L'Oreal Paris Features Beauty Blogger Amena Khan In a Hijab In New Hair Product Campaign

British beauty blogger Amena Khan appears in the new L’Oreal campaign wearing a pink headscarf; the ad is promoting their haircare product line, Elvive.

In her brief clip, Khan states, “Whether or not your hair is on display doesn’t affect how much you care about it.”

Khan told Vogue UK that the decision to include a woman who covers her hair in public for a haircare ad was meaningful to her. Though she wears a hijab when out and about, at home amongst friends and family she usually does not. As a beauty blogger, she also enjoys styling and caring for it just for fun, even if no one sees:

“How many brands are doing things like this? Not many. They’re literally putting a girl in a headscarf – whose hair you can’t see – in a hair campaign. Because what they’re really valuing through the campaign is the voices that we have,” she told us this week. “You have to wonder – why is it presumed that women that don’t show their hair don’t look after it? The opposite of that would be that everyone that does show their hair only looks after it for the sake of showing it to others. And that mindset strips us of our autonomy and our sense of independence. Hair is a big part of self-care.”

The commercial seems to be trying to appeal to everyone’s particular hair need and celebrating them with the appropriate bottle. Khan says she never really thought to see a woman in a hijab on TV (she started wearing one herself in her early 20s). Being part of this campaign has changed what she thought was possible and hopes it will for other women as well.

“I always wanted to be somehow in television or in media but it felt like a pipe dream and that’s why I didn’t pursue it, because I didn’t think there would be anything for me. Which is a shame. I think seeing a campaign like this would have given me more of a sense of belonging,” she said.