As readers begin this article, they may think I am opening a can of worms. And indeed, while I love provocative and even polemical conversations, I want to bring up a topic loaded with a painful history and explore it through what I consider a beautiful lens. I want to bring a redemptive (pun intended) tone to the conversation surrounding women’s head covering with a scarf as opposed to a wig—something that for decades has been fraught with divisiveness, shame, and blame. More fundamentally, I want to show how this developing story is a reflection of a macro step toward redemption, as redemptive consciousness slowly but surely begins shining in and through the Jewish people.

Recently, I have noticed a subtle yet noteworthy trend in the frum world. Honestly, I have not done enough research to know its exact scope. And yet, even if this trend is still very small, I want to acknowledge it—and perhaps even manifest into existence the beautiful things that are yet to come.

I am referring to the growing voice of women who cover their hair with a headscarf rather than a wig, a voice that is softly yet definitively beginning to be heard in more mainstream circles. Elie Rosenbluth’s podcast on the Living L’Chaim Media Network and “The Little Tichel Lady” account on Instagram, where she uses her headscarf store as a platform for women to share their experiences of covering their hair, are just two examples.

This voice moved me deeply and excited me for reasons that go well beyond the discussion of head coverings, as I’ll explain. And yet, from the very outset, I want to state something clearly. As I write these words, I myself cover my hair with a long lace-top sheitel. Moreover, while I agree with the ideas I am about to present, I do not judge myself, you, or anyone who covers her hair with a wig. Nor do I judge women who do not cover their hair at all. I simply have deep respect for anyone who keeps this beautiful mitzvah in whatever way she is able, because I know well how much mesirus nefesh it entails for so many of us.

While there have always been voices against sheitlach in general—or against certain lengths and styles such as lace tops and the like—those campaigns were, in my opinion, very exilic in nature. As I perceive it, however, the subtle shift that is now taking place is quietly and modestly redemptive. The difference is not merely in the conclusion being reached, but in........

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