Why wigs in 1700s

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Ralph Earl in Breeches. Beaver Skin Tricorne Hat. Constitution Day Pocket Constitution Books. The Founders Library List of U. Ralph Earl in Breeches The first wigs were made from goat and horse hair, and because they were never properly washed they smelled quite terrible, and tended to attract lice. Breeches Emerging in the twelfth century, breeches simply meant "garment for the legs and trunk. But being bald didn't fit with the proper image of the Sun King.

So the king naturally hired 48 wigmakers. Louis wasn't shy about piling on the hair - any of the wigs added several inches to the king's height. But even though the wigs covered up Louis's baldness, they couldn't hide the rumor that the king had syphilis. During an era when long hair was a status symbol, syphilis was more than just an incurable STD - it was also a social disaster. Diarist Samuel Pepys summed up that attitude when he learned that his brother had syphilis: "If [my brother] lives," Pepys wrote in his diary, "he will not be able to show his head - which will be a very great shame to me.

Baldness was a black eye on any man's reputation, and men went to great lengths to hide their hair loss, even turning to expensive powdered wigs. Even though syphilis made wigs popular , it would be a mistake to assume that every bewigged person in history was afflicted with an STD.

Once kings like Louis XIV and Charles II started wearing wigs and they may have had syphilis , the fashion quickly spread to aristocrats and even common people. But wigs could cover a number of sins. In addition to the hair loss caused by syphilis, wigs could hide open sores or rashes on the head, which could occur from several different diseases.

Dating back to the beginnings of France, Diderot claimed that "long hair was the mark of royal blood. When wigs rose in popularity during the late 17th century, men struggled to pile as much hair as possible onto their heads. In fact, some of the most elaborate wigs included full heads of hair from 10 different people.

Lice have a long history of infesting human hair. In the medieval period, head lice were a major problem, but the new fashion for wigs actually helped - sort of. As wigs became an everyday accessory, people shaved their natural hair in order to get a better fit.

The shaved heads solved the head lice problem, but soon the lice infested the wigs instead. Still, it was much easier to delouse a wig rather than pick them off a person's head, which could be time consuming and painful. Wigmakers specialized in removing lice by tossing dirty wigs into boiling water. By the latter half of the 18th century, wigs weren't just for men - they were also popular for women.

However, women's styles weren't the same as men's. Many aristocratic and royal women had hairdressers style their natural hair with hairpieces or hair extensions. Hair powder was very popular for the ladies, who used gray, blue, and even violet in their hair. Scented hair powder, carrying an air of lavender or orange , also helped cover the musk of the era. Women's wigs could be extremely heavy, ornamented with jewelry, precious stones, and other adornments.

And just as with men, a peruke could cover up evidence of syphilis for a woman. Aristocrats saw the wig as a marker of status.

Wigs weren't cheap: an everyday wig could cost 25 shillings , the equivalent of a week's pay for a commoner, while elaborate wigs could easily cost shillings. And aristocrats weren't happy when common folk took up the fashion. Wigs for men dealing with hair loss never completely disappeared, of course, but they became smaller and as natural looking as possible to conceal their use instead of the obvious powdered wig style.

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