Muslim stylist: I was so depressed I quit the trade

A Muslim hairdresser who says she was turned down for a job because she wears a headscarf has told how depression forced her to leave the trade.

Bushra Noah, 19, said she decided to abandon her career after being rejected for a stylist's job at a fashionable north London salon.

But she admitted waiting two months before making any complaint about the decision and accusing salon owner Sarah Desrosiers, 32, of "blatant" religious discrimination.

Mrs Noah claims she was rejected for other hairdressing jobs before her March 2007 interview with Miss Desrosiers, who requires stylists at the Wedge salon in King's Cross to have their hair on show. Mrs Noah also says she was rejected for six other posts afterwards.

And she conceded under cross-examination that Miss Desrosiers never said anything rude about her headgear or religious beliefs. Mrs Noah, from Acton, is now studying travel and tourism at Hammersmith and West London College.

She told Central London Employment Tribunal: "I was devastated when I did not get offered the position at Wedge due to my headscarf and my husband told me that I should consider applying for other jobs outside hairdressing.

"I was so depressed after my interview with Miss Desrosiers that I decided to try a different career. Having dreamed of being a hairdresser since an early age, this was a big decision for me."

Mrs Noah said she had worked at another salon until leaving to get married in Syria in the summer of June

2006. She said: "I was cutting hair, highlighting, tinting, perming and styling hair. I loved working there but I left to get married." Mrs Noah is claiming £34,000 in compensation from Miss Desrosiers, who says she faces financial ruin if she loses the case and would be forced to close her salon.

Mrs Noah claims she could have done well at the salon which specialises in "urban, edgy and funky" cuts, even though she insists that her headscarf is essential to her beliefs.

She said: "I know my punk from my funk and my urban from my trendy." Miss Desrosiers denies any religious discrimination and insists it is an " absolutey basic" job requirement that stylists have their hair on show if they are to cut that of the customers.

Mrs Noah told the tribunal she had agonised over taking legal action. She said: "At the time I was 18. I was nearly married. I was having problems with my husband. I was thinking whether I should go through the legal procedure. It was not easy."

Asked if Miss Desrosiers made derogatory remarks about her head scarf, Mrs Noah replied: "She did not. She just asked me if I wore it all the time or whether I would take it off." She denied inventing her claim that Miss Desrosiers invited her for a trial day at the salon before seeing her headscarf.

She said: "She just looked at me as if I was wasting her time. She said: 'You really should have told me on the phone that you wore a headscarf and I would have told you not to come in'."

Speaking before the hearing, Miss Desrosiers said she was "staggered" by the scale of Miss Noah's compensation claim. She said: "To me, it is absolutely basic that people should be able to see the stylist's hair. It has nothing to do with religion. It is just unfortunate that for her covering her hair symbolises her religion."

The hearing continues.