If a Sister's Hair Is Woven, or Plaited or Matted in Cornrows but Not Cut, is She Covered?
1) Direct answer
Yes. If her own hair is uncut, she is covered. Braiding, plaiting, or cornrows do not remove the covering. But she should keep it modest and avoid adding false hair or making a show of it.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says, “Her hair is given her for a covering” (1 Corinthians 11:15). The covering God recognizes is a woman’s own hair.
- Paul warns against outward display: “not with braided hair… but with good works” and “not the plaiting of the hair” as an adornment (1 Timothy 2:9; 1 Peter 3:3). The point is modesty and a meek spirit, not elaborate styling that draws attention.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- The covering is not a cloth; it is the hair God gave her. If it’s uncut, she is covered.
- Cutting removes the sign of authority; styling does not.
- Simple braids for neatness can be modest; showy, elaborate plaits that advertise the flesh are not.
- Adding artificial hair, wigs, or weaves is not the God-given covering and turns it into outward adornment.
4) Reinforcing statement
Keep the hair God gave, uncut and modest. That’s the covering Scripture honors.
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.
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever
61-0516A §13
Here. If I cut my hand this afternoon, and... We haven't got a medicine in all medical science to heal that knife cut in my hand. Not a one. "Why," you say, "yes, we have, Brother Branham." Pray tell me what it is. Many people die with knife cuts. Tell me what the healing is. "Well," you'd say, "oh, they put penicillin in it." Penicillin doesn't heal. Just keeps cleaning while God heals. "Well," you'd say, "well..." Any medicine would heal a knife cut in my hand would heal a knife cut in my coat. It would heal a kn...
A thinking man's filter
65-0822E §35
Now, this is going to be a little bitter maybe to somebody, but when she started through God's filter, and it says in there for them not to cut their hair, then what? She lodges on the other side. If it said it's a sin for a woman to do such and she's dishonorable to do such... If she wants to... He said ... "Well, she's got to have her hair cut." Said, "Then shave it off then." And said, "We know that that's a shame for a woman to have a head shorn"; said, "Then let her have her head covered." And her hair is her...
Questions and Answers, part 2
54-0103E §64
Feminish hair... A man shouldn't have long hair, 'cause it's feminish, way down long like this. But He just cut it off here at His shoulders, the way they'd cut it off, around His head, just bob it off like that. That was short hair. So, ladies with hair to their shoulder, it's still short hair. Now, I don't say that would send you to hell or take you to Heaven. That don't have nothing to do with it. But the order of the church is for women to have long hair. That's right; that's right. And to enter the church... A...
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 3
57-1006 §90
But if the woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given to her for a covering. Did it say she'd be given a hat? You Catholic people or you Protestants, either one, that goes to church and wants to wear a hat, say, "Well, I'm going to church, ought to put on a hat." No, you ought to let your hair grow. That's the difference, see. ...for her hair is given to her for a covering. [And it's a shame for her to come into church without covered, to go to the altar to pray.] But if a man seem to be [I d...
It is I, be not afraid
60-0329 §6
For instance, if I cut my hand, there's not a medicine in the world to heal my hand, now---a common knife cut. If it'd heal a knife cut in my hand, it would heal a knife cut in my coat, it would heal a knife cut on this desk. Then you might say, "Brother Branham, medicine wasn't made to heal your coat. It was made to heal your body." All right, if I would cut my hand and would fall dead, and they'd take me out to the undertaker's establishment and embalm my body with a fluid that would make me look natural for fift...