post on my blog is the one titled 'hijab styles to suite your face shape' I have had the most comments on that post and even though I wrote it a while ago now I still get inundated with emails from sisters asking me to help them find out which face shape they are and which styles suite them, so this pull out guide is very much in demand. I think it would have been nice if Aalia linked the guide to the styles in the actual book, giving examples as to which styles in the book would suit the face shape in the guide, but I suppose you could try them all out for yourself and then add the styles you think would go with your face shape in the notes section at the end of the guide.
The whole book has a very personal touch to it so it feels like Aalia really is guiding you through the process of wearing hijab, which I think was very sweet and thoughtful, you can really tell how much effort has gone into this book.
Overall I really liked the book and would like to congratulate Aalia for coming up with a much needed book to encourage and inspire sisters to wear hijab. I thought some of the styles were very similar and would have liked to see more of a variety so perhaps in another edition of the styling book Aalia could add different styles as well as styles with different types of hijab like jersey and silk scarves.
I'd recommend this book to younger sisters who are thinking about starting to wear hijab as well as new Muslimah's and those just looking for some inspiration.
Although these types of books might be popular and common in places like Indonesia and Malaysia it's the first of it's kind in the UK and I would love to see more of these types of books pop up in bookstores libraries across the Western world.
For more information about which stores in the UK are stocking these books as well as information about getting your hands on a copy contact Aalia via her facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/aaliahijabstyles?fref=ts
Also check out her Youtube channel for her videos and hijab tutorials:
http://www.youtube.com/alz786uk
If you already have a copy of Aalia's book leave a comment to say what you think...
iHijabi x