This film really changed my image of what people in Muslim countries are like. In this documentary, a group of cosmetologists go to Kabul, Afghanistan to start a beauty school. The cosmetologists want to help local women to learn a money-making skill. They also want women to do something to help them feel beautiful and good about themselves. The cosmetologists feel like doing hair, makeup, and skin care do more than enhance beauty. They are ways to help people connect with each other, talk to each other, and heal each other in a way.

I was really surprised to find out that hairdressing and cosmetology are nothing new in Afghanistan. Although it may be hidden under a cloth, Muslim women there take time to care for their hair and do their makeup. When there is a wedding, women spend hours at beauty salons getting themselves all done up and lovely. Even when the government cracked down on beauty care providers, women took their chances and started running beauty salons out of their own homes.

The women were really excited that the foreign cosmetologists were coming to open a new beauty school, and the foreigners had to make a waiting list of those who wanted to attend but couldn’t fit into the building for classes.

The documentary features interviews with beauty care providers in Afghanistan. The women talk about their lives, their struggles, their joys, all that stuff. It made me realize that women over there are pretty much the same as women here, they just live in different circumstances. This movie was a real eye opener for me.