Hebrew women took care of their hair as a mark of beauty (Ca 7:5), letting it grow long. (Joh 11:2) For a woman to cut off her hair was a sign of mourning or distress. (Isa 3:24) When an Israelite soldier captured a virgin woman from an enemy city and desired to marry her, she was required first to cut off her hair and attend to her nails and to undergo a one-month period of mourning for her parents, since they would have been killed in the taking of the city.​—De 21:10-13; 20:10-14.

Christians. The apostles Peter and Paul were both impelled to counsel Christian women not to give undue attention to hairstyling and ornamentation, as was the custom of the day. Instead, they were admonished to focus their attention on adorning themselves with the incorruptible apparel of a quiet and mild spirit.​—1Pe 3:3, 4; 1Ti 2:9, 10.

The apostle Paul also called attention to the situation and general practice among the people to whom he wrote and showed that it was natural for a man to have shorter hair than a woman. (See NATURE.) A woman having her hair shorn, or shaved off, was disgraced. God had given her long hair “instead of a headdress,” but, Paul argued, a woman could not use this natural covering, which was a glory to her, to excuse herself from wearing a head covering, “a sign of authority,” when praying or prophesying in the Christian congregation. By recognizing this fact and wearing a covering in such circumstances, the Christian woman would be acknowledging theocratic headship and showing Christian subjection. She would thus glorify both her husbandly head and Jehovah God, the Head of all.​—1Co 11:3-16.