Answer
Wa `alaykum As-Salamu wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
All praise and thanks are due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon His Messenger.
In this fatwa:
- Hair transplantation by means of natural hair is permissible in Islam. While doing so with artificial hair is not permissible.
- However, hair transplantation should be restricted to cases of necessity when a person suffers real psychological or social pains.
Answering the question in point, Sheikh Ahmad Kutty, a senior lecturer and Islamic scholar at the Islamic Institute of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, states:
In Islam, hair transplantation by means of natural hair is permissible, while doing so with artificial hair is impermissible.
Islam prohibits us from unnecessarily interfering or tampering with our bodies. This falls under the forbidden category of mutilation or distortion of Allah’s creation, which has been spoken of as a project Satan is committed to engaging humankind in.
Examples of such tampering and interference are face lift, changing the color of our skin through surgery, likewise, and adding a cluster of false hair to one’s hair.
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) “Allah curses women who patch up (their natural) hair with another patch of hair or women who receive such work!” (Muslim)
Having said this, however, it is important to state that Islam is not at all opposed to resorting to treatments or medications in order to enhance Allah’s creation without in any way altering or mutilating it.
Hair transplantation of natural hair in such a way that it becomes part of one’s natural hair and grows on one’s scalp and is sustained by it is permissible.
This is because it is not at all different from transplanting a kidney or eyes or a heart.
Just as these transplants are permissible, to transplant natural hair that would grow and take roots on one’s head is also considered permissible.
Transplanting artificial hair, however, is different. Since it does not become part of one’s natural hair, it is not permissible.
It is also permissible to resort to treatments or medications that help natural growth of hair just as we can take medications in order to enhance our eye sight or physical stamina, etc.
Almighty Allah knows best.
Editor’s note: This fatwa is from Ask the Scholar’s archive and was originally published at an earlier date.