"The Jewish Headband Nation," bye Alyx Bernstein (03.02.2020) in Tablet Magazine
When Rabbi Sarah Mulhern was a student at Brandeis University, she decided to embrace Jewish observance, including wearing a kippah. “At that point I decided, if I was a guy, I would wear a kippah,” she said. “I didn’t think my Jewish practice should be different because I’m a woman.” In 2008, after she graduated college, Mulhern spent a year at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, an egalitarian yeshiva in Jerusalem. She wanted to continue the practice of covering her head, but wanted to present more femininely and “encountered a tremendous amount of street harassment” for wearing her kippah. “I didn’t feel safe,” she said, “and at that point it was easier to wear a headband. I was still doing the mitzvah, but I wasn’t getting harassed.” She later switched to wearing hats instead of headbands, but continued to advocate for women covering their heads—with headbands, hats, or kippot.
Why would one cover their head anyway ?
(40) And for Aaron’s sons also you shall make tunics, and make sashes for them, and make turbans for them, for dignity and adornment.
(ו) אסור לילך בקומה זקופה ולא ילך ד' אמות בגילוי הראש ויבדוק נקביו: הגה ויכסה כל גופו ולא ילך יחף (א"ז) [...]
(6) It is forbidden to walk in an [overly] upright posture, and one should not walk [a distance of] four amot with the head uncovered (out of respect for the Divine Presence), and one should examine one's orifices [to ensure they are kept clean]. Rem"a: And one should cover his entire body, and should not go barefoot (Or Zarua). [...]
1. let's sum up the reasons
2. Which of does reason resonated with you and why?
What about non-men?
(ב) לא תלכנה בנות ישראל פרועות ראש בשוק אחת פנויה ואחת אשת איש:
(2) Jewish women may not go with uncovered head in the marketplace, whether married or not.
שו”ת יחווה דעת ה: ו
… וכנראה שסוברים לחלק בזה בין אנשים ששורת דרך ארץ היא לכסות ראשם בפני גדולים… ולכן אם יברכו בגילוי הראש נחשב הדבר כזלזול במורא שמים, מה שאין כן בנות רווקות שדרכן ללכת תמיד בגילוי הראש עד לנישואיהן, אינן צריכות לכסות ראשן גם בשעה שמזכירות שם שמים. וזאת בצירוף דעת רבותינו שבצרפת והרמב”ם שסוברים שמותר לברך בגילוי הראש (אפילו לאנשים)… מכל מקום נראה יותר שלכתחלה ראוי להורות גם לנערות פנויות לכסות ראשן בעת שמברכות, וכל שכן בעת שמתפללות תפלת שמונה עשרה …
Teshuvat Yachaveh Da'at 5:6 (Rav Ovadiah Yosef)
...and it seems reasonable to distinguish in this between men, for whom the proper way of behaving is to cover their heads before important people...and therefore if they bless with an uncovered head it's thought of as not taking seriously the fear of heaven, which is not the case with single women, whose way is to walk around with uncovered heads until they are married--they do not need to cover their heads when they mention the holy name. This is in combination with the opinion of the Rambam, who reasons that it's also permitted for men to bless with uncovered heads. Nonetheless, it makes more sense to advise that also single women should be covering their heads when making blessings, and all the more so when saying the amidah...
Funfact
Rabbi Jane Kanarek, "Women and Head Covering"
"The contemporary practice of North American Jewish men wearing a kippah at all times—outside of the synagogue and the home—is a relatively recent phenomenon. Among Orthodox males, the practice seems to have been established by the early 1960’s, part of a larger public statement of Orthodox identity and pride. See Lawrence Grossman, “The Kippah Comes to America,” in Continuity and Change: A Festchrift in Honor of Irving Greenberg’s 75th Birthday, ed. Steven T. Katz and Steven Bayme (Lanham: University Press of America, 2010), 138-143. For Conservative males, the practice was tied in with the Jewish revival that began in the 1970s across the Jewish spectrum."