African Women Have Naturally Short Coiled and Kinky Hair. If They Do Not Cut it, are They Covered?
Yes. If a woman does not cut her hair and lets it grow as God gave it, she is covered—no matter the texture or how long it appears.
The Bible says, “If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering” (1 Corinthians 11:15). And again, it warns that if she is “shorn or shaven” she dishonors her head (1 Corinthians 11:5–6). The issue in Scripture is not inches or a certain look—it’s whether the hair is cut off or allowed to grow. “Doth not even nature itself teach you…?” (1 Corinthians 11:14–15). God made different hair types among women, and He Himself gave woman her hair for a covering.
Now notice, the Word makes the contrast between shorn/shaven and long. Long means let it grow; shorn/shaven means cut off. So if a sister’s hair is naturally tight, coiled, or appears short, but she keeps it uncut, she is covered before God. He doesn’t judge by outward length measurements but by obedience to His order. If it’s uncut, it’s long to God. If it’s cut, it’s uncovered—no matter the texture.
So, keep the hair uncut as a sign of honor and submission to God’s Word. God looks at the obedience, not the inches.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Speak to this Rock
53-0512 §3
And now, tonight while there's ... people are standing, and Mr. Reed, our brother here. And I was ... been sitting in the little room for a little while. I usually maybe try to come along about quarter of eight, something like that, seven-thirty, when they pick me up; come up and hear part of the service. And I was enjoyed that singing, Brother Ryan. I trust that our Lord will let me be that nimble when I'm seventy-three years old, if I live to see it. I've known Brother Ryan for some time now, and I know that he i...
The Church and its condition
56-0805 §36
We've called ourselves the lamb of God. The women and the men, together, has begun to act everything but like lambs of God. You look at them going down the street, with short, bobbed hair, curlicues all in their hair. And a few years ago, you couldn't have hired them to do that. And then you wonder why is it the church is in the condition it is, is because you've took the nature of a wolf or a goat, instead of keeping the meek gentleness. And you say, "That's my privilege, Brother Branham." I know it's your privile...
Thy loving kindness
58-0228 §32
What happened to all the Pentecostal women and their long hair? That burned, didn't it? But it's the truth. The Bible said, "This hair was given to a woman for her glory." No wonder you don't have much more glory; you cut it off. You know that's true. What happened? You got to look at too much of television. You've got to impersonating some movie star married four or five times, living with three or four husbands. Aren't you ashamed to quench that thirst after such scalawags and prostitutes as that, and leave God's...
Recognizing your day and its message
64-0726M §66
Look at 1933: how it say the women would act in this last days; how it said the people ... how Mussolini, how he'd come to his end; how Hitler would come to a mysterious end; how that the three isms would come in Communism; how that the machines would come looking like an egg; and how that women will wear garments that look like men, even like their underneath clothes, and they'd finally come to putting fig leaves, like, on them; how the immoral act, how they would act in this day. Look what they've done. It's just...
Hear ye Him
60-0712 §43
Some lady said to me; she said, "Brother Branham, they don't make any more clothes. We have to wear them kind of clothes." "Sister, they still make goods, and they make sewing machines. There's no excuse for it at all." What's the matter? It's an unclean spirit got on them. It used to be wrong for our Pentecostal women to cut their hair. Now, you hit something, didn't you? What happened? Some of them used to say they had headaches, a lot of headache. You know, the Bible said if a woman cuts her hair, she dishonors...