Powdered Wigs

732 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Fashion history 18th 20th century

To many people, style is everything. Style is what creates your image. You can tell a lot about someone by the clothes they wear to the type of haircut they get. Fashion may be indispensable to some and others might care less. In the 1700s the trend was hair. Hair was important because it was how you were viewed in society. Wigs, as simple as they may be, had an important role in colonial society.
In colonial times, the hair style that was put to shame was bald. People did not want to become bald. The people who were already bald felt embarrassed. Wigs were the solution to this predicament. Being bald was like wearing a dunce cap on you head all the time. If you wanted to be respected and treated as such, you could not be bald. Although male pattern baldness is natural, disease had a role into the wig fib as well. Syphilis also caused the need for wigs. Back then, STDs were very common among men and women. Syphilis caused baldness. To cover up the fact that one was bald, a wig would be needed. Personal hygiene was another reason for wigs. Personal hygiene was not a normal thing for people back then. They rarely, if ever, showered. This caused lice to infect their natural growing hair. The lice would begin to eat away at their hair and scalp. Wigs were needed once more to, again, hide baldness. These reasons lead to a jump start in the world of wig making.
Wigs were not popular at first. They were viewed like a kid being embarrassed about his teddy bear. The little kid cannot sleep without it but he does not want his friends to find out that he sleeps with a teddy bear. It was not until 1655, when Louis XIV wore a wig, that wigs were thought of as a sign of high class rather than a symbol of embarrassment. At the age of 17 King...

... middle of paper ...

...just fashion statement, wigs were like a visual sign of who a person was and what social class they were in. Due to diseases and lack of personal hygiene, many suffered hairloss. Wigs were used to hide the social embarrassment of having no hair. Wigs back then and now will remain to do what they were originally made to do; allow people with no hair to have hair, whether the reason is for image and respect or simply not having hair.

Works Cited

"History.org: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's Official History and Citizenship Website." Wigmaker : The Colonial Williamsburg Official History & Citizenship Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Reilly, Lucas. "Why Did People Wear Powdered Wigs?" Mental Floss. Mental Floss, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
"Wigs and Hair : Colonial Williamslburg Kids." Wigs and Hair : Colonial Williamslburg Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.

Show More
Related

  • Suffering, Sacrifice and Punishment under the Tyranny of Beauty

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    For example, during the Renaissance, well-born European women plucked out hairs, one by one, from their natural hairline all the way back to the crowns of their heads, to give them the high rounded foreheads thought to be beautiful at the time. Those who didn't want to resort to plucking used poultices of vinegar mixed with cat dung or quick-lime. The latter often removed some of the skin as well as the hair.

    Read More

  • American Woman Hair Styles and Head Gear in History

    555 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1750, the coiffure, which was used frequently among the rich of Europe, was finally catching on in the Americas. A coiffure was a French style that you have probably seen, it is huge hair styles that are made primarily out of horse hair and take hours to complete. The hair got big and wild and out of control. In some cases they even put cardboard cut outs of animals or trees in the sea of wire curls. Toward the end of the big hair the styles came close to the head and spread out.

    Read More

  • Exploring Social Patterns in the Renaissance Through Fashion

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fashion reflects the attitudes of a society more than any other art form. Like art, fashion is a material record of the ideals that swayed the nations at the time of their creation. Through examining the styles, and tastes of a particular era, we can realize where the interests and priorities of a time lie. As Frank Parsons wrote in his 1920 study, The Psychology of Dress, "There is surly no better field in which to trace the devious paths of human thought than in that of clothes, where man has ever given free play to self expression, in a way which, thought not always a credit to his intelligence, is yet quite true to his innermost self, whether he will acknowledge it or not." Through, tracing and analyzing, side by side, art and fashion, and the effects that one had on the other and society, we can understand the ideals, and interests of European culture, here, through the Renaissance.

    Read More

  • How Did Fashion Change In The 1920s

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    One major trend of the 1920s was the short bob. This hairstyle was innovated by Coco Chanel. Before women cut their hair they used to wear their hair long so as a result, cutting their hair shorter was a form of rebellion. Another item of clothing that often went along with the bob is a hat called the cloche hat. Cloche is the French word for bell. They were decorated with different kinds of appliques feathers and brooches. During the 1920s most women were found wearing the cloche hat. When women were not wearing hats, they were found wearing headbands to compliment their bobbed hair. They also came in a variety of designs with gold accents, gems, and feathers.

    Read More

  • Drag Music Video Analysis

    1905 Words  | 4 Pages

    Wigs can be simple or complex as well. The wigs used in “Hello, I love you” are simple in style but give a punch with the vibrant blue and the pastel pink. Where as in “Sissy that walk” the wigs were just consisting of natural colours but shaped and styled in unique and exuberant ways. Drag queens also require body accessories to give the illusion of a woman’s figure like fake boobs and hip and butt pads. Also to help the appearance of a female, the sexual organs of the male have to be tucked between the legs and secured to prevent falling

    Read More

  • What to Wear: Elizabethan Fashion

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    Elizabethan fashion was the start of fashion itself. This was the time of Christopher Columbus and other explorers who united the world. International trade routes had been discovered and global trade had officially began. Before the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, people just wore clothes to keep warm and to conceal themselves. Attire was plain and simple; it did not have flair or style. New fabrics and dyes were now readily available from all over the world. The Elizabethan Era was the first time the wealthy began to invest large sums of money and time into their clothing. Apparel distinguished the rich from the destitute. Both genders cared significantly about their clothing; it was not just a women’s hobby. The monarchs of the world during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries headed this new desire for gorgeous clothing, especially Queen Elizabeth herself. The Sumptuary laws were passed to keep certain styles specifically for the monarchs and nobility. The common people were prohibited from wearing those styles. The exquisite designs and shapes of clothing reflected the monarch’s influence on society and the novel Renaissance desire for a specific body shape; there were dissimilarities in attire among the people of different social classes due to the Sumptuary restrictions.

    Read More

  • Black Women´s Hair Throughout History and their Identity

    1828 Words  | 4 Pages

    The book is not just about history of black hair. It contains quotes and information from a huge wealth of black hair resources, as well as political context of black hair styles and textures and why black hair comes in so many different textures. On styling of black hair: In Hair Story (2002), the authors write about some of black hair styles, including the West African manner of wearing their hair in braid or wrap to the current and most popular hair styles: weaves, natural hair and chemical hair straightening by black people- a style considered as imitating "white" hairstyles. Byrd and Tharps (2010) ".. the goal of grooming the hair had morphed from the elaborate and symbolic designs of Africa into an imitation of White styles adapted to Black kinks and curls. Both women and men were interested in straightening their hair because straight European hair was held up as the beauty ideal.

    Read More

  • The Career of a Cosmetologist

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    As years rolled by, cosmetology and the business of looking good began to pick up a huge amount of customers. Getting hair curled, ironed, or wavy is very popular now. A lot of women today, all over the world, want to look like their favorite star. It was that need and craze to look good, which made cosmetology successful as it is today. Shekinah Jo Anderson is a professional hair stylist with just a few years of professional experience.

    Read More

  • Race And The Puritan Body Politics Summary

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    their hair and to cover their breasts. Men with long hair also faced fines as did anyone cracking lice

    Read More

  • The Iran Hostage Crisis

    2450 Words  | 5 Pages

    6 vols. of a book. Salem Press, 2008. Salem History Web. 27 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • Racism: An Unseen Thread in Fashion and Work

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fashion is dressing a certain way to express how a person really is. Imagine coming from African descent and using a hairstyle to represent your culture, and the results are being judged and told that they are probably some

    Read More

  • Peruvian Fashion: The Incan Empire Versus Present Day

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Incans were very particular about their hairstyles. The women parted their hair down the middle and let it hang straight down. In some areas of the empire, women would don two braids. They frequently washed their hair in order to keep it clean and shiny. The women brush their hair with combs made out of two rows of thorns tied onto wood with a piece of cloth. Sometimes women would go extreme lengths to keep their hair black, risking scalding, by dyeing it in boiling water mixed with an herb called chuchan. Women only cut their hair when they were mourning (Kendall, 1973, 33). Inca men often had their hair as a long bob that covered their ears. Tweezers made out of mussel shells and metal have been found, suggesting that the Inca removed their facial hair (Baudin, 1961, 64).

    Read More

  • Clothing In The Middle Ages

    2728 Words  | 6 Pages

    There have been many things that described people throughout history. One of the most dominant ways was the style of clothing. Through cultural preference and materials available there is consistency as well as diversity in clothing. Though clothes in the Middle Ages were somewhat primitive compared to today’s garments, the quality clothing had no effect on the people’s freedom of expression through fashion.

    Read More

  • Rastafarianism In Jama's Neo-Colonism

    1318 Words  | 3 Pages

    Rastafarians appearances and beliefs distinguish them from what society dictated them to be. Amongst themselves hair culture began in 1934 with the origination of members growing beard and being called the bearded men. The Dreadful and Sons of Thunder where the ones who elected to “wear their...

    Read More

  • Fashion During the Elizabethan Era

    1239 Words  | 3 Pages

    Have you ever wondered what people in the Elizabethan Era wore? Fashion was just as important in those days as it is to some people today. What people were wearing mattered to others, and even the government. During the Elizabethan Era clothing, accessories, and cosmetics were all a part of daily life.

    Read More

More about Powdered Wigs

Open Document