Plegma (πλέγμα) means something woven, braided, or plaited. From the verb pleko (G4120, to braid or weave), it refers specifically in the NT to braided hair — the elaborate, time-consuming hairstyles that were a mark of wealth and social status in the Greco-Roman world. Such braids were often interwoven with gold, pearls, and jewels.
Paul's instruction in 1 Timothy 2:9 uses plegma when he says women should adorn themselves "not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes." This is not a blanket prohibition against styling hair but a correction of a specific cultural excess: wealthy Roman women spent hours having elaborate braids woven with gold thread and jewels, making their appearance a display of social superiority. The parallel passage in 1 Peter 3:3 makes the same point. Both apostles redirect the focus from external ornamentation to internal character — "the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit" (1 Peter 3:4). The issue is not aesthetics but priority: where a person invests their time, money, and identity reveals what they worship. True beauty, Scripture teaches, flows from godly character, not from cultural displays of wealth.