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.
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...
Questions and Answers on Genesis
53-0729 §32
I had a hot one on that, down the other day at Shreveport. They was talking about the women, and should women wear long hair. And I said, "A woman that bobbed her hair, her husband had a right---and a Bible right---to divorce her." That's right. That's what the Bible says. That's exactly right. Oh, my! Holy Ghost women sitting there. Just the way they been taught, that's all, see. Yes, that's slipped loosely. He said, "Now, if they would cut it, if there's something wrong they have to cut their hair," said, "let th...
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §115
QUESTION: Brother Branham, please explain I Corinthians---I Corinthians 11 and verse 4 through 6. Does not this mean a separate covering from the hair, or is the long hair the only covering we need? (Get me I Corinthians 11. Let's see, I Corinthians 11:4.) It says when praying ... (Oh, yeah. They got it here. They say,) In praying or prophesying can we take our hair---can we ... (Let's see, they got a line drawed through something here.) When prophesying can we take our hair when we ... (You say,) Can we take our h...
Questions and Answers, Part 4
64-0830E §72
If a woman has got real thin hair, and she wants to wear one of those "rats" or ever what you call it, I think that's... My wife wears it. It's a... She says her hair's thin, and she's got some kind of a thing about that big around, looks like a great big, oversized biscuit. And she wraps her hair around that and pins the pins in it. And now, as far as I'm concerned, that don't bother anything as long as your hair is long. A minister said his wife was condemned, because she had a tint in her hair. And I found out f...