William Branham's Wig

According to William Branham's cult rules, decorating ones body with false attachments was considering to be a "sin" by God.  Cult members were forbidden to wear false teeth,[1] to dye their hair from its original color to a different color,[2] and more.  Especially for women, cult rules strictly forbade "false things".  Branham, however, suffered from male pattern baldness, and a wig was mysteriously missing from the "false attachments" rule.

When prophesying—when prophesying, can we take our hair when we…? Hmm. You—you said: Can we take our hair on or off when we're prophesying? 209 If you—if you got a hairpiece, you might, but I—I'd…or wearing one of these Beatle wigs, or something, but…If I could look right in one, I'd probably wear one myself, but it…not a Beatle wig, but a—a hairpiece. 210 But that's all right. If you ain't got no hair and you want one. If you can do it, that's perfectly all right.[3]

Male pattern baldness, or androgenic alopecia,[4] is a "faith healer's" worst nightmare.  When John Alexander Dowie's 'Divine Healing' scheme was in the early stages of being exposed as fraudulent in California, and newspaper reporters swarmed the 'healer' in anticipation of an explosion by an angry mob, one lady sitting outside the meeting was very upset that her elderly mother had been scammed. Logically thinking about the situation, she looked at a reporter and asked, 'If Mr. Dowie can cure so many things, why don't he put hair on his glossy bald head?'[5]  

So-called 'faith healers' convince their victims that perfect faith can bring a miracle cure. They then convince victims that they are the ones with this 'miracle faith' — otherwise, the victims would simply stay home or in their own churches and 'faith heal' themselves. Yet male pattern baldness affects most men, and faith healers are no exception.

Phenol, or Carbolic acid, was believed at one time to be a safe cure for hair loss[6] because the acid restores dead pores. In recent years, however, it is seldom recommended due to burning of the skin and other issues. The acid is extremely poisonous[7] and is heavily diluted to be used for other purposes such as antiseptics. As a cosmetic, it is actually banned in some countries today.[8]

William Branham knew this to be the case and began treatments using carbolic acid. Unfortunately for Branham, his hair treatment was unsuccessful. His hair receded to the point that hair loss became obvious, and for a time, Branham wore a wig to cover the baldness. He then blamed his barber for his male pattern baldness, saying that the treatment was the cause of hair loss instead of the attempted cure.

As I was saying last night about my hair coming out, that's not a natural thing. That was an accident. A barber did it. He was going to put some stuff on my hair to take the dandruff out. It did: carbolic acid. So medicine's all right, but you want to know who's giving it to you. One dose killed my father. So…And one treatment fixed me all up. So just know who's giving it. [9]