If a Woman Willfully Cuts or Shaves Off Her Hair but Wears a Scarf or Hat to Pray, Is She Covered?
1) Direct answer
No. If a woman willfully cuts or shaves her hair and then puts on a scarf or hat to pray, she is still uncovered before God. The only covering Scripture names is her hair. She must repent, stop cutting, and let it grow. A scarf may be worn for modesty, but it does not fulfill 1 Corinthians 11.
2) Scriptural explanation
- “Every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head… for if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn… but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered” (1 Corinthians 11:5–6). Uncovered is tied to being shorn/shaven.
- “Her hair is given her for a covering” (1 Corinthians 11:15). The Bible names the covering: hair.
- God receives the repentant: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive” (1 John 1:9).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Willful cutting/shaving = shorn/shaven = uncovered, regardless of any hat.
- The remedy Paul gives is not a hat, but to be “covered”—and he defines that covering as hair. So obedience is to cease cutting and let the hair grow back.
- While it grows, she can pray and walk modestly, but she must not claim a scarf as the Scriptural covering. God forgives the repentant heart immediately; the visible sign returns as the hair grows.
4) Reinforcing statement
Now notice, God is not measuring hats—He honors obedience. Let the hair grow, don’t cut it again, and the God-given covering will return.
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.
Things that are to be
65-1205 §54
Oh, brother, sister, you and I in this world that we live, let's conduct ourselves as sons and daughters of God! We're aliens here, but our behavior ought to be according to the commandments of God, that we are sons and daughters of God! Our behavior, we should act, and do, and everything according to what the laws that God laid down. And it's an abomination for a woman to wear a garment that pertains to a man. It's wrong and sinful for her to cut her hair. The Bible said so. Uncommon thing for her to even pray. Yo...
Presuming
62-0117 §100
And you women that hasn't the common decency to let your hair grow out, like God told you to... That's right. The Bible says that a woman that will bob her hair dishonors her head, and that dishonors her husband. And you that will wear these little old garments like the rest of the world wears, the Bible says that he that ... "a woman that'll put on a garment that pertains to a man is an abomination," filthy in the sight of God. And then you claim to have the Holy Ghost? You're presuming you've got it. But when you...
Door to the heart
59-1128 §29
But you see, pride... The rest of the women. "If I have to let my hair grow out..." Now, I'm not saying this, that, or the other; I'm just talking about the Bible, see. The Bible said a woman that cuts her hair cuts her---she cuts away her glory. She dishonors her husband when she does it. Used to be, you full Gospel women all wore long hair. What happened? "Why," you say, "that's my American privilege." But if you're a lamb... If you are a lamb, a lamb sacrifices everything that he's got. A lamb hasn't got nothing...
A thinking man's filter
65-0822E §90
We thank You for the little cut-up message tonight, Lord. I didn't do it right, but I pray, Lord, that You'll make it right in the people's sight, that they might see and know what it was meant for. Get glory out of it, Lord, and may we have this understanding, if nothing else, that we are to live by the bread of the Word of God, filtered from God just for His children only. It's a separated congregation. It's for no one else. It's only for those, Your chosen, as the red heifer's ... waters of separation was for th...
Forsaking all
62-0123 §33
Sometimes the women in our churches is used to wearing immoral clothes, like shorts, and these dungarees. The Bible said it's an abomination to God for a woman to put on such. No matter what she thinks, she's got to forsake that. Sometimes we find women when they come into the way and get saved, they've been used to cutting off their hair, and they want to be popular like the rest of the world. But they find out it's a hard thing, 'cause they'll call you old-fashioned whenever you go to dressing like a Christian, a...