One of the first subjects I wrote about when I began this blog was about women covering their hair. I am not going to rehash the points I made there. What I will say now is that hair covering is one of those Halachos I find most difficult to understand. And the way it is practiced in the Charedi community seems to be completely counter to the intent of Halacha. This became very apparent to me during my recent stay in the Charedi community of Ramat Bet Shemesh.
But before I get to that, let me explain a bit about what I believe to be the intent of the Halacha of hair covering for women and the way it is practiced by various segments of Orthodox Jewry.
For single women, there is no Halacha to cover hair. The Halacha is strictly for married women. An unmarried woman of any age may walk around in public with her hair completely uncovered. This is true even amongst the most Charedi of Jews. But when a woman gets married, she is required to cover her hair. And there are various differing types of Psak as to how one must do this.
One of the most common ways of doing this is by wearing a Peah Nachris, commonly called by its Yiddish name, Shaitel (wig). Most Poskim hold that Shaitels are permissible. Indeed Shaitels are not a new phenomenon. The Gemarah actually discusses them as a method of covering hair.
There are some Poskim, however, who say that this is not a permissible way of hair covering for a woman. They see it as defeating or undermining the purpose. But they also hold that as long as most of the hair is covered, that is sufficient. Married women may therefore leave a small portion of their hair uncovered. As I understand it this is the Psak of Religious Zionist Poskim. Hair coverings in this community are often of the scarf variety, (Tichels, snoods, hats, etc.)
On the other end of the spectrum, certain Chasidim are so concerned about exposing even a single strand of hair that the married women are encouraged or even required to shave their heads. Some of those communities only allow Shaitels when worn together with a hat, as is the Satmar custom. I assume this is for Maaras Ayin purposes… just in case someone mistakes the wig for real hair.. Some extreme Chasidic communities do not allow Shaitels at all but insist the married women wear specially designed hats to cover their shaved heads.
Lubavitch holds that no hair at all may be exposed and frowns on most hair coverings that are commonly used since there is always a bit of real hair showing. For this reason they prefer wigs since that covers all of the hair. They are not worried about Maras Ayin.
But even though most Poskim allow Shaitels, there are differences between them about the parameters of what is kind of Shaitel is permissible. On the most Mekil end of the spectrum, there are Poskim who allow a few strands of woman’s hair to be pulled out and combined with the Shaitel to make it look as natural as possible. On the Machmir side, one Posek that I am aware of (…and I’m sure there are others) says that if the wig looks too much like real hair, then it is forbidden because it is counterproductive to the intent of the Halacha.
As such he insists that women not be allowed to “cover up” the tell-tale signs that show the Shaitel to be a wig. For example, the most tell-tale sign that one is wearing a wig is the front of the wig. If one looks at it, one can see that there is no hairline but a “wig” line on the forehead. This Posek says that a woman is not allowed to wear a scarf over that wig-line to cover it up.
Another problem for these Poskim is the custom Shaitel. There are some very expensive wigs out there that are so good, even an expert would have a hard time detecting whether a woman is wearing a Shaitel or not. These Poskim would Assur custom wigs.
But I think most Poskim permit them because it is within the letter of the law and forcing such stringencies upon women would be counter-productive. Many women would then find it too difficult to keep this Mitzvah. These amazing custom wigs are a great incentive for women who have difficulty covering their hair after they get married.
Which brings me back to the observation I made on my rcent trip to Israel.
The married women in this very Charedi portion of Ramat Bet Shemesh were wearing custom wigs that looked like actual hair. I’m pretty good at spotting wigs. I could not tell. I believe that only the most sophisticated of experts could tell these women were wearing Shaitels. Couple with the beautiful Shabbos and Yom Tov clothing they were wearing, and many of these young wives were actually stunningly beautiful!
But in this same community, the young unmarried girls, starting at about the age of 11 or 12, are not allowed to wear… or at least strongly discouraged from wearing… their hair in any other style except a pony-tail. The hair is all pulled back and tied up in the back of the head. This has the effect of making them all look very plain. Starting from about 6th or 7th grades all the way through high school, these young girls not only all pull their hair into a pony-tail, they wear very unflattering uniforms. And after high school they continue to have that very plain, I would say, almost unattractive look. I suppose the point of all that is Tznius. Parents do not want their daughters to look provocative and wearing a hairstyle that is fashionable and flattering combined with fashionable clothing would cross some kind of Tznius line.
So what we end up having is something quite the opposite of what the Halacha intended. I presume one of the reasons that single girls are not required to cover their hair is because they need to get married and have to look more attractive to potential Shiduchim. Married women, on he other hand, are discouraged from being attracting in their look.
But the Charedi world has gone so askew in this regard that the exact opposite is happening. Married women end up looking like real knockouts while single women look dowdy.
And everybody seems just fine with that, in the Charedi world, at least as constitued in Ramat Bet Shemesh. And I don’t get that!
