Biblical Headcovering: What I've Learned in the Past Year as a Christian Woman Covering Her Hair

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Join me for a sneak peek into the joy of biblical headcovering in our modern society.

Today, I am going to talk about something personal but style-related, the last year of my journey while head covering. I’ve gotten some questions over this last year and I’ve learned so much about myself. It’s been an incredible spiritual journey for me and I just want to share some of my thoughts.

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Table of Contents

My Conviction to Cover

I figure a recap is probably in order so buckle on up and let’s jump into why Stacey covers her hair. The truth is, I look back on this journey and I find it completely surreal. It’s just one of those things that I would’ve never imagined that would be a part of my life for so many different reasons.

Kind of like I never imagined that I would have seven kids, but you know, here we are. One of the things if you told me a decade ago that would’ve happened, I would’ve told you no way. You are crazy. That is not happening. But God sometimes just asks us to do things, and so we do them.

The truth is, I don’t talk about this a lot. Of course, if you’ve joined my courses or you’ve seen me in my Facebook group you see that I cover. It’s interesting. As an image consultant, I am hesitant to talk about it too much because I don’t want people to think that I expect it from them.

But I’m also not going to disobey what God is calling me personally to do. I’m going to address some of those questions today. I will start by sharing the story about how I ended up head covering. I did not grow up in any denomination that practiced head covering or even long hair. I grew up in the Church of Christ.

I left the church for many years in my twenties and came back to more of a non-denominational perspective when I was about 30 and had a true conversion experience. That’s when my relationship with God became full-fledged and I began to follow truly and experience his work in my life in so many different amazing ways.

Interestingly enough, I have worn short hair for most of my adult life. I’ve had a few periods with long hair. It was long when I met my husband because I knew that men liked long hair. So I grew it out because I was ready to get married and start a family, and it worked! Then I cut it off after our first baby.

I kept it pretty short for many years and he didn’t love it, but he eventually just learned to let me do what I wanted to do. When I say short, I mean I kept my hair around chin length. This process of head covering did not start with God asking me to head cover. I actually started feeling convicted about the length of my hair.

I started to feel a stirring about growing my hair out and I knew it was in the Bible because I went to seminary school. I spent three years getting a master’s degree in biblical studies. I knew it was in there talking about the hair being our glory and hair being a covering.

I wasn’t entirely sure what exactly it said, so I just felt the stirring and I committed to go find the passage and start studying it. It was really clear originally not to cut my hair. My first commitment was to let my hair grow out. That was easy.

Which felt great because I had fought to keep my hair short for so long, not against God really, but it’s just what I wanted to do. It felt more manageable and more me. To have that first conviction to grow out my hair and have it be so peaceful and not feel like my spirit was warring against it was beautiful.

To know that God was in it and was leading me to where he wanted me to go in his own time concerning where I was and where I was ready to be. It took about a week of studying that passage before I got hit with a conviction to cover.

I only knew of one other person who covered, and it was somebody I knew on Facebook, not in real life. It was one of my husband’s friend’s wives. I had seen her pictures and I had seen that she covered, and I saw her out in public one time across a crowded grocery store. She was covered at that time too.

This was my only exposure to head covering from a Christian perspective. I knew nothing about this. So after studying the passage, and after being convicted it meant it was time for me to start head covering. I shared this with my husband to get his opinion.

It was really interesting because he was totally on board with me doing this. Maybe because he had a friend who covered and it wasn’t completely foreign to him, but he was totally on board. I have to say over the last year, he has been completely and 100% supportive.

I know, from other groups of covering women, that some women’s husbands are uncomfortable with it even when they feel convicted to do it. But my husband has just been nothing but supportive. We go out in public all the time, and I am always covered fully. He doesn’t blink an eye or care one way about what anyone else thinks.

I’m just really grateful for his support, especially in an area where I feel so strongly convicted. It’s been such a great amazing growth area for me.

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Getting Started

The next thing I did was to start looking at different types of coverings because I knew I was going to have to make some purchases and make some decisions. I ended up buying a few different things to try and I found my style, which made me happy. That is full covering for the most part.

Part of that is because of my conviction issue, generally speaking, but part of it is also just ease. I found that headband-type styles and half coverings were just really fidgety for me, and I ended up messing with them more often than not. I just want something simple that I don’t have to mess with.

It allowed me the freedom to wash my hair twice a week and not worry about fixing it, which is nice. I typically use scarves and wrap that way, and that is what I prefer.

To kind of recap how this all happened. First, I felt God calling me to grow out my hair. After studying the passage I felt God calling me to cover my hair. I talked to my husband to get his opinion, and he was great.

Then I experimented a little bit and found a style that works for me. The truth is that the first time I covered, even at home, it felt a little strange, but it felt very natural, authentic, and very true to who God was asking me to be.

From the beginning, I felt more confident. I felt more beautiful. I felt very much like I was in the position before God that I was supposed to be. Which is sort of a complex statement, and I don’t mean anything by that to anybody else. It’s just this is how it made me feel.

Personal Spiritual Growth Benefits

My husband has some issues with the church and we have been out of church for many years. It’s something that I’ve prayed about because it’s complex when you have a large family. It’s been difficult. One of the things that came about over this last year was that my husband committed to finding a church and we started going back to church.

It’s been really interesting to see this silent change in my husband. It says very specifically in 1 Corinthians 11 that headcovering is a symbol of authority. It’s one of those silent symbols that, for me at least, has brought about more spiritual leadership in my husband, which has been something I’ve prayed about for many years.

It’s just been very rich from a personal confidence perspective. I find that it released me completely from societal expectations about what other people think about me because that first time you got in public with your head covered is definitely an experience. I didn’t know what to expect.

I didn’t know how people would treat me. I didn’t know if I would be disrespected in public. I’ve honestly found the opposite to be true. I tend to get more respect from people in public. I can’t explain it, but I have never once in the last year had anyone say anything negative to me about head covering in public from strangers.

The only negative comments I’ve received have been from close family. That’s one of the things I’m going to talk about here in a minute.

Common Questions

I’m going to try not to step on any toes, but I’m going to be completely honest here about what I think and what I believe. You can take it or leave it. If you feel stirred in this area, I would truly encourage you to go to the Bible with no preconceived notions.

Study it in your own right and be open to the Holy Spirit. Don’t think that you already know the answers. Don’t think you already know what it says. I would encourage you to do this with a fully open heart trust in God to lead you to the right path.

Now let’s move on to answering some of the questions that I get often and clarify my thoughts on them, what I believe, and what I have learned over studying this passage last year. I’ve spent time reading other exegetical analyses from lots of different people on this subject and I’m ready to share what I have really gleaned as a student of head covering.

The first question I usually get is, why do you cover? I cover because I read 1 Corinthians 11 and I was convicted that covering is not an outdated cultural practice. It is something that we are still supposed to do as Christian women. It is not a command and not a salvation issue, but it is a guideline specifically for how we are supposed to behave in certain settings, which I will describe a little bit later.

The next question that usually comes up is, do you cover full-time or only at specific times? My perspective and knowledge are backed up by scripture. Specifically, word studies and studying the original language, which I was trained to do in seminary school.

We are supposed to cover for corporate worship, group worship, and when we are praying and prophesying. The word prophesying here is used in the context of when we are speaking or talking about God.

For me, that includes recording the podcast, when I’m working with my clients as a Christian image consultant, and when I am teaching my children as a homeschool mom. Essentially, anytime I’m talking about God.

One of the reasons that I cover full-time is because we are also commanded in Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. I don’t pray without ceasing. But if I’m going to I would rather already be covered and not have to worry about it.

If I’m going to talk about God randomly, I would rather be covered and not have to worry about it. I will say that one of the things that God laid on my heart in this area was not to be legalistic because I found that I occasionally felt self-righteous regarding this area.

I think his solution was to pull me back a little bit because there are times when I don’t cover. I do not cover when my hair is wet because I don’t want breakage. I don’t cover when I sleep. I cover halfway in certain volatile situations, and I will go into that here in a minute on a different question.

If I get a headache, I take it off. It’s one of those things where I aim to cover full-time, but there are times when I don’t. I know some women choose other things. My whole point here really is that God didn’t ask me to head cover 10 years ago. He asked me a year ago.

We are all on different journeys with God, and he is growing us in different areas and teaching us different things. There are hundreds of guidelines and commands in the Bible and none of us follow all of them. I don’t ever want to make someone feel bad or make them feel like I’m better than them because that’s not it at all.

This is just where I’m at in my personal spiritual journey with God. This is what he has asked me to do. I’m answering these questions truthfully for probably the first time because this is what I believe and this is what I have learned studying scripture, and I just want to be honest about what God has shown me, um, and encourage you that if you’re curious to do the same.

The next question is how to deal with negative reactions. I mentioned before that I have never received any criticism, judgment, or negative comments when I’m out in public. The most common compliment I receive is on my scarves, which is fine.

I’ve had a couple of people ask me why I decided to cover and I just gave them a short version of this podcast. I tell them I just felt convicted and people are respectful of that. The negative reactions I have experienced have been from my closest family, specifically my parents. They have been the most vocal.

One of the things that I have done to mitigate is that when I am at my parents’ house visiting, which we go to several times a year, I will typically opt for a half wrap instead of a full wrap because it’s less obvious. It makes them less uncomfortable.

I am trying to balance obeying what God is calling me to do with the other command to honor our parents, which can be hard. Finding that balance has been difficult. I think it’s one of those things where when we do something like this, it’s not ever the strangers that say anything, it is going to be the people closest to you that give you the hardest time.

You have to keep reminding yourself that God has called you to something and that he does expect our obedience. He does expect us to comply when he puts a request upon us. Obedience does bring tremendous blessings and we just have to figure out a way with God’s help and guidance to bridge that gap.

I don’t feel like I am doing anything wrong when I choose to only cover halfway. I don’t think there’s any command in the Bible that tells us specifically how to cover. The passage does talk about covering our head, and there is some analysis to be had there about what constitutes the head.

Again, we are all walking our own spiritual journey and God is teaching us different things at different times. That is something that we each have to walk out, study, and live out in our own relationship with God.

The last question here is what is the biblical basis for head covering? I am going to simply point you to 1 Corinthians 11, which is where the passage is found. It is not an easy passage. It has a lot of complexities to it.

Even as somebody who is trained in studying the original languages, trained in word studies, and trained in exegetical analysis, it is not an easy passage. I think that it gets more difficult when we come at it with a preconceived notion about what it means.

For example, head covering is not practiced in our society here in America. However, if you think about the history of women in America, that is actually a fairly new construct. Women typically did cover their hair throughout the first half of the 21st century.

It was only around the time of the sixties when feminism became a large part of our society’s mindset that this fell out of fashion. If you think about the historical and cultural context, head covering for women has actually been practiced for most of history other than about the last 70 years.

If you let go of that thought process about what it means culturally and if it applies to today just come at the passage with curiosity and a desire to learn what God means in the passage. Try to forget them in the moment and read the passage for what it is.

I don’t know what God’s going to tell you. I don’t know what God’s going to put on your heart when you read the passage. That’s between you and him. One of the things that I would like to leave you with as I wrap this episode up is that I am not your Holy Spirit.

I am recording this episode and I’m talking about head covering because I get a lot of questions and because I have been doing this for a year now. It has been a really interesting experience for me both as a wife, as a mom, as a daughter, as a business owner, and as a stylist.

Obviously this is a huge part of my image, which is what I teach and talk about. It’s just been a crazy amazing experience for me, and I did want to talk about it because I do want to give God the glory for what he’s doing in my life and how he has changed me.

I do want you to know that there is no expectation on my end for you to head cover at any point in time. I will share my thoughts with you if you ask me, which people have. I will tell you what I believe and I will tell you about my experience with it.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, we are each walking out our own sanctification journey with God. It looks different for all of us. There are guidelines and commands in the Bible that I am not following. This one, I am at this point in time, but there are others that I’m not. I’m not a perfect person.

I’m not a self-righteous person. I’m trying not to be self-righteous. I am just simply trying to walk in Christ’s footsteps whatever that means that God is asking for me at that moment. Whether it’s trusting him to have a seventh baby, head covering, or learning to hold my tongue. Which is still a difficult one.

Whatever he’s calling me to do, I am simply just trying to obey. Because at the end of the day, obedience to what God is calling us to do is the thing that we have to focus on, even if it feels scary and even if it feels weird, and even if people are going to judge us.

He is our authority. He is the source of our salvation. He is everything and we owe him everything. The least that I can do is to be obedient when he asks me for something really small, like covering.

My encouragement to you today is that whatever God is asking you to do if it feels scary, weird, or unusual just lean into that. He is so faithful when we obey his callings and his teachings to truly bless us even if it’s in small ways or large ways. He is so good to us when we follow him.