Product Review: Niqabi Gloves!

Assalaamu alaikum!

As many know, I am sure, there are Muslim sisters, and even sisters who are non-Muslim, who wear niqab  Some also wear gloves with their niqab, either for extra modesty, ascetics, or mental health issues (I plan to expound upon hijab, niqab, gloves, and mental health in a post all it's own soon, insha'Allah! Some information on the Sunnah of wearing niqab and gloves can be found here). When I started to wear niqab, I did so for modesty but also due to some mental health issues/anxiety, as I had heard others say that it helped them. A month or so after wearing niqab I decided I also wanted to wear gloves to help me develop healthy behavior patterns and avoid picking at the skin on my hands. That was about a month ago, and I started to research the gloves on the market that would fit my various needs - make it difficult to pick at my skin/hurt myself in other ways, look appropriate for work and school, and be easy to use with touch screen devices.

Unfortunately, most gloves on the market do NOT fit these categories! If they are touch screen capable, they are usually winter gloves and thus too thick or warm to be used every day. If they are sold by Islamic clothing stores, they are thin and come in various colors, but they aren't touch screen capable, OR, as in the case of the "Esteem" gloves by Sunnah Style (product here; YouTube review from Sister Jeanie here), they are touch screen capable BUT they currently only come in one size, which is medium.

From my searches, I found that Kohl's was selling some gloves by Isotoner:

Two different Isotoner performance gloves.

So, we went to Kohls. The Isotoner performance gloves are thinner, more light weight winter gloves which are meant to be worn while running or doing other work-out activities during colder months. The black ones on the left are the ones I purchased, solely due to the fact that they are matt-black, but the version on the right, with the grey striped design, were actually slightly thinner and cooler. Both came in color variants, with the ones I purchased having full-color variants and the grey ones coming with different colored piping, like the purple piping shown in the photo. (The kind I bought here and the grey ones here.)

These work really well for outside and running errands! They are comfortable; keep your hands moderately warm, which I liked as my fingers and joints hurt during the winter so warmth helps keep them from stiffening up; and they work well on touch screens. However, when it came to typing, things got difficult since they are relatively thick.

Due to this, I went back to looking at the gloves from Sunnah Style. While I can't order from them since they don't yet come in smalls, I noticed that they were copper compression gloves. So I researched those! There are three brands on Amazon, but the most trustworthy of the three is Tommie Copper, which I was looking at off-Amazon. I went to Amazon to see if they were sold there, since we have Amazon Prime which means free shipping! You can get free two-day shipping, which is what I thought I requested... Apparently I never clicked that button, so I received mine in four days. Alhamdulillah, still much quicker than it could have been!

The price of the Tommie Copper gloves is comparable to the prices of the "Esteem" gloves from Sunnah Style. The Isotoner gloves were actually $5-$10 more than both the Tommie Copper gloves and the gloves from Sunnah Style. They are really thin, which is perfect for everyday wear and wearing them in the summer. They also boast 50 SPF. They work very well for touch screen and the smalls I order fit me perfectly! They are thin enough you can wear other gloves over them for being outside. Tommie Copper also makes half-finger gloves, fingerless gloves, sleeves, and all manner of other clothing that are made to be worn in all climates while helping people heal injuries or deal with various pain and joint issues such as arthritis. You can also order these particular gloves in nude and some of their products come in fun colors as well. You can get the gloves pictured below here, and you can also order them on Amazon by searching Tommie Copper, which allows for free shipping with Amazon Prime! The only downside was very minor, which is that on the pointer finger there is some silver threading on the finger nail area, not just on the pad.

What I really enjoy with thinner gloves is that I can layer on fun arm warmers, fingerless gloves, and even rings to change things up!

So this is all that I've found! Please let me know what you think and I hope this was helpful!

JazakAllah khair,
Sajida.