I only know one Orthodox woman well enough even to ask this question (she is about as Orthodox as they come, but doesn’t shave her head). But I’d think that if you wear a sheitl, it’s easier to get it to fit properly if you don’t also have to worry about piling tons of hair under it.
Not to mention cooler - especially when you must wear long sleeves, collars that cover your collarbones and long skirts.
Two of the Pentecostal churches I knew of in my youth allowed trimming of split ends. (And you could also cut out gum. I know this from personal experience.) One of the churches allowed women to get perms. The third church with which I was familiar didn’t allow either.
Honestly, a lot of times it boils down to the preference of the pastor. All of the Pentecostal churches of which I knew members were independant churches-- meaning they didn’t belong to an organized sect with a common doctrine.
Thanks, ChicanoRojo! You finally answered the question I’ve been wondering about for some time–what’s the deal with the long-hair women who live around here? Apostolic Pentecostals!
There are quite a few who live around here, but nobody seems to actually know any of them. The kids are not in the public schools. And nobody seems to know why they dress that way. But they sound exactly like the descriptions of Apostolic Pentecostals.
The women have very long uncut hair. They always have some sort of head-covering, even if it’s only a mini-bandanna thing. They wear long denim skirts and tennis shoes. They seem to have no makeup or jewelry. They would occasionally come into the used bookstore where I used to work and purchase old-fashioned childrens’ books. In my few interactions with them, they seemed pretty normal, if reserved. The men and boys wear regular clothing, but the clothes are plain and conservative and not particularly stylish.
Why there should be a pack of Pentecostals in Westfield, NJ, I have no idea.
I’m no expert but since Mennonites share some roots with the Amish and each Amish district or parrish or whatever they call them has differing rules depending on what the elders or bishops decide, maybe Mennonites also differ by region. The ones I’m thinking of always have real long but not necessarily untrimmed hair hanging loose with a little bump or rise in the hair at the back of the head with those little white cap things on the “bump.” I always assumed those were Mennonites but maybe not. Do Pentacostals wear the white things?
Not usually. Most of the Pentecostals I’ve known don’t wear any kind of headcovering.
Most of the Mennonite women I’ve seen wear something that looks like an old-fashioned bonnet though it’s sometimes made of a mesh-like fabric. I’ve seen some sects which wear a smaller version of the bonnet, just covering the back of the head
Here’s the tongue-in-cheek answer to how to tell a Mennonite from the real Amish: if you’re buying something from them, they’re not Amish. The real Amish don’t like to deal with outsiders, and you’d never see one of their daughters working in a gift shop.
From ****'s link…
Regarding Sikhism–that’s one religion where all the women do wear pants, salvar being everyday women’s wear in Panjab where the religion is based.
Yup, sounds like them. I have no idea why the denim skirts and tennis shoes, but we see that around here a lot. It’s almost like a uniform.
The Free Brethren do headcovering, but I think only in church. Some strict Presbyterian Calvinists advocated only long dresses and headcovering, based on the ‘cover your head when praying or prophesying’ bit in the New Testament. Even the strict ones I know, though, allow for hair-trimming and styling.