When you really consider it, covering your hair with a shaitel is kind of like a woman wearing a t-shirt with a picture of breasts painted on it.

only sort of (note: my wife does not wear sheitels - only tichels and the like, by her decision. Neither she nor I consider those who wear sheitels to be going against halacha. There are plenty of poskim who allow it. Some who prefer it. It is perfectly acceptable in our eyes, just it was a personal decision to switch. And I am not aware of her or our having been saved from anything in any miraculous fashion because of that decision).

Anon,

Actually, it's not. There's nothing assur about looking at a woman's hair, otherwise even single girls would have to cover their hair (even the most machmir opinions, AFAIK, only require single girls to wear braids). Rather, there is a technicality that a married woman's hair is an ervah, whatever that means, and must be covered up. Thus, covering it with other hair, even if it looks real, takes care of the technical requirement of covering the ervah. However, there are many who feel that from a hashkafic, as opposed to a halachik, perspective, this "workaround" betrays some shortcoming, such as the woman's embarassment to fulfill the mitzvah (and I use the term in its broadest sense) of covering her hair, and is therefore problematic.

One addendum:

As a guy with male pattern baldness on the horizon (and coming nearer with each passing day and arriving child), I find this whole issue really silly. Who cares if you (as a woman) have to cover your hair? Be thankful that you still have some left!!!

:-)

bald is beautiful!

real men are [going] bald!

anon 10:13- only if you consider the reason to cover your hair because hair suddenly becomes magically ervah after you get married (funny how it's not ervah before a woman gets married. Is there some kind of molecular change that happens as soon as the glass breaks?). Since the halachot of kissui ROSH (hmm, nothing about kissui SE'AHR, funny,no?) are particularly murky and based on multiple reasons that no one can seem to agree on (ervah being only one of them), no, sheitals are nothing like wearing a t-shirt with breasts painted on it.

It's probably just me, but I'm wondering about the moment between the time she took off her wig and put on a different head covering.

maybe she did it after the mikva - she took her sheitel off, went to the mikva, the came out and put on her tichel. Even if she did not need to go to the mikva for personal reasons, she probably went just to purify herself from the use of the sheitel.

Rafi, good thinking.

Can you cut off your own hair before you get married and turn that into a sheitel? Is it still 'ervah' if it is no longer growing from your head?

rw - some say yes and some say no. My wife asked a rabbi once (even hair after she was married) and was told she could. She never ended up doing it, but had considered it at the time.

There is no "magical moment" in which a woman's hair turns from not being considered "ervah" to being assur to gaze upon.

The poskim say that unmarried women simply never took upon themselves to cover their hair, and so the halakha adapted accordingly.

Moreover, the halakhic debate is not only whether wearing a shaitel is permissable, but whether a married woman must always cover her hair at all. There are a number of legitimate poskim who do not see a halkhic necessity for married women to cover their hair in every situation.

Evan,

Who are these "legitimate poskim who do not see a halkhic necessity for married women to cover their hair in every situation"?

I understand that there's an opinion that in their own homes it's OK, but outside?

yoni r.,

Rather, there is a technicality that a married woman's hair is an ervah, whatever that means...

What does that mean?

What part of ervah is unclear?

Where else in halachic literature is the term used and what does it mean there?

What hava amina is there that it would mean something elsewhere than it does here?

Anon-

Start with the Shulchan Aruch (OC ~75:2).

Then work from there.

non 10:13 what rubbish.. Even mishnayos in shabbos discusses "peah" a wig.

Where does it say a woman must be unattractive when getting married ? it merely says she needs to cover her hair.

Rafi,
Your blog gets better and better...uh, it's almost starting to sound like XGH's...
Let's really analyze this halacha: what does "ervah" really mean, and (good question) why is it not an 'ervah' to look upon an unmarried woman's hair? Also, can a woman still be considered 'frum' if she does not cover her hair all the time (only in shul, at gatherings of the kehilah, etc.)
Also, is that the only reason stated for women to cover their hair, or can it also be used the way a kippah is used: to remind oneself that Hashem is above you?
So say, a woman who constantly says brachot over various foods, or brachot nehenin would have to cover her hair almost all the time because she never knows when she would be making a (sudden!) bracha--right?
Rafi, can you clarify any of this? What are the sources in the Gemara, Shulchan Aruch or Mishna? Is it only implied in the Mikrah?
And here's another idea: could it be merely an old, cultural minhag, from the early to middle ages, which may not necessarily apply today?
(This is making my head spin. Covered, of course. . .)

you have made my head spin!