Wigs for men and women became a thing in the 16th Century. Most men that wore them were trying to hide baldness because healthy hair was a mark of good breeding. Louis XIV of France helped popularize them. He was going bald in his teenage years. Most of the wigs were made from human hair, but you did have some made of horse or goat hair, or wool. Some women’s wigs were decorated with jewels or feathers. They were only worn by the rich and influential partly because they were very expensive. Even those who could afford them usually did not wear them unless as part of their duty or to dances or parties. Wigs were considered an expected look for some occupations like judges, lawyers, government officials, tax collectors, and constables. The term “bigwig” associated with the upper class came from them wearing wigs. To accentuate the prestige that came with wearing a wig, the wigs were often powdered with chalk dust of ground clay. Powdered wigs were not as common in the Colonies as portraits seem to suggest. By the time of Washington’s Presidency, wigs were going out of style. This may have been due to George Washington not liking to wear them. However, the next five Presidents (Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe) all wore them. Other factors in their demise were the costliness of maintaining them, the respiratory problems the powder caused, and they were a pain to wear. Some men took to powdering their real hair because the white look was associated with the upper class. But by the start of the 19th Century, even that was considered a mark of the nobility, which was a no-no in societies that were beginning to resent the aristocracy. England passed the Hair Powder Act of 1795 to require the purchase of a certificate to buy hair powder. This greatly discouraged the wearing of powdered wigs, but the tradition continued for judges and barristers well into the 21st Century in Great Britain.
https://historycollection.co/19-american-history-myths-debunked/5/
https://www.historydefined.net/why-did-people-wear-powdered-wigs-throughout-history/
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/head-tilting-history/rise-and-fall-powdered-wig
1 Comment
17thcenturyengland · August 30, 2022 at 5:43 pm
You might want to correct the type-o in the first line. This story concerns life in the 17th century, not the 16th. Some Tudors — including Elizabeth I — did wear wigs, but it wasn’t a wide-spread thing and goes unmentioned in your story and all three of your citations.