Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Christy Ingram on May 4, 2011 at 5:21pm

I would try to not dwell on it too much, I know it's hard not to! I don't remember reading anything like this in the Bible, (I could be wrong) I do personally know some denominations and people teach/talk that a womens hair is her crowning glory and they also seem to shun or disprove of women with short hair, kind of like they also say wearing jeans/pants, is dressing like a man, which is wrong. On that note from what I understand the men back in the old/new testament times wore their robes like a dress and the women wore layers under their robes/wraps that resembled pants. Go figure. Anyway... I believe God looks at what is in our hearts!

Permalink Reply by Carmen Dayhoff on May 4, 2011 at 7:08pm

After googling "Bible, hairloss" I came to this article......


Since this article is looking at baldness in the Bible, it seems appropriate to start off with a favorite Bible verse, to wit:

“And so God looked out upon the assembled, and His light shone forth, and most especially it shoneth upon those whose pates were bare of hairiness. And God saw that their baldness reflected back His glory, which pleased Him mightily. And this was good.”

OK, so that quote doesn’t actually appear anywhere in the Bible. Wouldn’t it be a kick, though, if it did? After all, the Bible is a pretty influential book. It’s held in high esteem, especially in the United States; whole societies have used it as their foundation. Just a few verses like the fake one above could have changed the course of hairless history. If absolutely nothing else, having an endorsement of baldness from the Good Book might have been a major deterrent to the rise of “big hair” televangelists.

Unfortunately, there really aren’t any ringing endorsements of baldness to be found in this particular sacred text. Instead, one finds things such as the following:

“And he went up from thence unto Bethel; and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, ‘Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.’
And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.” --- 2 Kings 2:23-24

The “he” in the above quotation is Elisha, the Old Testament prophet, who comes across as rather touchy about being bald. Many who read this verse are appalled that he could retaliate for being taunted by having 42 children killed by a pair of bears. To be fair, however, many biblical scholars believe that the word here translated as “little children” should more properly be translated as “youths.” While Elisha may still have overreacted, it becomes somewhat more understandable if one imagines that a large group (at least 42) of rowdy, perhaps drunken young men has surrounded Elisha and is behaving in a most disrespectful manner to a holy man who has just inherited the mantel left by the great prophet Elijah.

Elisha is one of the few individuals who are actually identified as bald in the Bible. Paul is another, as we know from this text:

“And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren, and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila; having shorn his head in Cenchrea: for he had a vow.” -- Acts 18:18

Then there’s Samson, of course, whose haircut from Delilah may or may not have been a total scalp shaving.
But more often, baldness is mentioned not as an identifying mark of one individual but as a concept or descriptive term, as in:

“And if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead.” -- Leviticus 13:42

“For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.” -- Jeremiah 48:37

“Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.” -- Deuteronomy 14:1

Sometimes people were instructed to shave their heads:

“And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing.” -- Ezekiel 27:31

“Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee.” -- Micah 1:16

For a book as voluminous as the Bible, however, there are surprisingly few references to baldness. Most of them occur in the Old Testament and frequently in reference to shaving one’s head as a sign of mourning or repentance.

One can make guesses about biblical personages that may have been bald, of course. For instance, it’s hard to believe that Methuselah could live all the way to his reputed 969 years without losing a few hairs along the way. It also seems to make sense that Cain must have had, at the very least, a high forehead, in order for people to clearly see the mark God had placed there for murdering his brother.

Noah was 600 years old when the Flood came; if he wasn’t bald when the rains started, surely spending all that time on a little boat with hundreds of smelly, randy animals, three sons perpetually asking, “Are we there yet?” and a wife whose every glance said, “We had room for a pair of flea-infested water buffalo, but my mother we had to leave behind?” would have been enough to cause him to tear out his hair.

Those who created the Bible, of course, had more on their minds than the amount of hair on an individual’s head. Still, if “the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30), couldn’t a little more space have been devoted to identifying some of those whose hairs number in the lower digits?

Permalink Reply by Carmen Dayhoff on May 4, 2011 at 8:23pm

My Pastor's wife is going to check out some Scriptures and get back to me, but the first response she had for me / us is " You are perfect just how you are. Hair has nothing to do with the heart."

Point being: God looks at our heart. Where are we in our walk with Him? That is His concern. Weather we go to Heaven or not has nothing to do with long hair, short hair, no hair, thick hair, spots or hair, full head of hair.....it's all about if we have excepted Jesus as our personal Savior and have come to develop a relationship with our God and Creator.

I'm just saying!

Permalink Reply by rj, Co-founder on May 4, 2011 at 8:58pm

Renee, here and hereare couple of previous forum discussion relevant to this issue. You will find that Mary and I reach basically the same wonderful destination via widely divergent routes. ;-)

Permalink Reply by Shalonda TheSho Randolph on May 5, 2011 at 3:16am

It is all about the heart...God calls us to live our lives for Him and yes, we are to honor him with our lives, our bodies are living sacrifices to him. {"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. -Romans 12:1} I think that in our case, as women with alopecia, it is something that has happened outside of our control. I know that I didn't personally ask for it. When I shaved my head I actually did it to glorify God. I was so insecure of my alopecia and deeply depended on wigs to hide it and felt so uncomfortably without them. I soon realized that I was more dependent in wigs and placed my security in them rather than God. So I shaved my head to prove to myself that my all comes from Him! And I have been rockin in ever since...through Him, my amazing Father in Heaven! I myself, will dig deeper into this topic because I do want to go forward into doing whatever I can to live a life aligned with my savior's words. :)

Permalink Reply by Shalonda TheSho Randolph on May 5, 2011 at 3:19am

"But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” -1 Sam 16:7

Permalink Reply by Dorothy on May 5, 2011 at 2:28pm

Perhaps this is the passage that got you to thinking that:

Isaiah 3:24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.

Permalink Reply by JasonNoVA on May 31, 2011 at 8:30am

I think you're thinking of 1 Cor 11:15

14Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?

15But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

I lead a men's bible study and I remember one of my guys telling me how he was essentially judging a woman in his life because the bible says right here that women are given hair for a covering, and they should have it appropriately long that they can use it to veil their face. I pointed out he should keep reading, because the Bible is perfect in its entirety. Verse 16 says "But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God." In other words Paul is saying don't let something as trivial has hair length traditions get in the way of the important things in LIFE. We need to constantly be spreading the word of God.

God is the reason I've made it through with AA. He has put wonderful people and wonderful situations in my life that I may have not encountered without AA, as it is a condition that is life changing. Praise God that He is actively working in our lives and doing what is necessary to grow in our faith and at times be goaded onto the path He desires for us! I'm reminded as I type this of the first chapter in James.

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.

Permalink Reply by Michelle on July 10, 2011 at 3:30pm

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Proverbs 31:30

I was feeling down one day and a woman at church gave me this word.

Permalink Reply by jean on July 23, 2011 at 12:16am

HI, MY NAME IS JEAN

I JUST WANT TO ASK THIS QUESTION, WHO MADE US? GOD DID. HE KNOWS ALL ABOUT US.HE KNEW THAT WE WOULD BE TAKING THIS JOURNEY IN LIFE WITH THE UNIQUENESS OF ALOPECIA. HE KNOWS EVERY HAIR ON OUR HEAD AND EVERY HAIR THAT IS NOT THERE, SO HIM KNOWING ,ONE DAY I WAS GOING TO BE BALD DOES NOT MAKE BALDNESS ON ANYONE BAD. I FIND IT TO BE VERY SPECIAL TO BE BALD. I SEE IT ALSO AS A TEST IN MY LIFE. GOD TRUSTED ME TO BE DIFFERENT SO I COULD HELP OR ENCOURGAGE SOMEONE ELSE TO KNOW THAT JESUS LOVES THEM JUST THE WAY THEY ARE. IT'S LIKE GOD IS PUTTING US ON DISPLAY.... BEAUTY IS ON THE INSIDE AND SHOWS UP ON THE OUTSIDE, BLESSED AND KNOW GOD CARES FOR YOU!!!!

Permalink Reply by jean on July 23, 2011 at 12:20am

HOW CAN WE BE BAD AS BALD WOMEN. WE CHOOSE TO EMBRACE WHAT WE HAVE AND BE CONTENT WITH WHO GOD MADE US TO BE. LET GO AND LET GOD SHOWCASE YOUR BEAUTIFUL AND BALD HEAD. HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!!

Permalink Reply by Jacqui on September 19, 2011 at 10:23pm

Go to 1 Corinthians 11 it discusses bald women and hair being a woman's glory. However, in reading it you have to take into account the content and context in which it was said. Paul was discussing practices and customs of that day. I wouldn't place a lot of credence on it because God looks beyond our exterior and into our heart. Just the other day I was sharing with a friend that my bald head is a ministry because so many confront me about their hair lose and their embarrassment. My baldness provides me with the opportunity to minister. In essence, I told her that God had given me a gift in order for me to minister to others.

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