You are right to suspect there is a simple way of saying this.

$hash gives you the same thing as \%$hash.

In convoluted English: the hashref will give you effectively the same thing as a reference to the hash pointed to by the hashref.

Update: Attend to dws, I tried to stick with your var name, but there is a world of grief to be avoided by naming your vars so you really know what you have. $hashref is much more helpful than $hash when you come back to the code a month later.