Ruling on a man tying up his long hair

Praise
be to Allah.

Firstly: 

The
hadeeth referred to in the question was narrated from ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbaas
(may Allah be pleased with him), who said that he saw ‘Abd-Allah ibn
al-Haarith praying, and his hair was braided and tied up at the back. He
went and started to undo it. When he finished praying, he turned to Ibn
‘Abbaas and said: What do you have to do with my hair? He said: I heard the
Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) say: “The
likeness of this one is that of a man who prays with his hands tied.”

Narrated
by Muslim, no. 492 

Al-Mannaawi (may Allah have mercy on him) said: 

What is
meant by “braided and tied up at the back” is that his hair was gathered
together. “(The likeness of) one who prays with his hands tied” means: with
his hands tied to his shoulders, which is not appropriate (i.e., it is
makrooh), because if his hair was not loose it would not fall to the ground
(when prostrating), so he would not be prostrating with all parts of his
body, like the hands of the one whose hands are tied cannot touch the
ground. Abu Shaamah said: This is to be understood as referring to when the
hair is gathered to the back of the head after being braided, as women do. 

Fayd
al-Qadeer, 3/6 

It says in
al-Mawsoo‘ah al-Fiqhiyyah (26/109-110): 

The
fuqaha’ are unanimously agreed that it is makrooh to tie the hair when
praying. What is meant by tying the hair is to fasten the braid of hair
around the head, as women do, or to gather the hair and tie it at the back
of the head. This is makrooh (not appropriate), but if a person prays like
that, his prayer is still valid. 

The reason
for the prohibition on doing this is that the hair prostrates along with the
person who is praying, hence in the hadeeth he is likened to the one who
prays when his hands are tied to his shoulders. 

The
majority are of the view that this ruling that this should not be done
applies to everyone who prays like this, whether he did that especially for
the prayer or he was like that before he prayed, and he did it for another
reason and prayed as he was for no reason. This is indicated by the general
wording of the saheeh hadeeths and it is the apparent meaning of the report
narrated from the Sahaabah. 

Maalik
said: The ruling that this should not be done applies specifically to the
one who did that in order to pray. End quote. 

Secondly: 

With
regard to the ruling on letting the hair grow long and tying it at the back
of the head, this has been discussed in detail in the answer to question no.
69822, where we noted that Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr (may Allah have mercy on him)
stated that during his time, letting the hair grow long had become a
characteristic of the foolish, and that people of knowledge and
righteousness had turned away from this custom. This is what is well
established among people in most of the Muslim countries. 

Shaykh Ibn
‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said: 

It is not
part of the Sunnah to let the hair grow long, because the Prophet (blessings
and peace of Allah be upon him) let his hair grow because the people of that
time used to do that. Hence when he saw a boy who had shaved part of his
head he said: “Shave all of it or leave all of it.” If it was the case that
the hair should be left to grow long, he would have told the boy to leave it
(and not shave any part of it). 

Based on
that, we say: Letting the hair grow long is not part of the Sunnah, but if
people customarily do that, then do it, otherwise do what the people
customarily do, because something may be Sunnah in a specific sense or it
may Sunnah in a general sense . For example, if there is nothing to render a
garment or a “look” haraam, then in this case the Sunnah is to follow what
the people customarily do, because the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah
be upon him) did it because he was following the custom of the people. So
now we say: The custom of people nowadays is not to let the hair grow long.
Hence our senior scholars, the first of whom we will mention among the
senior scholars is our Shaykh ‘Abd ar-Rahmaan ibn as-Sa‘di, and our Shaykh
‘Abd al-‘Azeez ibn Baaz, and other shaykhs such as Shaykh Muhammad ibn
Ibraaheem and his brothers, and other senior scholars, do not let the hair
grow long. That is because they do not think that this is Sunnah, and we
know that if they thought that this was Sunnah, they would have been the
most eager of people to follow the Sunnah. So the correct view is that this
matter is to be based on what people usually do. So if you are in a place
where people usually let their hair grow long, then do it, otherwise do not
do it. End quote. 

Liqaa’aat al-Baab al-Maftoohah,
no. 126, question no. 16 

Based on
that, reference should be made to what is customary among the people with
regard letting the hair grow long. In societies where the men do not let
their hair grow long, one should not let it grow long, and tying it at the
back of the head is even more reprehensible, because it is an imitation of
women and immoral people. 

And Allah
knows best.