The Ruling on a Woman Removing the Hair from Her Cheeks

Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. The questioner says: Is it permissible to remove the hair from the cheeks for the purpose of beautification, for women only?

Answer:
A woman does not remove anything from her face, neither facial hair nor the eyebrows, unless the facial hair is disfiguring the face, or if she has a mustache or beard that disfigures her face, in which case there is no harm in removing it. However, if her face is normal and not disfigured, she should not use what they call plucking; the jurists call it shaving, or thinning the thick hair. If it is normal and does not disfigure the face, where is the need for shaving? Yes. May Allah reward you, because some scholars hold that removing facial hair falls under the category of altering creation.