WHY do we spend so much money on our hair and make-up? Actresses and models, and other nondescript celebs flash their teeth and say 'Because we're worth it.'

So then why would anyone want to adopt the veil. Cherie Blair has criticised it publicly as a symbol of oppression. No dear, that's your husband.

But reader, there comes a time in everyone's life when you have to wake up and smell the khauf. And my time has come. It was not easy. The only cover-up I would previously have considered was a three-in-one foundation stick.

Though my heart belonged to Islam and the desire to submit, worldly thoughts filled my head.

I had an on-off relationship with my hijab, sometimes it was on my head, and sometimes it wasn't, but I began to pray and common sense was hard to ignore.

Okay, so it is easier to wear an hijab in towns where most heads are covered anyway and shampoo manufacturers worry we are trying to put them out of business.

But still years of conditioning make it hard to make that first step in veil-dom.

"Do you wear it to work?" a few sisters asked. Well that's the only place I go, so yes.

"Weren't they shocked," the sisters asked. Not as shocked as when they found out I had in my possession a Celine Dion CD.

Cheeky colleagues now ask if I can please cover my face too. "And how can you pray five times a day?" they ask. Why not? If I can pay homage to Morrisons - sometimes three times a day - what is difficult about giving thanks to my Maker? Oh yes, I have cast aside my music videos and instead watch Dawah in the Park. It's so good you will soon forget all about Baddiel and Skinner. Also my social life has improved.

Last week I was invited to a little house where I sat in the room for women and heard through the door a teenage black boy declare: "I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and Mohammed is his Messenger" and I cried.

Every Muslim woman is my sister, every Muslim man is my brother and no, I am not secretly dating a member of Hamas. Things I didn't care about before now irk me like the men who shake my hand though I am clearly a woman. But the man at security is still baffled. "But why do you lot have to keep your hair covered?" he asks. I think for a second, flash him a smile and say: "Because we're worth it."