Short answer
Yes. Shaving, haircuts, cutting your nails and removing body hair do not affect the fast at all, because nothing enters the body. The four schools agree. Just avoid swallowing any blood from a nick.
Shaving, cutting the hair, cutting the nails and removing pubic or underarm hair are mubah (permissible) while fasting and do not break the fast. Hair and nail rules change only for a pilgrim in ihram, and for someone offering qurbani in the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah.
The four schools agree on this.
Explanation
The fast is about what goes into the body, not what comes off it. Hair and nails are on the outside, so cutting them has nothing to do with the fast. You can shave in the morning of a fasting day, get a haircut in the afternoon and trim your nails before iftar.
Small points to watch:
- A nick while shaving does not break the fast, even if it bleeds. See bleeding while fasting.
- Shaving gel, foam and aftershave go on the skin and do not break the fast.
- Keep clippings away from your mouth and spit out anything that gets in.
- The rules on the beard are the same in Ramadan as at any other time. See shaving the beard.
When the rules are different. A pilgrim in ihram for Hajj or umrah must not cut hair or nails until leaving ihram. Someone who intends to offer qurbani is encouraged not to cut hair or nails from the start of Dhul Hijjah until the sacrifice. Neither has anything to do with Ramadan.
Trimming the nails and removing body hair are part of the fitrah, the natural way the Prophet ﷺ taught. Keeping clean in Ramadan is good, especially before Eid.
The evidence
Quran, Surah Al-Baqara 2:187
أُحِلَّ لَكُمْ لَيْلَةَ ٱلصِّيَامِ ٱلرَّفَثُ إِلَىٰ نِسَآئِكُمْ ۚ هُنَّ لِبَاسٌۭ لَّكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ لِبَاسٌۭ لَّهُنَّ ۗ عَلِمَ ٱللَّهُ أَنَّكُمْ كُنتُمْ تَخْتَانُونَ أَنفُسَكُمْ فَتَابَ عَلَيْكُمْ وَعَفَا عَنكُمْ ۖ فَٱلْـَٰٔنَ بَٰشِرُوهُنَّ وَٱبْتَغُوا۟ مَا كَتَبَ ٱللَّهُ لَكُمْ ۚ وَكُلُوا۟ وَٱشْرَبُوا۟ حَتَّىٰ يَتَبَيَّنَ لَكُمُ ٱلْخَيْطُ ٱلْأَبْيَضُ مِنَ ٱلْخَيْطِ ٱلْأَسْوَدِ مِنَ ٱلْفَجْرِ ۖ ثُمَّ أَتِمُّوا۟ ٱلصِّيَامَ إِلَى ٱلَّيْلِ ۚ وَلَا تُبَٰشِرُوهُنَّ وَأَنتُمْ عَٰكِفُونَ فِى ٱلْمَسَٰجِدِ ۗ تِلْكَ حُدُودُ ٱللَّهِ فَلَا تَقْرَبُوهَا ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ يُبَيِّنُ ٱللَّهُ ءَايَٰتِهِۦ لِلنَّاسِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَّقُونَ ﴿١٨٧﴾
It has been made permissible for you the night preceding fasting to go to your wives [for sexual relations]. They are clothing for you and you are clothing for them. Allah knows that you used to deceive yourselves, so He accepted your repentance and forgave you. So now, have relations with them and seek that which Allah has decreed for you. And eat and drink until the white thread of dawn becomes distinct to you from the black thread [of night]. Then complete the fast until the sunset. And do not have relations with them as long as you are staying for worship in the mosques. These are the limits [set by] Allah, so do not approach them. Thus does Allah make clear His ordinances to the people that they may become righteous.
The fast is defined by holding back from eating, drinking and intercourse, not by grooming.
Sahih al-Bukhari 5891
Sahih... الفطرة خمس الختان والاستحداد وقص الشارب وتقليم الأظفار ونتف الآباط ...
"Five things are part of the fitrah: circumcision, shaving the pubic hair, trimming the moustache, cutting the nails and plucking the armpit hair."
Grooming is a sunnah with no exception for fasting days.
Where the ruling is recorded
- Radd al-Muhtar (Ibn Abidin), Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what breaks the fast and what does not. The fast is broken by what enters the body cavity, not by what is removed from the body.
- al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, Kitab al-Sawm, chapter on what breaks the fast and what does not. Acts done to the outside of the body do not break the fast.
Checked by our team. For a more accurate answer to your own situation, consult a scholar. 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.