I admit that I am a hair and beauty junkie. I love watching Youtube videos that give makeup and hair tips. Lately, I’ve been seeing videos of women who have Caucasian hair getting sew-in hair extensions, known informally as “white girl weaves.” The process involves braiding the client’s own hair into corn rows, and sewing wefts of weave hair over and into those rows. While many women who wear weaves leave out the crown layer of their own hair to blend in with the weave, there is also the option for a full closure that completely covers the client’s crown with the weave hair.
When I saw the process and the end result, I immediately thought that would be a cool option for women who wear wigs. The weaves last anywhere from 3-6 months, with touch ups required for outgrowth. However, they look very natural and can be washed and styled easily the same as one would care for their own hair. At the end of the day, wearing a weave would be no more costly than buying an expensive sheitel and taking it to a sheitel macher for washing and styling every few weeks.
I brought the idea up to my husband, who thought that there would be an outcry against such a natural looking head of hair. However, if technically all of a woman’s own hair was indeed covered by the weave, halachically there should be no more of a problem with it than wearing an expensive European sheitel. Some rabbis would probably be ok with it, and some rabbis who decry the beautiful wigs already worn by women would also be against weaves.
The other big potential problem with a weave is wearing it into the mikva. I was thinking that if the weave was sewn or otherwise semi-permanently adhered to the wearer’s own hair, it might be like a part of the person. However, a search on Nishmat showed that their psak says that one can’t wear a weave (or hair extensions) to the mikva – it must be removed prior to immersion. The time and expense of installing a weave isn’t worth it to only wear it for a few weeks.
Along with the Nishmat site, I found an older blog post by a Jewish woman of color who talked about the major difficulty that not being able to keep a weave in for mikva imposes on those with African American hair texture. Wearing hair extensions or weaves are a staple for many women of color, and having to remove them for the mikva every month is actually a major problem for them.
In that light, it seems that mikva is a very Caucasian centered ritual, assuming that women can easily wash and comb through their own hair to perform the mitzva.
What do you think about the concept of using hair extensions/sew-in weaves as a method of hair covering? Do you think African American Jewish women are treated unfairly by having their hair styles not be deemed ok for the mikva? In that light, wouldn’t it be fair to say that any semi-permanent hair style should be ok for mikva, just like hair dye is?
