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TBA
Wigs were first worn by fashionable young men in England in the mid-1650s, and the new fashion was accepted by Charles II in 1664 when he was first to be seen sporting a wig of the new style. For a full century after 1664, the wig in a variety of styles was worn by all gentlemen, and indeed by a high proportion of all men. (Women wore hairpieces, but they were never intended to look like wigs). In the 1760s and 1770s fashionable young men began to give up wearing wigs, and by the 1800s wigs were out of fashion and worn only by the consciously unfashionable or in order to demonstrate reactionary opinions.
The wig was a remarkable fashion statement, since it involved men in shaving off their own hair and keeping their natural hair very short. The best wigs were made from the hair of young women, and the country was scoured by a network of hair merchants who provided pocket money to the girls who sacrificed their hair. It was the first known trade in body parts.
Why was this extraordinary fashion adopted, used for such a long period and then rejected?
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