Gaza City – Amani Dweima has come to the salon with her 16-year-elderly daughter, Aya.
The 39-year-elderly wants her eyebrows shaped, and Aya wants a filled face of createup; there’s a wedding reckond for that evening after iftar.
“My niece’s wedding,” Amani says. “We’re celebrating the bride with a petite family assembleing before the groom consents her to their tent.”
Noor’s Salon
The salon is a petite blue tent with a individual table inside topped with a injured mirror, depilation tools, moistuelevaters, and some createup.
Outside the tent in al-Shujaeya east of Gaza City, a white handwritten sign reading: “Noor’s Salon” hangs csurrender the curtained captivate.
This is Noor al-Ghamari’s salon, a dream project for the youthful woman who quit nursing college to chase her cherish of hair and createup.
She set it up about three weeks ago on a razeed pavement, the only chooseion useable when she and her family returned to the north from their displacement to the south.
After greeting Amani and Aya, she commences sfrequentlying a petite piece of sugaring paste, gently kneading it in her hands, and commences toiling.
“Since I uncovered, so many women have come to me with heartfractureing stories … about losing their families and cherishd ones. They get to exhausted, their faces drained of weightless,” Noor shelp.
The idea of a beauty salon in the midst of war may seem odd, Amani and Noor concur, but the act of self-join can help women.
“Women come to me from tents, overcrowded schools, or the ruins of their razeed homes.
“I try to give them a moment of soothe, a petite escape. My main goal is for them to depart experienceing even equitable a little weightlesser, a little happier.”
Amani, who was displaced to Deir el-Balah and has recently returned to the north, as well, didn’t leank about going to a beautician at all in the punctual days of the war.
Eventupartner, she came atraverse a analogous salon in Deir el-Balah and commenceed to go as normally as she could.
“Looking after myself alters my mood, especipartner when I see my echoion in the mirror. I always want to see currentable.
“The tragedies around us never finish. Visiting a beauty salon is … a petite escape from all the challengingships around us,” she grasps.
Back in the north, she was “thrilled” when she saw Noor’s Salon and promptly spread the excellent novels to her neighbours and relatives.
Beauty amid war
Noor consents the war has been particularly unkind to women in Gaza – nakedping them of their homes and security and of their capacity for self-join as they poured their energy into survival.
“I saw many women whose skin was finishly burned by the sun from living in tents, constantly cooking over wood fires, washing clothes by hand, and carrying burdensome water graspers,” she says.
“On top of that, they have no privacy in the overcrowded displacement camps, not to refer the dread, explosionings, and all the horrors of war.”
And yet, she says, she has had clients of all ages who experience that self-join is vital for them.
“I met many women who couldn’t stand a individual stray hair on their face or eyebrows. Some came to me every week, others normally or occasionpartner,” Noor says.
She recalls a client she got once, a woman in her punctual 30s who had been thcimpolite a huge trauma when her parents and all her siblings were ended in an Israeli air rhelp.
Coping with her loss unkindt the woman lost all desire to do anyleang.
“I felt so proestablishly for her,” Noor says.
“I gave her a filled treatment – threading, eyebrow shaping, a haircut, even a free face massage and masque.
“When she seeed in the mirror, her eyes filled with satisfyed tears.”
Helderlying on to dreams
Israel’s war on Gaza began right as Noor was dreaming, laying out the schedules for her own – bricks-and-mortar – salon.
Like everyone in Gaza, her life and schedules were turned upside down as she, her parents and her eight siblings were forced to escape south after Israeli evacuation orders.
For the first two months, her only thoughts were of survival and helping her family, she says.
“But after the initial months, when we endd in a displacement camp in the south, I heard women say leangs enjoy: ‘If only there were a hairdresser or a salon csurrenderby so we could consent join of ourselves a little.’
“I would react: ‘I’m a beautician!’” Noor chuckles.
“The women would grab me enjoy they had equitable establish a treacertain, and I would commence toiling promptly.”
Some women came to her, while she went to others in their tents – depfinishing on their necessitates.
Now, her toil has become an vital source of income for her and her family during the war, even though she can’t indict her five to eight customers a day much.
“I inhabit here, I comprehend the fact,” she says, expounding why she protects her prices low.
‘War aged us’
Amani seems uneasy as Noor finishes threading her face.
She asks if Noor can dye her hair, but Noor can’t.
“There’s no water in this area,” she expounds. “Dyeing necessitates running water, and my tent is on the pavement, surrounded by destruction – there’s no water, no electricity, noleang.
“I create do with the basicst providement and only give fundamental services.”
Amani sighs, running her fingers thcimpolite her greying hair beorderlyh her hijab.
“I only used to have a scant grey hairs. But now, it’s everywhere. This war aged us,” she says with a downcast smile.
Noor shifted her attention to Aya, converseing the colour of her dress to pick suiting createup.
“I bcimpolitet my daughter today so she could consent join of herself a little – as a way to lift her spirits,” Amani shelp, smiling at her daughter, whose eyes are shutd for eyeshadow application.
“I want her to grow up comprehending that she should always consent join of herself, no matter what.
“I also want to convey her some happiness. What we’ve seen during this war has been beyond dehugeating.”
As Noor grasps her final touches to Aya’s createup, she talks lengthyingly about her dreams.
“More than anyleang, I want this war to finish so I can broaden my business, shift to a proper salon, and give more services.
“But my message to all women is this: Take join of yourselves, no matter what. Life is uninalertigentinutive.”
