´Mukhawwal said:` “I heard Abu Sa’d, a man from the people of Madinah, say: ‘I saw Abu Rafi’, the freed slave of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), when he saw Hasan bin ‘Ali performing prayer, with his hair braided. He undid it, or told him not to do that, and said: “The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) forbade a man from performing prayer with his hair braided.”
Related hadith on this topic
Explanation & Benefits
Shaykh Dr. Abdur Rahman Freywai
1:
But this is for men;
there is no harm for women in performing prayer with their hair tied in a braid.
The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam even exempted women from undoing their braids during the ritual bath (ghusl) for major impurity.
If a woman were to untie her braid during prayer, her hair might come out from under her head covering, and if a woman's hair comes out from under her head covering during prayer, the prayer becomes invalid.
Moreover, untying the braid at every prayer time and tying it again after prayer would also be troublesome.
Source: Sunan al-Tirmidhi – Majlis ‘Ilmi Dar al-Da‘wah, New Delhi Edition, Page: 384