Brow equipment and training notebook

When I quit my job as a prison officer, I started thinking ‘what should I do?’

Sometimes I’m good at things, sometimes I’m not. Then one time, I paid almost a hundred pounds for halal brows and a lash lift and I didn't even like them. So I thought, that's it... that's what I'm going to do.

I looked up all the courses, all the money that I'm going to need. I thought, I'm going to make money now; I'm going to be fully booked out. But, for the first seven months of me working, I only had three clients. I was making no profit whatsoever, renting an expensive salon space.

So I decided to, I would like to say ‘downgrade’, but it was an ‘upgrade’ - I moved to a cheaper and smaller space in Walsall Town Centre. That's where I started building my clientele and now I plan to move my business to Birmingham.

Good luck card from Anniyah’s favorite teacher

We moved to Walsall from Poland when I was ten years old. I couldn’t speak English at all but my mom decided, in her very crazy way, to sign me up to an all-Asian school. So the way I learned English was with an Asian accent.

To make things worse - I was sent to the most racist high school ever. I was such an easy target because my English was broken, my accent wasn’t ‘right’ for people there, and I was picked on non-stop.

My mom never really liked to mix with different cultures, because she felt it would protect her from racism. But... I was at my teenage rebel stage, so became friends with people from different cultures.

At first it was just a tactic to get back at my mom but I soon realised how nice everyone was. That brought me to Islam.

A Polish and Pakistani flag

My groom and I are planning to have a wedding this winter.

It’s going to be a mixture of Polish and South Asian wedding traditions, because my groom is Pakistani. My wedding dress is going to be a Pakistani-themed Ulima dress, but with the Slavic patterns on it - and the food is going to cross both cultures too.

I’m getting married into a Pakistani family, but I never realised how many family members there are in a Pakistani family. In my Polish family, there’s about five of us - that’s it. In his family, there’s like 200 closest family members. It’s going to be fun.

I love planning things, and I can’t trust anyone with it.

So, I’m doing everything for the planning from A to Z.

Prison badge and redbull

I worked as a prison officer in Winson Green for two years.

I was already a Muslim by that point, and I feel like that gave me a little bit more respect. To be honest, I feel like the prisoners also respected me because I never abused my position of power, they gave me a backbone. People can say something to me now, and I really would not be bothered.

It seemed to me that the prisoners didn’t know how to channel their anger in a way that would benefit them rather than impact their lives negatively. And it was really nice helping them understand how their emotions work and what their triggers were.

I loved that job, but it was just so much effort. There were times I was doing 16-hour and 24-hour shifts. I felt like my daughter and I never had time to spend together, so I quit to start my own business.

Traditional Polish Outfit

Back in Poland I lived in a small village called Jaromirowice, which is within walking distance from Germany.

This makes half of my family German, and the other half Polish.

A lot of Polish people I've met in the UK have completely abandoned their Polish culture. They will rarely have Polish food. They will not listen to Polish music. They will not do anything that we usually do in Poland. I understand they want to fit in with the British people, but I feel like if the culture doesn't go against British values, there's nothing wrong with practicing it.

This made me very strict and big on always teaching my daughter about her Polish heritage.

I would love to bring her to my home village and to show her where I grew up.

Anniyah’s prayer beads

I converted to Islam ten years ago.

When I learned what true Islam is, all the rules and regulations and the rights of women and men, I was surprised because it’s not how people sometimes portray it. In fact, it’s not as dismissive to women as you’d think - it presents women like treasures, and that's what I love about it.

Another thing I love about Muslims is how generous they are. One time, we ended up staying home without any food on Eid al-Adha. It is one of the major Islamic holidays, and many restaurants were closed. Thankfully, our Bengali neighbours saved us by giving us loads of food.

There are so many of my favourite dishes in South Asian cultures and I love grilled foods so much. One of my favourite restaurants would be Bader Restaurant on Coventry Road.

Anniyah’s charity t-shirt from fundraising for her clients

At first I only had two clients.

I decided to jump onto social media to search for others. I would post my services in a way only people like me would want to book it, and it worked amazingly because I got myself perfect clients. It makes my job much easier.

I talked about literally everything and anything with them, whether it’s their partners, their mother-in-laws, their work, or their colleague drama. It varies.

With my university clients, we sometimes talk about their studies. I like asking funny questions to those who study nursing, like “What’s the worst thing you’ve smelled so far whilst on placement?”

Whether they’re students or not, I always let them vent because life can be gruelling. A lot of them are under 25, still very young, still making mistakes. Sometimes I act like a mother figure to ensure that they stay safe.

Anniyah’s Trophies

There are two things I love doing in my job: ‘Halal Brows’ is the first one because it's a satisfying process of removing the bleach and the hair literally looking invisible - the second one, a polar opposite, is ‘Designer Brows’.

It is more creative and brings different colours and designs. I did rainbow brows for my client for Gay Pride and I absolutely loved it. It’s so nice to be able to do something different. If you want, I can do multicolored brows and different sorts of patterns.

My daughter once saw a leopard print on the internet, and then she said, ‘I want leopard print on my brows’. I thought that was a good idea and tried it out on my client and it ended up winning an award.

I have four awards in different categories from The Brow Awards. They were awarded at the Aurora Grand Hall in Birmingham. It is known as the UK's major annual celebration for brow artists. I’ve won that FOUR times.

Selection of Anniyah’s Tiktok captions and comments on her posts

I have a TikTok account with 17,000 followers.

To be honest, the majority of my content is rage bait! I love rage-baiting people who are Islamophobic or homophobic.

I make bold content about Islam because I know people will react to it. It's a manipulation because they’ll either comment, like, share or save it. If there's little interaction in the comments, I will put fire into it.

Then one day I will post a video that's encouraging people to learn more about Islam, and they will have no choice but to see it because of the algorithm. So that way I'm teaching people about Islam.

I get recognised on the streets sometimes, although I feel like I don't have that many followers. Funnily enough, it was when I worked in prison that a visitor asked, ‘Are you from TikTok?’ It was the most awkward thing ever!