What Is the Ruling on Cutting Hair After Hajj or Umrah?

Answered by Ustadh Salman Younas

Question: Assalam alaykum

Does the head have to be shaved with a blade after Umrah or Hajj or can electric hair clippers at their lowest setting be used to satisfy the fiqh position?

Answer: Wa alaykum assalam

Trimming the hair is sufficient. The minimum amount that needs to be trimmed is the extent of a fingertip from a quarter of one’s head although it is optimal to cut this extent from the whole head. A “fingertip” here is defined as one-third of the finger, namely the extent of the first finger joint.

Shaving is not necessary. However, it is preferred to trimming the hair as per certain prophetic traditions.

Also see: What is the Minimum Amount of Hair that Must Be Cut to Exit the State of Ihram After Hajj or Umrah?

[Ustadh] Salman Younas

Checked and approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Ustadh Salman Younas graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in Political Science and Religious Studies. After studying the Islamic sciences online and with local scholars in New York, Ustadh Salman moved to Amman. There he studies Islamic law, legal methodology, belief, hadith methodology, logic, Arabic, and tafsir.