MASSACHUSETTS – Muslim women in Massachusetts will no longer be fearful when they go to hair salons to get their hair cut after the state’s first salon and spa established specifically for Muslim women opened on Monday, WGBH reported.
“I envisioned this huge, big salon that had all the services you could think of,” remembered Shamso Ahmed, the woman behind the business. She wanted a place where “women felt safe.”
Ahmed fled the civil war in Somalia at the age of 10 and arrived in Boston with her family. Two years later, she started wearing a hijab and thinking of a future hair salon for Muslim women.
Two decades later, her dream came true.
When Ahmed isn’t working on her other business, a translation service, she has often worked as a stylist going from house to house. Now, Ahmed is hoping her clients and others will come to her salon.
Ahmed says the space is carefully designed to be female-only. At the door, there’s a camera and a code required. The windows are frosted so people walking past can’t see in.