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
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.
Moses' Commission
50-0110 §38
...ent back again. I seen a young lady about sixteen years old, and she was just a running just as hard as she could. And she had a big ribbon tied on her hair, on a double plait hanging on her back. She had on a checkered dress, and she was running real fast. And I looked, and there was a big yellow dog a chasing her. I said, "I see a young lady with a checkered dress..." Begin to tell just what I was seeing, looking in front of me. I said, "She goes up on the porch. I see a lady a take her in, run the..." She starte...
The Evening Messenger
63-0116 §75
Heard a minister the other day, said, "When they invented this blue stuff for the eyes, and red lips, they made a prettier world." A minister of the Gospel, in the pulpit, would make a remark like that, he needs a trip to Calvary. That's exactly right, when the Bible condemns it! And a Pentecostal group told a sister that come to the place crying, because she had her hair done up on the back of her head, with long hair, said, "Your spare tire might get deflated." Said, "You must cut that hair off, because that the...
Christ is the mystery of God revealed
63-0728 §190
Look it. Having the revelation of this secret made known to them by His grace. Look, when this great revelation---revealed mystery is made known to you, then you denounce all the things of the world. Now, I'm going to come back once again. I might as well say it; I'm pointing to it---the tape's say it. And those that are going across... This tape goes across the world, see. You women that claim you've got the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and not the audacity to let your hair grow out when the Bible condemns it and sa...
Expectations
51-0507 §40
A little girl once... I think this is Brother Redigar said this, Paul Rader's friend, and I believe it was at the Fort Wayne Tabernacle. A little girl got saved, and she was coming up the street. She had the Bible over her heart and just singing, you know, and her hair plaited back, and her little face a shining. And she was singing that good old hymn. So there was an old infidel standing on the side of the street. He looked over at her and said, "What you so happy about, sis?" Said, "The Lord saved me." Oh, said,...
Make the valley full of ditches
53-0609E §18
The next old, Indian woman, they had an awful time getting her quiet. She had two broomsticks, or some kind of sticks, and they had rags wrapped around the top for crutches. She looked to be about seventy-five, or eighty years old. She had long plaits hanging down, and leather plaited in her hair. And she was to be the next one in the line, but they were crowding and pushing so at that platform, they got a bunch of Indians, and stood them up there to keep them down. And so, there was a young Indian boy jumped over...