What Determines If a Woman's Head Is Covered? Is It the Scalp Visibility or the Uncut Hair? Does It Matter If the Hair Is Matted in Cornrows or Plait?
1) Direct answer
A woman’s head is covered when her hair is uncut and allowed to grow. It is not about hiding the scalp with fabric, and it’s not undone by how the hair is arranged. Cornrows, plaits, or other styles do not remove the covering so long as the hair remains uncut and the styling is modest.
2) Scriptural explanation
- 1 Corinthians 11:15: “Her hair is given her for a covering.” The God‑given covering is hair itself.
- 1 Corinthians 11:5–6: Uncoveredness is linked with being shorn or shaven. That shows cutting the hair brings the shame of uncoveredness.
- 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3 warn against showy “broided/plaited” hair as outward adornment. The issue is vanity and display, not the mere act of arranging hair.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Covered = hair God gave, uncut and growing (that is “long”—not measured by inches but by not cutting what God gives).
- Uncovered = shorn/shaven/cut, even if a hat or scarf hides the scalp.
- Styling (cornrows, plaits, buns, etc.) does not cancel the covering, but Scripture cautions against ornate, attention‑seeking braiding. Keep it modest and feminine.
4) Reinforcing statement
Keep what God gave—don’t cut it—and wear it with modesty. That is the Bible’s covering for a woman. Final biblical conclusion: A woman is covered by her uncut, growing hair (1 Corinthians 11:15). Scalp visibility and hats are irrelevant. Plaiting or cornrows do not remove the covering, but must be modest and not for display (1 Timothy 2:9; 1 Peter 3:3).
Existing Follow-Up Answers
- So What If a Woman by Accident, Age or Health Condition Has Short or No Hair, How Should She Be Covered If Hats and Scarfs Are Not a Covering?
1) Direct answer If a woman loses hair by accident, age, or sickness, she is not made “uncovered” in guilt before God. The Bible’s covering is he
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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.
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64-0726M §71
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57-1006 §76
Now we're getting right down to the question you're asking, see. All right, now it is wrong for a lady to cut her hair, according to the Bible. Now you listen right here and see if the Bible don't give a man a legal right to put away his wife if she cuts her hair; see if this is right or not. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head [that's, have long hair], forsomuch as he is in the image and the glory of God: but the woman is in the glory of the man. [Did you ever think of that?] Now I want to stop here, beca...
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56-0805 §56
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53-0729 §31
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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...