"And the person with tzaraat, in whom there is the lesion, his garments shall be torn, his head shall be unshorn, he shall cover himself down to his lips and call out, 'Unclean! Unclean!'"—Leviticus 13:45.
We are commanded to make a metzora recognizable so that people should stay away from him [and thus avoid contracting ritual impurity].
According to our tradition, this mitzvah somewhat applies to all carriers of ritual impurity; they too must make themselves recognizable in order that people keep away from them [though a person with an impurity other than tzaraat need not do all that is stated in the verse above].
Women who suffer from tzaraat are exempt from [most of] this mitzvah, though they do need to cover their face down to their lips and proclaim that they are impure—similar to all other people who are impure [with impurities other than tzaraat].
