Did Early Christians Allow Braided Hair?
Early Christian writers usually treated braided hair as a sign of vanity, luxury, or sexual display. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, and the Apostolic Constitutions all warn against elaborate hair styling, especially for women. They often connect that teaching to 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3. The rule is not identical in every writer, but the overall trend is clear: keep hair modest, not showy.
83 early-church witnesses · 171 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about braided hair?
Early Christian writers usually treated braided hair as a sign of vanity, luxury, or sexual display, not as a neutral style. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, Commodianus, and the Apostolic Constitutions all warn women against elaborate hair-plaiting, with many of them tying the warning to 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3. Some writers also extended the same caution to men, saying that braided or carefully styled hair could signal effeminacy or moral weakness.
The Bible passages most often used were 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3, while 1 Corinthians 11 was used more for head covering and hair length than for braids themselves. The evidence is broad and consistent on modesty and against showy hair, but the exact rule varies by author and setting. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christian teaching often warned women not to use braided hair as part of outward display.
- Clement, Tertullian, and Cyprian all connect hair styling with modesty and chastity.
- The strongest Bible texts are 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3.
- Some writers also criticized men who styled hair in a feminine or flashy way.
Questions Answered by the Sources
What did early Christians teach about braided hair?
Early Christian writers usually treated braided hair as part of showy dress and urged modesty instead. Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Tertullian, Commodianus, and the Apostolic Constitutions all warn against elaborate hair styling, and several of them link that warning to 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching
For meretricious plaiting of the hair, and putting it up in tresses, contribute to make them look ugly, cutting the hair and plucking off it those treacherous braidings;
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Direct teaching
It is enough for women to protect their locks, and bind up their hair simply along the neck with a plain hair-pin, nourishing chaste locks with simple care to true beauty.
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Tertullian, De Corona Direct teaching
Therefore a woman, taking counsel from the apostles' foresight, will not too elaborately adorn herself, that she may not either be crowned with any exquisite arrangement of her hair.
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
Let women, said he, adorn themselves with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair, nor gold, nor pearls, nor costly array, but as becomes women professing chastity, with a good conversation.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
for all these ornaments are the signs of lasciviousness, which if you be solicitous about in an indecent manner, you will not act as becomes a good man: for it is not lawful for you, a believer and a man of God, to permit the hair of your head to grow long, and to brush it up together, nor to suffer it to spread abroad, nor to puff it up, nor by nice combing and platting to make it curl and shine;
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
... rich, but Paul answers your riches. In his own words, he sets a proper limit for your clothing and ornaments. He said, "Let women adorn themselves with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or expensive clothing, but as is fitting for women who profess chastity, with a good way of life." 1 Timothy 2:9-10 Peter also agrees with these same teachings and says, "Let a woman's adornment not be outward, in clothing, or gold, or fine dress, but the adornment of the heart." 1 Peter 3:3-4 But if they also warn that women who are used to excusing their dress by referring to their husband should be restrained and limited by religious observance according to the Church's discipline, how much more right is it for the virgin to keep that observance? She has no excuse for adorning herself, nor can the deceitfulness of her fault be laid on another, but she herself remains guilty of it!
Did early Christians warn women against braided hair?
Yes. Many early Christian writers told women not to use braided hair as part of outward beauty, luxury, or seduction. Cyprian, Clement, Commodianus, and Tertullian all speak this way, often using 1 Timothy 2:9 or 1 Peter 3:3 as the main biblical base.
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Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching
...nd and pure, not only in body but also in spirit. For it is not right for a virgin to have her hair braided to display her beauty, or to boast of her flesh and its beauty, when she has no greater struggle than that against her flesh, and no more stubborn contest than that of conquering and subduing the body.
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Cyprian, Treatises Direct teaching
For it is not right that a virgin should have her hair braided for the appearance of her beauty, or boast of her flesh and of its beauty, when she has no struggle greater than that against her flesh, and no contest more obstinate than that of conquering and subduing the body.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
...in hairpin, caring for modest hair in a simple way for the sake of true beauty. For prostitute-like braiding of the hair, and arranging it in curls and twisted strands, only makes them look ugly. It cuts the hair and pulls it out because of those deceptive braids. Because of this, they do not touch their head, since they are afraid of disturbing their hair. Even sleep comes with fear, lest without knowing it they ruin the shape of the braid.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
So those women who wear gold, occupying themselves in curling at their locks, and engaged in anointing their cheeks, painting their eyes, and dyeing their hair, and practising the other pernicious arts of luxury, decking the covering of flesh — in truth, imitate the Egyptians, in order to attract their infatuated lovers.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
But hair added from other people must be completely rejected. It is a very sacrilegious thing for false hair to cover the head, shading the skull with dead locks. For on whom does the presbyter lay his hand? Whom does he bless? Not the woman who is dressed up, but another person's hair, and through that, another head. And if the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of the man, how is it not impious for them to fall into a double sin? For they deceive men by the excessive amount of their hair. And, as far as they are able, they dishonor the Lord by adorning themselves like prostitutes in order to hide the truth. And they bring shame on the head, which is truly beautiful.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
But additions of other people's hair are entirely to be rejected, and it is a most sacrilegious thing for spurious hair to shade the head, covering the skull with dead locks.
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Cyprian, Treatises Supporting witness
... costly clothing, but not to think about the robe of Christ that she has lost; to receive expensive ornaments and finely made necklaces, but not to grieve over the loss of divine and heavenly ornament? Although you dress yourself in foreign garments and silk robes, you are naked. Although you decorate yourself excessively with pearls, gems, and gold, yet without the adornment of Christ you are ugly. And you who dye your hair, at least now stop in the midst of your sorrows. And you who darken the edges of your eyes with a line of black powder, at least now wash your eyes with tears. If you had lost someone dear to you by the death that belongs to mortal life, you would groan deeply and weep, with your face disordered, your clothing changed, your hair neglected, your face darkened, and your appearance cast down. You would show the signs of grief. Miserable creature, you have lost your soul. Spiritually dead here, you go on living for yourself, and though you are still walking around, you have begun to carry your own death with you. And do you not mourn bitterly? Do you not groan without ceasing? Do you not hide yourself, either from shame for your sin or for the continuing sorrow
Did any early Christians warn men about braided or styled hair?
Yes. Clement of Alexandria and the Apostolic Constitutions also criticize men for careful, flashy, or woman-like hair styling. Their concern is that this kind of grooming can signal vanity or moral looseness.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
...nce, they are not healthy. Instead, turning toward pleasure, they become effeminate. They cut their hair in an unmanly and prostitute-like way, wear fine and see-through clothes, chew mastich, and smell of perfume. What can a person say when he sees them? Like someone who judges people by their foreheads, he would guess that they are adulterers and effeminate men, given over to both kinds of sexual immorality, haters of hair, without hair, rejecting the bloom of manliness, and dressing their hair like women. The Sibyl says, "Living for unholy acts of audacity, these unstable wretches do reckless and wicked deeds." For their sake, the cities are full of people who remove hair with pitch-plasters, who shave, and who pluck hairs from these womanish creatures. Shops are set up and opened everywhere. Experts in this prostitute-like corruption make a great deal of money openly from those who plaster themselves and let their hair be pulled out in every way by those who make it their trade. They feel no shame before the spectators, or before those who come near, or even before themselves, though they are men. Such are those who are enslaved to shameful passions, whose whole body is made
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
lest by a nice combing your hair, and wearing it long, and anointing yourself, you draw upon yourself such ensnared or ensnaring women.
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Tatian, Address to the Greeks Supporting witness
They leave uncovered one of their shoulders; they let their hair grow long;
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Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) Supporting witness
...eir manhood, wore tunics reaching to the feet, and had on the crobulus, a kind of knot of the hair, adorned with a fastening of golden grasshoppers, supposedly to show their origin from the soil, in the display of licentiousness. Now the rivalry of these archons spread also to the other Ionians, whom Homer, to show their effeminacy, calls "Long-robed." Those, therefore, who are devoted to the image of the beautiful, that is, to love of finery, not to the beautiful itself, and who under a fair name practice idolatry again, are to be banished far from the truth, as people who by opinion, not knowledge, dream about the nature of the beautiful. And so life here is to them only a deep sleep of ignorance. From this it becomes us to rouse ourselves and hurry to what is truly beautiful and comely, and desire to grasp this alone, leaving the ornaments of earth to the world, and bidding them farewell before we fall fully asleep. I say, then, that man requires clothes for nothing else than covering the body, and for defense against excess of cold and intensity of heat, lest harsh weather injure us. And if this is the purpose of clothing, see that one kind is not assigned to men and another
Which Bible passages were used about braided hair?
The clearest Bible texts are 1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3, both of which warn against outward display in hair and clothing. Early Christian writers also used 1 Corinthians 11 when talking about head covering, hair length, and shame or honor in appearance.
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1 Timothy 2:9 Direct teaching
likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,
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1 Peter 3:3 Direct teaching
Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear—
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1 Corinthians 11:6 Supporting witness
For if a wife will not cover her head, then she should cut her hair short. But since it is disgraceful for a wife to cut off her hair or shave her head, let her cover her head.
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1 Corinthians 11:15 Supporting witness
But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.
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1 Corinthians 11:5 Supporting witness
But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved.
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1 Corinthians 11:10 Supporting witness
For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.
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1 Corinthians 11:13 Supporting witness
Judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
Common Questions
What did early Christians say about braided hair?
Many early Christian writers warned against it when it was part of vanity or sexual display, especially for women.
Which Bible verses were used most often?
1 Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3 were the main verses, with some writers also referring to 1 Corinthians 11.
Did early Christians forbid all braiding?
The wording varies, but the common concern was elaborate, showy, or seductive styling rather than every simple way of arranging hair.
Source Index for Braided hair
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 171 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 83
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
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Bible Passages 80 shown of 88
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.