Just to summarise, Sheikh 'Uthaymeen rahimahullah is saying that the Prophet ﷺ grew his hair only because it was a common custom amongst the Arabs. So growing t

This speech about growing the hair being a customary practice is equally applicable to braiding the hair; which is the focus of our discussion. To cut to the chase, my argument is: in our time and age, particularly in the West, male brading is heavily linked to rap, drugs, gangs, and the like. It is far from being a common custom amongst Muslims, let alone being a sign of piety as the survey proved. In fact, Ibn Abdil Barr rahimahullah (D. 463 H) said: “Now the people of our time do not let their hair grow, except soldiers; who grow their hair till their earlobes and some to their shoulders. Whereas the people of righteousness, chastity and knowledge have shunned this practice, such that growing the hair shoulder-length has almost become a distinct sign for fools. And it was reported from the Prophet ﷺ that he said: ((من تشبه بقوم فهو منهم - أو حشر معهم)) “Whoever resembles a people is one of them.” [At-Tamheed (6/80)] Though he was speaking about long hair, I believe his speech is fully applicable to braided hair in our time. To be continued إن شاء الله...