Hair

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

Worn short with elderly men, long with young men, vowed men and women
(Num. 6:5-9; 2 Sam. 14:26; Luke 7:38). Lepers shorn (Lev. 14:8-9).

Concise Bible Dictionary:

Given by God as an ornament and a protection for the head. The Israelites were not to “round the corners of their heads,” doubtless in allusion to some heathen practice, one of which has been described as “cutting the hair in a ring away from the temples” (Lev. 19:27). Neither were they to make any baldness between their eyes for the dead (Deut. 14:1). Baldness should come as a judgment (Isa. 15:2; Jer. 9:26, margin; Jer. 48:37).
Long hair is referred to in the New Testament as the natural covering, of a woman, as owning her subjection to the man, and is a glory to her; but nature teaches that if a man have long hair, it is a shame to him His head must not thus be covered, for “he is the image and glory of God” (1 Cor. 11:6-15). “Hair as the hair of women” is a symbol of subjection to a head, and effeminacy (Rev. 9:8).

“386. Plucking the Hair” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Nehemiah 13:25. I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair.
This is equivalent to what we term “tearing the hair out by the roots.” It was sometimes a self-inflicted suffering as a token of mourning (see Ezra 9:3), sometimes an act of wanton persecution (see Isa. 50:6), and sometimes punishment, as represented in the text. It is said that the ancient Athenians punished adulterers by tearing the hair from the scalp and then covering the head with hot ashes.

“886. Adornments of the Head” From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

1 Peter 3:3. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel.
The Oriental ladies are exceedingly fond of golden ornaments and of costly array. See notes on Genesis 24:22 (#35), 24:53 (#36); and also on Isaiah 3:16 (#483), 3:18 (#484), 3:20 (#486), 3:22-24 (#487-489), where a variety of these adornments are described.
Especial attention is paid to the hair. Long hair is greatly prized. See Corinthians 11:15. Great care is taken in dressing the hair. Costly ointments are used. See note on Matthew 26:7 (#712). The tresses are carefully braided. Lady Montague counted a hundred and ten of these tresses on the head of a Turkish lady, and all of natural hair. The custom of plaiting the hair is very ancient. The Egyptians practiced it, and some specimens of old plaited hair are yet to be seen in museums on the heads of mummies. The women of other nations were not behind them. “In the daily use of cosmetics they bestowed the most astonishing pains in arranging their long hair; sometimes twisting it round on the crown of the head, where, and at the temples, by the aid of gum, which they knew as well as the modern belles, they wrought it into a variety of elegant and fanciful devices—figures of coronets, harps. wreaths, diadems, emblems of public temples and conquered cities, being formed by the mimic skill of the ancient friseur; or else, plaiting it into an incredible number of tresses, which hung down the back, and which, when necessary, were lengthened by ribbons so as to reach to the ground, and were kept at full stretch by the weight of various wreaths of pearls and gold fastened at intervals down to the extremity. From some Syrian coins in his possession, Hartmann (Die Hebräerin am Putztishe) has given this description of the style of the Hebrew coiffure; and many ancient busts and portraits which have been discovered exhibit so close a resemblance to those of Eastern ladies in the present day, as to show that the same elaborate and gorgeous disposition of their hair has been the pride of Oriental females in every age” (Kitto's Cyclopedia, s. v. Hair).
Among the interesting specimens of antique pottery discovered by Mr. Barker in Cilicia in 1845 are two terra cotta heads of women with the hair plaited and dressed as shown in these engravings. See Barker's Laers and Penates, pp. 158, 168. In the valuable antiquities from the island of Cyprus in the Cesnola collection (Metropolitan Museum of Ark New York) there is a stone head which bears a close resemblance to one of these terra cotta heads from Cilicia. See engraving No. 167. The Apostle Paul also makes reference to braiding the hair in 1 Timothy 2:9.

Related Books and Articles: