Four youngsters at Al Wafaa Secondary Girls School have transformed a traditional local resource into a modern, all‑natural beauty product.
Drawing inspiration from the Sidr tree, known scientifically as the Christ’s thorn jujube and cherished across the Middle East for its medicinal value, the girls embarked on a journey that blended science, culture and creativity.
Bahraini students Lina Fahad, Razan Mohammed, Dina Ali, and Manwa Mohammed set out to explore how the Sidr leaves grown on their school campus could be used in natural hair and skincare solutions.
Long valued for their anti-inflammatory properties, the leaves have historically been used to ease pain, swelling, and heat, as well as for beauty purposes such as strengthening hair follicles and cleansing the scalp and skin.
But the ambitious students wanted to do more than simply follow tradition ... they wanted to perfect it. Guided by their agriculture teacher Enas Mohammed, the team conducted a series of experiments to refine the process of producing high-quality ground Sidr powder. They compared sun-drying the leaves versus drying them in controlled indoor environments, testing each method to determine which best preserved the leaves’ natural benefits.
The girls said that their aim was not just to make a product, but to make it safely, cleanly, and effectively.
