After I said my shahada, I started to wear a hijab. At first I just wore my regular clothes(sometimes with a long sleeved shirt underneath) and an amira style hijab, or a large square folded in a triangle and pinned under my chin. I started to buy clothes a piece at a time that were longer, or looser. Tunic style shirts with loose jeans, or a long skirt and top that reached mid-thigh. It was a slow process, partly because I couldn't go and spend a whole bunch of money on a whole new wardrobe all at once. Eventually I was able to purchase an abaya, and then my awesome mom got me a second one in a pretty blue color. After that I could just wear whatever I wanted and then throw an abaya on over it.
I was still learning how to wrap the shayla(smaller rectangular scarves) type hijabs, and had not really had a lot of experience with dupattas(big rectangles that come with shalwar kameez suits). Dupattas are really really big, usually at least one yard wide by two yards long. When we came over to live with Tariq's family I started to wear shalwar suits full time. It took a bit of time to get used to wrapping the dupatta, but eventually I got used to it and now it just takes a couple seconds to wrap and go.
I still get lots of questions about my hijab, and sometimes odd looks. In many families the way I wear it is not common. A lot of women wear the dupatta loosely draped to cover the top of the head and chest, I wrap it more tightly so that only my face is visible. I did occasionally get pressure from other women to be more "fashionable", to wear my dupatta differently, but by now everyone knows that I am not going to change and they just leave it.
