Women are prohibited from shaving their head

 بِسۡمِ اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ

سُبْحَانَ ذِي الْقُوَّةِ وَالْجَبَرُوتِ سُبْحَانَ ذِي الْمُلْكِ وَالْمَلَكُوتِ سُبْحَانَ الْحَيِّ الَّذِي لَا يَمُوتُ سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي يُمِيتُ الْخَلَائِقَ وَلَا يَمُوتُ سُبُّوحٌ ‌قُدُّوسٌ ‌قُدُّوسٌ ‌قُدُّوسٌ سُبْحَانَ رَبِّنَا الْأَعْلَى رَبِّ الْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالرُّوحِ سُبْحَانَ الْأَعْلَى الَّذِي يُمِيتُ الْخَلَائِقَ وَلَا يَمُوتُ

In the Name of Allah, the Rahman, the Merciful

Holy, Holy, Holy

Allah سبحانه وتعالى says:

مُحَلِّقِیۡنَ رُءُوۡسَکُمۡ وَمُقَصِّرِیۡنَ

Having your heads shaven or hair cut short

(Surah 48, Ayah 27)

From the well known rites of the pilgrimage to Mecca is for the pilgrim to either shave his head or cut his hair short. This is done at the end when the pilgrim exits the state of Ihram. While shaving the head is preferable and more blessed for a male pilgrim, he is also given the concession of merely cutting his hair, as the Ayah indicates. According to the Hanafi school, the minimum requirement is to cut the length of a fingertip (one third of the finger’s length) of hair from at least a quarter of the head, though of course it is better to trim such a length of hair from the entire head. As for women, they are absolutely forbidden from shaving their head. Mawla Ali كرم الله وجهه narrates:

نَهَى رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم أَنْ تَحْلِقَ الْمَرْأَةُ رَأْسَهَا

The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, prohibited the woman from shaving her head (Jami’ at-Tirmidhi)

For a woman to shave her head, especially for a religious motive, is a pagan abomination that is strictly forbidden in the Islamic Shari’ah. But in our times a fitnah has risen in the form of a man called Muhammad Shaikh (whose real name may be Khusro or Ghulam Khusro) of Karachi. He teaches that everyone who undertakes the pilgrimage to Mecca is required to shave their head, both males and females. And his clownish interpretation of the Quran is on full display when he argues that the Ayah (48:27) means they shave their heads and shorten their prayers (not their hair)!

Muhammad Shaikh boasts that during Hajj he himself shaved the heads of his wife, mother-in-law and sister!