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.
And knoweth it not
65-0815 §40
Now, we'll take the Pentecostal woman. She shouldn't wear shorts, make-up, or cut her hair, but she looks back down at the Methodist: "Say, look at that woman do so and so." Say, the woman don't wear shorts but she said ... and herself with bobbed hair. The higher you rise in God, the more sinful the whole thing looks. And then sometimes in prayer you can imagine when the Holy Spirit takes you up into a sphere, then the whole thing looks chaos. Then when you come back down, you seem like you're ... to the people, y...
And thy Seed shall possess the gate of His enemy
62-0121M §69
A woman might be as ugly as all get out. She might be big, fat, little, skinny, black-headed, brown-eyed, blue-eyed, gray-eyed, one one way, and one the other. But if that woman is clean... Lady, there ain't a man in the country but what would take off his hat to them, if he's got an ounce of man in him (that's right), because she's... She produces what she is, and men appreciate it. So God'll appreciate a man that'll be what he is. Or men that professes Christianity, let's be a Christian filled with the Holy Ghost...
Questions and Answers, Part 1
64-0823M §94
Now look, Sister dear, I highly respect that. I have a honor for a woman that'll do that. For some woman just to come up and do her hair any way, or spit on your feet and walk around arrogant and no respects at all, remember, Jesus said, "What you do to these, you've done it to me." See? And I respect that in you, and God will bless you for that. But, Sister, about the hair color or something like that, I don't know. I can't back that up with the Scripture, so that's just up to you. You see? You, if you want to do...
A Greater than Solomon is here
62-0628 §77
She didn't come for that. She just unpacked her camels, and set up the tents, and she was going to stay there till she was convinced. That's a good idea. I like that. She had all the scrolls. She could read, and see whether it was right or not. She'd compare it with the Word that this God had spoke of. She was a smart woman. She sure was. We need more of them today. Then it would be better-dressed women, wearing long hair, getting away from shorts and everything else, like they should do. Instead of pattern after s...
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 3
57-1006 §86
You get it? It's a shame for a man to have long hair; that's a woman's place. God made a man different from a woman, sex and in looks, and in everything else. She oughtn't to wear a garment... The Bible said that "If a woman will put on a pair of slacks or any garment that pertains to a man, it's an abominable and dirty and filthy sight in the front of God." And God will make her pay for it. Who you going to listen to? This is the Bible. And you run around and say, "Why, I think it's nice ... see women wearing slac...