Hot take: I think we should normalize the practice of headcovering.
Hear me out.
I say this because I want it to stop being seen as weird. Or strictly even a solely religious practice. I want people to stop getting funny looks or xenophobic comments and stares in stores or when existing in public for wearing headcoverings. I want people to feel like they can wear a kippah or a mitpachat or a hijab or other styles of headcoverings in public without getting harrassment from xenophobic mediocre middle aged white guys with inferiority complexes for wearing them.
So - if you've been idly toying with the idea of buying a couple of scarves because you saw the pretty styles a random jewish lady was rocking online, or you liked the way a hijabi styled her scarf with her outfit for a party on tiktok and thought "I wanna try that, that looks cute", guess what - from a random middle-aged Jewish lady on the internet, here's your permission to go on Wrapunzel or Amazon or to the clearance rack at tjmaxx, and find a few cute scarves, buy them, and experiment with wearing them.
Because here's the thing. You can do it and it's not appropriative to do so. In fact, not only can you wear scarves like that (even the tichel styles!), if you ask a lot of ladies who cover their hair part or full time for religious (or non religious) reasons, a lot of us would really just be thrilled if you wanted to wear them. lol. Like there's outliers, sure, but largely the people I know who cover their hair are just as likely to welcome you to your newest shopping habit as I am.
Nearly every culture at some point had some sort of headcovering practice for modesty or religious reasons, or both, in it's history. So nobody really can lay claim to a monopoly on the practice of tying a piece of fabric around your head.
I've been an on again, off again wearer of tichels for a while now (I have alopecia and sometimes I also just am too lazy to deal with my hair but mostly I find the practice spiritually engaging and a signal to others that I am happily taken, thanks!). In the time I've worn scarves, I've gotten tons of compliments - and also, a fair amount of hateful or scathing comments from people for wearing them. (I expect it, I live in a small midwestern town where we are likely the only Jews for... dozens of miles in any direction). But I feel like the more I wear them, the more people get used to it, and the less likely they are to be jerks and harass someone who is super religious. And that thought outweighs any of the crap I occasionally take from ignorant rednecks over it.
