Is it a Sin for a Woman to Cut Her Hair?

A common belief of Pentecostal Holiness Churches is that it is a sin for a woman to ever cut her hair at all, even to keep it manageable. They consider this true holiness. Of course, there is no Scriptural basis for that, which I will prove to you from the Bible in this article. In order to do so, let's examine 1 Corinthians 11, looking carefully at the Greek words. I found that in this particular case, the King James Version is the closest literal expression in English of the original language without adding words to smooth it out, although I do not believe the KJV is the best or only inspired version of the Bible. It says:

“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.” (1Co 11:6)

Paul said it is a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, so I studied these two words. Here are the Greek word definitions:

• Gr. keirō, 4x: to cut off the hair, shear, shave, Act_8:32 (as a sheep before it’s shearer is silent); Act_18:18 (Paul had his hair cut, for he was keeping a [Nazarite] vow); 1Co_11:6 (2x).
• Gr. xyraō, 3x: to cut off the hair, shear, shave, Act_21:24 (take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads); 1Co_11:5-6.
• One word means to shear and the other means to shave, which are very similar. 
• To shear is a. to cut off the hair from. b : to cut or clip (hair, wool, etc.) from someone or something also : to cut something from shear a lawn. c chiefly Scotland : to reap with a sickle. d : to cut or trim with shears or a similar instrument. Webster’s defines the verb shear as follows: 1. To cut or clip something from the surface with an instrument of two blades; to separate any thing from the surface by shears, scissors or a like instrument; as, to shear sheep; to shear cloth. It is appropriately used for the cutting of wool from sheep on their skins, for clipping the nap from cloth, but may be applied to other things; as, a horse shears the ground in feeding much closer than an ox. 2. To separate by shears; as, to shear a fleece.
• To shave (according to Webster’s Dictionary) means: 1. To cut or pare off something from the surface of the body by a razor or other edged instrument, by rubbing, scraping or drawing the instrument along the surface; as, to shave the chin and cheeks; to shave the head of its hair. “He shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing.” Num 6. 2. To shave off, to cut off. Neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard. Lev 21. 3. To pare close.

Based on the way these two Greek words are used elsewhere in Scripture (not including our text in 1 Cor 11), they are both used in Scripture to refer to cutting off the hair close to the scalp, as Jewish men and woman initially did when they took a Nazarite vow. In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or a nazarite (Hebrew: נזיר) is a man or woman who voluntarily took a vow which is described in Numbers 6:1–21. "Nazarite" comes from the Hebrew word nazir meaning "consecrated" or "separated". Among other aspects of the vow of separation or consecration to God, the Nazirite would begin the vow by cutting off his or her hair and laying it on the altar, and he or she was not to cut his or her hair for the length of the vow. The act of separation of the hair from the head and offering it on the altar to God was symbolic of the person consecrating or separating himself or herself to God for a period of time. The vow had a definite beginning and end to it. Thus it was voluntary and for a finite period, rather than mandatory and for a lifelong period, except in the case of Samson who was to be a Nazarite from birth until death (Judges 13:7). 

Since both men and women could take such a vow, we see that both the men and women who took the vow would begin by cutting their hair off, and since they would not cut their hair until the vow had ended, then at the end of the vow their hair would be long. Therefore, there is a time for everything, as it says in Ecclesiastes, and in this case there was a time for both a man or a woman to have both a shaven head and long hair, if they chose to voluntarily take the Nazarite vow.

Furthermore, in the context of 1 Corinthians 11, Paul was contrasting the long tresses of a woman’s hair to a man’s short hair. He said it is a disgrace for a man to have long hair, but that it is a woman’s glory to have long hair. “Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering.” (1Co 11:14-15). 

The whole reason he made this distinction was to teach that a woman ought to have her head covered with a veil when she prays or prophesies. He was drawing a parallel between the nature of things and spiritual things, between hair length and head coverings. He spoke in terms of the natural hair length of men and women, in order to teach a spiritual lesson about a veil or head covering while praying or prophesying, which is a sign or symbol of being under spiritual authority. 

We see Paul doing the same thing all throughout his epistles, including in 1 Cor 9, where he uses the ox who treads out the grain being entitled to eat the grain as an example to teach that a man who preaches the gospel should make a living from the gospel. We see him use the seed in 1 Cor 15 as an example to teach about natural bodies and glorified spiritual bodies. He also uses the sun, moon, and stars in the natural realm to teach about the glory that is given to different people in the spiritual bodies in the resurrection. So that is all he was doing in 1 Cor 11 by using the example of women cutting their hair off. 

He was not at all saying it is a sin or unholy for a woman to ever trim her hair to keep it manageable or to remove damaged and split ends or to keep it out of her eyes. If a woman never cuts her hair over a period of many years and decades, this becomes very unmanageable and damaged, not to mention that it will be extending below her chin on the front of her head and below her buttocks in back. In some cases, depending on hair type and how fast it grows, her hair would eventually become quite heavy and burdensome on her head, which could cause headaches and neck pain. It would present a number of practical burdens, including regular care to wash and dry it, as well as to tie it up so that it is out of the way. 

For African women, it would become tangled, as that type of hair does, when it is not trimmed from time to time. If an African woman never allowed scissors to touch her hair for her entire life, then it becomes difficult to comb or maintain, because it becomes thick, hard, coiled around itself, and does not grow well.

It is not the heart of God to put a lifelong mandate on all women that they can never allow scissors to touch their hair. If a woman chooses not to ever cut her hair, it should be by her own choice and not because it is a rule placed upon her.

Conclusion

We can learn from Paul’s contrast of men’s and women’s natural hair lengths, however, that it is a disgrace for a man to have long hair and for a woman to have her hair sheared or shaved off, as is done in the special circumstance of a Nazarite vow. On the other hand, we learn that it is glorious for a woman to have long hair. We may also safely conclude that it is a disgrace for a woman to wear her hair short as men do, because there must be a distinction between men and women. 

Since the two Greek words in 1 Corinthians 11 for shear and shave are not used in Scripture to refer to merely a light trim of the ends of the hair to keep it manageable and healthy or to slightly shorten it a bit, then we should not conclude from this passage that it is a sin or disgrace for a woman to do so.

Therefore, the NASB translation of 1Co 11:6 accurately conveys the meaning of the original language: “For if a woman does not cover her head, let her also have her hair cut off; but if it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.”

For any church or denomination to require all women in their congregations to abstain from ever touching their hair with scissors, saying it is a sin to do so, and calling it “holiness” if she never cuts her hair, is clearly error and bondage. It is nothing more than a manmade rule that has an appearance of wisdom, with its self-imposed worship, its false humility and its harsh treatment of the body, but it lacks any value in restraining sensual indulgence (Col 2:23).

Attribution notice: Scripture quotations taken from King James Version, as well as New American Standard Bible, copyright Lockman Foundation, all rights reserved, used by permission. 

Author's note:  I invite you to also read my articles called Is a Woman's Hair Her Head Covering? and Refuting the Oneness Christology Heresy. You may access more of my articles on the Main Directory of this blog, as well as my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master.  Now I'd like to ask a very important question.

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.