Costumed role-playing (or cosplay) is believed to have emerged in the early 1980s in Japan, but since then it has grown into a worldwide phenomenon. For Muslim girls, it might be challenging to combine their religious teachings with cosplay culture, especially when these beliefs don't allow them to show hair or wear a wig. However, creative minds stop at nothing — and now hijab cosplay is catching on around the globe, with ladies making their headscarves an integral part of their look.
Sindi Yanti from Indonesia, who has been into cosplaying since 2011, felt conflicted between her hobby and religion. That's when she thought of using her hijab as her cosplay character hair.
In one of her latest transformations, Sindi can be even seen dressed as Elsa from Disney's "Frozen," with her light-yellow wispy headscarf braided like the main heroine's updo.
Another anime-looking girl, Miisa, is a 21-year-old office worker, who calls herself the "Malaysian Hijab Cosplayer." She also uses different colored hijabs to achieve the image she needs to impersonate such characters as Naruto Uzumaki, dark-haired Yamatonokami Yasusada from "Touken Ranbu" or Kanna from "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon" with her purple locks.
Malaysian-based makeup artist Saraswati is a guru of hijab cosplay too. She is better known as Queen of Luna to her 375 thousands of fans on Instagram, where one can find all sorts of makeovers from the talented young lady.
No matter what personality she chooses — a princess, a superhero, a villain or an anime character — she always makes sure her hijab perfectly fits into the look.
Some especially active adherents of hijab cosplay even managed to turn it into a movement — there is even a popular Facebook community dedicated to it, where almost 15k followers share their photos and support each other.
