The Ruling on Cutting the Hair on the Head for Women

The questioner : ...cutting the hair?

The Shaykh : Cutting the hair on the head: I have already mentioned, in this brief speech, that any alteration of Allah’s creation without permission from the Lawgiver falls under the general scope of the verse and the general scope of the hadith. For example, plucking the armpit hair is from the Sunnah, indeed it is obligatory. This is an alteration of Allah’s creation, because Allah creates hair under a man’s armpit, just as He does for his beard and mustache. He is the One who created this human being, yet He forbade him to shave his beard, obligated him to pluck his armpit hair, and obligated him to shave his pubic hair. This does not fall under my previous statement because it is with Allah’s permission. In fact, this is part of the trial by which Allah tested Ibrahim (peace be upon him). Likewise, we say that a woman cutting her hair: there is no difference in this regarding whether the subject relates to altering Allah’s creation or not; there is no difference between a woman’s hair and a man’s hair. We, even though we are men, if we left our hair in its natural state, it would grow long enough to be braided. A woman is exactly the same, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that from the perspective of the Sunnah. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) had hair that sometimes reached the lobes of his ears, and if it grew longer, it reached the tops of his shoulders. When he entered Mecca as a conqueror, he entered with four braids. All of this is permissible and established. Therefore, a man who does not grow his hair and cuts it is also altering this creation, and a woman is exactly the same. But this alteration is with the permission of the Wise Lawgiver. Regarding men, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . There is also a prohibition against qaza' (shaving patches of hair), which was known in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance. Until recently, we witnessed some young men who are called in Syria — meaning the tough guys — but some of these tough guys, unfortunately, would shave the middle of their head hair with a razor, and they called it by their local term "hara," because indeed the hair around it was all black, and the middle was white and shiny. This is called qaza'. Likewise, if one cuts a little here and a little there, it is all qaza'. This is prohibited. So regarding men, the Messenger explicitly permitted shaving, so this does not fall under alteration.
As for women, it is reported in Sahih Muslim: "The women of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to take from their hair until it was like the wafrah," meaning hair that reaches the lobes of the ears. So the women of the Messenger used to take from their hair until their hair was like the wafrah. If a Muslim woman today wants to cut some of her hair, there is no harm in that for her, but with two conditions:
The first condition: that it should not occur to her at all to follow a fashion that has appeared, as is known in some Arab countries, where women chase after what? Fashions. Whenever a fashion changes... We know, for example, that lipstick used to be deep dark red, and then the fashion evolved until it became a color that represents the natural color of the lip, meaning the opposite of deep red, and so on. Regarding clothing, whenever the style changes completely, they start imitating it. I once read a joke where a friend saw his friend carrying something in his hand and rushing. He said to him: "What is the matter, so-and-so?" He said: "By Allah, my wife asked me to buy her a dress, so I bought her this dress, and I want to deliver it to her hand before a new fashion appears and makes the dress obsolete, causing me to have to buy another one!" And so on. So the first thing required of a woman who wants to shorten her hair is that her concern should not be imitating the fashions that come to us from disbelieving Europe.
The second condition: that she should not intend to imitate young men and men, as is known from the hadith of Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) cursed the men who imitate women and the women who imitate men." And in another hadith: "The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) cursed the masculine women." The masculine woman is the one who imitates men in much of what relates to her body, and among that is cutting her hair to resemble men or young men in that.