To neglect the hair or beard, likely leaving them untrimmed and untended, was a sign of mourning. (2Sa 19:24)

For a woman to cut off her hair was a sign of mourning or distress. (Isa 3:24) When an Israelite soldier captured a virgin woman from an enemy city and desired to marry her, she was required first to cut off her hair and attend to her nails and to undergo a one-month period of mourning for her parents, since they would have been killed in the taking of the city.​—De 21:10-13; 20:10-14.