Features

It's just before Eid and I'm in Hamraaz hair and beauty salon in Alum Rock. The windows are mirrored, so from the outside there are no glimpses of what is happening on the other side of the glass.

Hairdresser Amra

I'm welcomed in by Amra, the daughter of Shain Zulfiqar, one of the owners of the salon, Hamraaz. The salon is run by three women, Shain, and sisters Saira and Taira Yaqub. The women are already busy in treatment rooms, and clients are ushered into seats to wait for their appointments. Almost immediately scores of women begin to pour through the doors like it's a January sale.

The atmosphere is bubbling. There's excited chatter, pumping bhangra music and a host of predominantly Muslim women waiting to chat, relax, unwind and beautify.

Eid preparations - women only

It's always like this before Eid, Amra tells me. Before the Muslim festival, women rush to get their hair cut and styled and have an array of beauty treatments in preparation for looking and feeling great on the big day.

Hair is chopped and styled

Customer Salma has a cold and really needs a pick-me-up to give her a lift for Eid: "People don’t often realise that, yes, women do have their hair done under their hijab - they would have everything done that a non hijab wearing woman would, they just are recognising their religion by wearing it and realise that their beauty is for themselves and their husbands not for anyone else.

"It's not wrong, forbidden or haram for a woman to take care of her hair and respect to them because its not easy wearing a hijab and keeping yourself hidden.

"You don’t feel embarrassed or shy, you can be yourself in a women only salon. You don’t have to wear your scarf, because there are only women here."

Sharing secrets

In Urdu, Hamraaz means secret or confidante and women have always shared special relationships with their hairdressers. Guards are dropped and inner secrets are shared in a relaxed environment.

I sit amongst women who are chatting and laughing about the most painful areas to get waxed. The conversation is natural and intimate. Women share secrets and discuss the pleasure - and invariably pain - involved in looking and feeling good.

Eyebrows are shaped with 'threading'

Donna isn't Muslim but she's a regular at the salon and is having a threading and waxing session: "It's brilliant here, really friendly, especially around Ramadan and Eid - there's a real buzz but it's nearly impossible to get an appointment! It's nice and relaxing to be around other women in such a friendly environment - it's like one big family."

It's a sharp contrast to where Donna will be spending the next few weeks however, she's off to Morocco to take part in the Cannonball Rally, a desert race on motorbikes across the Sahara. Even in the desert on a bike a girl needs her eyebrows shaped.

I look around the large salon and count over 25 women standing waiting for their appointments. Head scarves are dropped in the company of other women and the salon is running at full steam.

Mehndi artist Fizar

Women are being primped, preened, snipped and waxed at an incredible rate. Over near the window is Fizar, a mehndi artist. This woman is the stuff of legend and several women pop into the salon just to say hi to her as they've heard she's here.

Fizar

Fizar holds the illustrious title of the world's fastest mehndi artist. It's a Guinness World Record she acquired in 2005 for decorating 214 hands in an hour. Here in Birmingham she is the mehndi artist of choice for weddings. Almost every woman in the salon has had Fizar produce a beautiful henna design on their hands and feet, or they have at least been to a wedding where she has decorated the bride.

Muslim women and beauty

I sit as Fizar applies a delicate and intricate henna design from my elbow to fingertips, and we chat about the perceptions of Muslim women and beauty. What does lie under those hijabs?

"Oh yes we do care about our hair! We've got highlights under there and loads of layers - you name it we've got it, all the latest fashions and styles going on," says Fizar "at the end of the day we do like to look good in the mirror, so we're not just going to stick oil on and the head scarf.

Intricate mehndi designs

"We are women! We want to look in the mirror and feel nice, for ourselves and our husbands."

The reward of Eid

Eid follows the month of Ramadan where Muslims fast during daylight hours, abstaining from food or water, or bad behaviour. It's a time for spiritual reflection, charitable deeds and increased prayer.

Each fast is broken at the end of the day with a meal called iftar. The final breaking of the fast is the celebration of Eid-al-fitr. Muslims dress in their best, new clothes, specifically for the celebration.

Taira, Saira and Shain, owners of Hamraaz

"For the whole month we fast and try to be very very good," says Fizar. "We don’t lie, not that we should lie anyway! We do a lot of praying and we stay up at night to pray and we stay hungry the whole day. In a way we are rewarding ourselves, we want to feel new and fresh. It's like getting married - it’s a big special occasion - and it's very exciting."

Shain finishes with a client she's been waxing and comes out to check on me, complimenting me on my mehndi design with the same warmth and enthusiasm she gives to every customer.

The women are fasting and are rushed off their feet with a long day ahead of them, yet still remain enviably fresh-looking and upbeat.

"We've been working all year building up to this day" says Amra as she combs and begins to snip amazingly lengthy hair, "There is good music, good people - lots of people! We've had clients in the door from nine this morning and we'll probably be here 'til nine or ten at night - non stop!

Women enjoying the pre-Eid pampering

"We do look forward to it, believe it or not we can work all day. I'm not tired - I'm still going because I'm that excited."

Women underneath

Shain is about to disappear to do some threading on her next client, but stops to further explain the rush of excitement of the women coming into her salon.

"Women want to look beautiful so they come just before Eid. Women are women, whether they wear the hijab or whether they don’t - we're still women underneath.

"You wear hijab to go out, not in the house. And at home you want your hair cut nicely, you want it coloured, you want mehndi - everything. You want to look good and you want to feel good and we want to make all of our customers happy, every single one of them."