Does a woman have to undo her hair when doing ghusl?

Question:

Does a women have to undo her hair for ghusl of Janaabah (major impurity)?

Answer:

No, if the water reaches the root of the hair she doesn’t undo it, as is in the hadith.

As for if it’s tight and the water doesn’t reach, then verily it’s a must to make the water reach by making the fingers go through the hair or by undoing it, if the water doesn’t reach.

As for if the water reaches, it’s poured and it goes through the hair, it’s not a must to undo it.

Then the hair if it’s not undone it becomes wet, and if it remains wet and it’s not dried there occurs flaking in the hair, flaking remains and there occurs mildew in the hair due to the uncleanness of the water.

So from the correct way of going about with things, for one who has hair is that after ghusl he dries it or exposes to air for example, or the sun so it can dry and not put the imaamah on his head while it’s wet, this causes scratching and flaking from what is known.

And also it causes a smell in the hair, in the imaamah, because it’s not dry, as for if it’s dry and clean it will not have a bad smell coming from it or the imaamah, nor when kissing the head or meeting.

Not for the man or the woman. So drying it is good, leaving it a little so it can be exposed to the air or dry before covering it, this is from the angle of healthy precautions.

As for from the angle of the legislation then if the water reaches the root of the hair it’s not necessary to undo it, and if it’s tight and it didn’t reach or it’s thought that it didn’t reach then it’s a must to make the water reach the root of the hair, to the whole body, in ghusl of Janaabah, and what came in the hadith that she never used to undo her hair then its meaning is that the water reaches the root of her hair.

Answered by: Shaykh, the Allamah, the Trustworthy Advisor, Abu Abdirrahman Yahya bin Ali Al-Hajuri – may Allah preserve him

Source: https://t.me/sh_yahia_duroos/9980

Translated by: Abū ‘Abdillāh ‘Omar bin Yahya Al-‘Akawi