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.
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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.
Questions and Answers, Part 2
64-0823E §14
Now, I'm just telling you this for me, 'cause I have no Scripture to back this up. The only thing I have for the ladies about their hair is not to cut it. How they want to wear it, that's up to them. And about the pin curls, actually, I don't know what they are, unless it's these things look like clothespins that they stick in their hair. As I ... the only thing that I know... And the lengths of the sleeves, I think, being a Christian, God would tell you what to do about those things. You see? I believe as a Christ...
A True Sign that's overlooked
61-1112 §116
Now, Jezebel and Ahabs... Yes, sir! Why? Why do they do it? Why does them women do ... keep their hair bobbed off, and wear make-up, and go out and put on shorts when men are coming by and things like that, their husbands do it? Because they haven't got a true prophet in their pulpit to tell them the truth. They tell them, "Well, that's no different. That's all right. You don't have to do with that." You... It is the Word of the Lord! The Bible said any woman that'll put on a garment pertains to a man is an abomina...
God's power to transform
65-0911 §71
How could a bobbed-haired woman ever come through this filter? How could a woman with shorts on ever come through it, or slacks, when the Bible says it's an abomination to God for a woman to put on a garment that even pertains to a man? And how can a man that thinks anything of himself get out here and dress like the women, let his hair grow out like a woman, down in his eyes, with bangs and twirled up like that? He's wearing his wife's underneath clothes; she's wearing his outer clothes. A thinking man's filter! A...
And thy Seed shall possess the gate of His enemy
62-0121M §50
I hate to say this, but I'm going to have to. Look. And when you take women (I'll say for one thing that's visible to see) that claim to have the Holy Ghost, and not decent enough to leave their hair grow, there's something wrong somewhere. A woman that will put on a garment that pertains to a man, and wear it when the Bible says it's an abomination to God for a woman to wear a garment pertains to a man... And then you claim to have the Holy Ghost, and do that?
On the wings of a snow-white Dove
65-1128E §27
I've seen lots of sick people, but her little arms didn't look over a inch across. Her skull, where it laces together, you could see it. And her limbs, way up here around her hips, wasn't over that, about two inches across, just the bone. And she couldn't raise her hands, she was too weak to raise her hands. And she was trying to say something, and I couldn't understand her. And when I finally got to hear, I believe through a nurse, she said, "Brother Branham, pray that God will let me die." She couldn't ... didn't...