Short answer
Yes. In the Hanafi school, plucking, threading or shaving the eyebrows to shape or thin them is haram. Removing hair between the brows (a unibrow) and trimming brows that are unusually thick back to a normal look are allowed. Removing facial hair such as a moustache or beard is recommended for women.
Namas (thinning or shaping the eyebrows by removing hair) is haram, whether by plucking, threading, waxing or shaving. Hair that is abnormal and deforms the face, such as hair joining the brows or brows far beyond the normal, may be removed or trimmed back to normal. Removing hair from a woman's upper lip, chin and cheeks is mustahabb.
Other madhhabs
- Shafi'i
- Plucking the eyebrows is haram; some later Shafi'i scholars allowed a married woman to do it with her husband's permission.
Explanation
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud said that Allah has cursed women who tattoo and have tattoos done, who pluck their eyebrows, and who file their teeth for beauty, changing the creation of Allah, and he said he cursed whom the Prophet ﷺ cursed. The word for plucking here is namas, and the scholars agree it covers removing eyebrow hair to make the brows thinner or a new shape.
What the Hanafi scholars allow and do not allow:
- Not allowed: shaping, arching or thinning the eyebrows by plucking, threading, waxing or shaving, even for a wedding, even for a husband.
- Allowed: removing the hair between the eyebrows that joins them, and trimming brows that are unusually thick or long to bring them back to a normal appearance, without reshaping.
- Recommended: removing a moustache, beard or thick cheek hair from a woman's face, since this is not the normal feminine appearance.
- Tinting or filling in with makeup is not namas, because no hair is removed. Microblading involves tattooing, which is also forbidden in the same hadith.
The reason is the phrase "changing the creation of Allah": altering a normal feature just for beauty. Removing what is abnormal, or treating a defect, is different, which is why the scholars allow those cases.
If you have shaped your brows in the past, make tawbah and let them grow. See is makeup haram for what adornment is allowed.
The evidence
Sahih al-Bukhari 5931
Sahih... لعن الله الواشمات والمستوشمات والمتنمصات ...
"Allah has cursed the women who tattoo and have tattoos done, and the women who pluck their eyebrows."
Ibn Mas'ud's narration, which he ties to the Prophet's ﷺ curse, forbidding namas.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Hazr wa al-Ibaha, chapter on looking and touching. Namas is forbidden; removing a woman's beard or moustache is recommended.
- al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, Kitab al-Karahiyya, chapter on adornment. Removing hair from the face, and the limits of it.
This answer is pending review by the scholars on our team. Quran translation by Sahih International. Hadith Arabic from the standard editions of the six books and the Muwatta, with gradings as recorded there; the English is our own rendering. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.