In summary, hair and covering are related. A piece of cloth was never mentioned, nor does it seem implied. Although men and women are both in the Lord, each is to exhibit different positions in relation to one another and Christ.

It seems clear that before God, it is a shameful, disgraceful, and dis-honorable thing for a man to have long hair like a woman.

It is also seems clear that it is shameful, disgraceful and dishonorable before God, for a woman to have shorn, cut, or shaved hair.

Scripture says that the churches of God have no other custom or practice

How did the church get to where it is today?

The following quoted excerpt is from the book; Hair Length in the Bible by Daniel L. Seagraves. A copy can be acquired from Word Aflame Press in Hazelwood, Mo.)

The Voice of History : Chapter 3

Nowhere does Scripture speak favorably of women cutting their hair. The Bible does not have a great deal to say on this subject, probably because the proper view has been so readily accepted throughout history, having been an instinctive lesson of nature. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge explains the situation in biblical times:

Women never cut their hair (cf. Jer. vii. 29), and long hair was their greatest ornament (Cant. iv. 1; cf. I Cor. xi. 15; Cant. vii. 5). To cut off a woman's hair and so expose her neck was the greatest contumely [humiliation] (cf. Jer. vii. 29; I Cor. xi. 6).'

We should note how emphatic this statement is: "Women never cut their hair." The Bible similarly indicates that women wore their hair long. There are no examples in Scripture of godly women who made a practice of cutting their hair.

Jeremiah cried, "Cut off thine hair, 0 Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath" (Jeremiah 7:29). This verse speaks in sorrowful tones of the evil the people of Judah had done in the sight of God and of His determination to chastise them. Judah is pictured as a woman, and the height of shame for her symbolically would be to cut off her hair. (my comment is : This is scripturally seen in Deut. 21:10-14. Before a man could wed a beautiful woman he saw among the captives of war, all of her hair was to be shaved off. Obviously humiliating to the woman.)

Solomon compared the beauty of long, flowing hair to "a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead" (Song of Solomon 4:1). This is a poetic, picturesque description. We can imagine a flock streaming over the horizon, coming in a seemingly endless parade. Our harried society may prevent some from seeing the aesthetic beauty that would have been so obvious to the Hebrew eye.

Another description of a woman's long hair is found in Song of Solomon 7:5: "Thine head upon thee is like Cannel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries." This verse compares the lady's hair to the garments of purple worn by royalty.

In biblical times, one of a woman's greatest humiliations was to have her hair cut. What has happened to change the way society views the cutting of women's hair? Perhaps we can identify some general trends.

For thousands of years, society frowned upon the cutting of hair by women. In broad terms, it is only since the turn of the twentieth century that the practice has gained and held wide acceptance. One hundred years ago, to insist that a woman's hair was her glory would not have been thought strange anywhere in Christendom, regard-less of a person's denominational affiliation or lack of it. Today, however, the picture has changed.

The World Book Encyclopedia explains when American women started cutting their hair: "Short hair styles became popular in the 1920's. Irene Castle, a famous ballroom dancer, started a fashion of bobbed [cut] hair for women."

The so-called women's liberation movement seeks to obliterate all distinctions between men and women in order to make women "equal" with men. Leaders in this movement recognize that feminine modes of behavior and appearance serve to distinguish women from men. As a result, many of them, such as Susan Brownmiller in her book Femininity have argued that these feminine distinctives need to be abandoned. And one significant distinctive that modern society has abandoned is long, uncut hair for women and short hair for men.

But attempts to establish equality by contradicting the Bible are misguided. In truth, only in Christ Jesus is there absolute freedom and equality for male and female (Galatians 3:28). God is no respecter of persons (Ad 10:34).

Each person has his or her proper place in the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:27). Likewise, the male and female each have their proper, God-given roles to fulfill in life. As much as some resist the idea, God created man and woman with different functions, responsibilities, an purposes. Neither of them is inferior to the other. Both stand before God on equal footing. But rebellion against the will of God will result in a bitter harvest......

Gloria Steinem, editor of Ms. magazine, and a prominent member of the National Organization of Women, similarly stated, "By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God."

The Document, another declaration of feminism, contains this chilling renunciation of marriage:

"All of history must be rewritten in terms of the oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions.. . Marriage has existed for the benefit of men and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women. . . . The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women..."

Dr. Mary J Bane, associate director of Wellesley College's Center for Research on Women and assistant professor of education, has similarly attacked the biblical institution of the family: "We really don't know how to raise children. . . . We must take them away from families and communally raise them.. . . It [divorce] makes for better family. . . . Divorce improves the quality of marriage."

Statements such as these demonstrate that in many ways Western society is not improving with regard to women's role, but rather it is rapidly reaching a low of spiritual poverty.

Historically, the "liberation" of women from biblical beliefs, principles, and roles is connected with women cutting their hair. The practice did not originate with spiritual revival, but with the flapper era of the twenties. It was not godly women who decided that cutting their hair should now be acceptable, after centuries of being a disgrace. Instead, the practice of women cutting their hair was born out of the desire of women to "break the chains" of responsibility to husbands and fathers. It was not introduced to our society by a preacher, but by a dancer. The idea was at first revolting even to women who daringly embraced it. These are numerous reports that women fainted away in barber shops after seeing the results of having their hair cut.

The following stories from the 1920s may be amusing or shocking today, but they illustrate vividly that the idea of a woman cutting her hair was revolutionary.

-Peoria, Ill., Sept. 27. Fearing his temper would get away with him because his wife had had her hair bobbed, John Baer, 60, called at the county jail last night, begging to be locked up so he could "cool off."

-A petition was circulated at Warsaw and signed by thousands of orthodox Jews, asking rabbis to refuse to perform marriage ceremonies for women who have bobbed hair, wear short dresses or use rouge. The petition submitted to the rabbinical council asked that the fathers and husbands of such women be excluded from the synagogues.

-The army of maid servants in Buckingham Palace, England, must have long hair, or be growing it back in case they have had it bobbed. Such was the order of King George. Those not willing to wear long hair must give up their royal jobs.

-The women of the municipality of Wartenburg, East Prussia, may have their hair bobbed if they wish, but they must pay a tax for it. They are exempt up to 15 years of age, but after that there is a tax of 12 marks a year, with married women paying double. At Schoenau the tax is heavier, and other townships are preparing to follow the example of taxing shingled heads.

-Shanghai, Dec. 17.--The bobbed hair is considered the sign of a woman communist in China and at least fourteen bobbed girls and women have been shot by anti-red troops in Canton. During the ruthless campaign against the communists, troops shot down the girls and women in the streets without compunction.'

While the cutting of a woman's hair may seem a minor issue to people raised in a society where the practice is widely accepted, society is not the proper authority on this subject. God is the authority, and He has revealed His will on this matter through nature and through His Word. While an individual woman may not intend to violate God's plan when she cuts her hair, when the society as a whole abandons God's will in this matter the respective roles of men and women are blurred.

Regardless of what society may embrace from time to time, the Bible teaches that if a woman has long hair it is a glory to her, for it is given to her for a covering. The godly woman should be covered as a sign of submission to God's plan, and God has provided her with the natural covering of hair. On the other hand, the Bible teaches that if a woman cuts her hair or shaves her head, it is a disgrace to her in the sight of God.

Christian women who study this teaching of Scripture will have no desire to follow the leadership of the ungodly, the falsely liberated. Instead, they will desire to please the Lord and fulfill their God-given roles in life, realizing that only in this way will they find true joy.