The answers on Hawramani.com are based on the research of Ikram Hawramani in the Quran, hadith, scholarly works and respected fatwa sources. You can view Ikram Hawramani's credentials on the about page. Please note that we do not issue fatwas, we only compile the opinions of respected scholars (even when a fatwa is not explicitly cited) to make their opinions accessible to English-speaking Muslims. If an answer does not cite fatwas, please feel free to leave a comment asking for a fatwa citation and we will update the answer as soon as possible to include fatwas.

IslamQA: Having short hair as a Muslim woman

Before I ask I want to say that I am a 19 years old female, and I have never in my life ever had long hair. However I always take care of my hijab, prayers and everything else, the thing is that I am comfortable with short hair (I'm saying 2 inches kind of short). just this year my barber accidentally shaved my sides so I said its okay just shave it all, so since then I'm comfortable with tiny bristle hair. I dont have to overly take care of it with conditioner and all but my mother thinks its wrong for a girl to have a boy-ish look, and I understand! BUT nobody other than my parents/siblings and female relatives know that I have short hair cuz like i said, I take care of my hijab. and everyone knows i am a female, so I dont think having a shaved head is wrong. I am comfortable with this, I like the way I look, I dont have to worry about hair slipping out of my hijab or prayer cloth. so I just want to make sure if its okay for me to keep this hair length? tq!

There are a number of authentic hadith narrations in which the Prophet strongly admonishes against trying to look like the other sex. However, these narrations are speaking of a person who intentionally tries to look like the other sex without a valid reason. It is narrated in Sahih Muslim that some of the wives of the Prophet after his death used to cut their hairs so short that it did not extend beyond their ears. According to the Saudi scholar Shaykh Nasir al-Umar there are no strict regulations regarding how short a woman can cut her hair as long as the intent behind it is not to look like males.1 Since your intention is convenience then there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it. However, if your parents and relatives dislike seeing your hair the way it is then out of respect for them it is best to make it at least long enough to stop them from complaining about it.

Footnotes

  1. Archived link to his fatwa.
My work is made possible by your kind donations. Donate securely via Stripe (no registration required):
And God knows best.
Asking questions is temporarily unavailable. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Commenting rules: Politeness is the only rule. We respect your right to disagree with anything we say. But comments with profanity and insults will be deleted.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
2 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
bob
bob
2 years ago

so can a woman or girl have a pixie cut as they really want one or after a stressful time like a death of a loved one or as it would be really easy to look after and would save time.

Jill
Jill
4 months ago

Do all these religions realize how dangerous it is for a woman never to cut her hair? For one thing the length alone is a lot of weight to carry around. It is bad for both the neck and back. Not to mention, getting it caught into things can also be dangerous. How time consuming it must be for all these women trying to wash and dry it all the time. I don’t believe any God or Allah said anything about hair on a man or woman. Somewhere in history a group of men got together and decided they were going to create their own nonsense rules for everyone. Sad that everyone actually believes these rules and continues to teach this throughout history, even today. Technically, everyone was born without hair or clothing. I do believe there is a God, or Allah out there somewhere, that put all the Earthly systems together, but I am sure that he didn’t go around telling humans, how to cut their hair and how to dress.