In 1624, 23-year-old King Louis the XIII of France was in crisis. He was balding. What would people say, at a time when a monarch's hair had come to symbolize his power and nobility? Louis was not interested in finding out. Instead, he made a decision that kicked off a 150-year fashion craze: he wore a particularly full wig.
Long before Louis people adopted wigs for various reasons— including hygiene, theater, and anti-aging endeavors. Wigs date at least as far back as ancient Egypt, where well-regarded hairdressers crafted them into intricate styles. And under certain ancient Roman dynasties, women's wigs became particularly ornate, one poet mocking their numerous tiers.
During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church discouraged wig-wearing, emphasizing instead humility and austerity. So, those who did wig in medieval western Europe generally wore more natural-looking styles. But as rules relaxed in the 1500s, wigs became more acceptable accessories. Queen Elizabeth I of England owned over 80 red wigs, which she used to augment her hair and conceal it as it thinned and grayed. One of these wigs even adorned her funeral effigy.
Yet it wasn't until Louis XIII unveiled his magnificent mane a couple of decades later that big wigs truly began booming. Members of Louis' court, perhaps eager to gain favor, bewigged themselves and aristocrats elsewhere soon followed suit. The fast-growing popularity of wigs might have been accentuated by concerns over hair loss caused by mercury, which doctors then prescribed to treat syphilis and other ailments. But people also heralded wigs as convenient, since they eliminated the need for daily hair cleaning and styling.
In the mid-1600s, the trend amplified under Louis XIII's son, Louis XIV. At the time, Europe took its couture cues from Madrid. But Louis XIV's government changed that by investing heavily in France's luxury industry. They created specialized guilds, formalized seasonal releases, enforced a dress code at court, and banned imports that could have been made in France or its colonies. Louis XIV once even ordered his son— yet another Louis— to burn his coat because it was made of foreign cloth. Buoyed by its growing colonial empire, France amassed wealth and influence, and Parisian-style big wigs soon perched atop many European heads.
These full-bottom men's hairpieces demanded such thick, long locks that ten heads of hair could go into just one. Within a century, the number of Parisian wigmakers quadrupled. Even small villages often boasted at least one wigmaker. They generally fabricated their merchandise from human hair— probably sourced from poor women— or from cheaper materials like wool or horsehair. To clean their wigs, eliminate odors, and absorb sweat, people showered them in perfumed powders of flour, chalk, and aromatics like violet, rose, clove, and lemon. It was a messy business, with entire rooms designated for the task. In fact, that's where the term "powder room" is thought to have originated.
By the mid-1700s, men's wigs remained popular but became simpler, often styled with curls around the face and a ponytail in back. Women's wigs, however, soared to new heights, literally towering up to a meter. Wigmakers often constructed these using rods, ribbons, and wool stuffing. And once covered with hair, the wig could be adorned with all manner of accoutrements. Lighter colored wigs became fashionable and were only enhanced with powders, sometimes tinted purple, pink, or blue.
But not everyone bought into the trend. Caricaturists mocked big wig-wearers, framing them as frivolously flamboyant. And the hotter temperatures in some of Europe's colonies might have made heavy powdered wigs a nuisance. In 1740, a visitor in Maryland observed that so few people wore wigs, he said, "you would imagine they were all sick, or going to bed."
In the late 1700s, a popular backlash against aristocratic decadence gained steam. As France faced a bread shortage, flour-powdered wigs were viewed as particularly problematic. And in 1789, the French Revolution kicked off. In 1795, England's parliament passed a "powder tax" that led many to abandon their big wigs. And so, they fell out of fashion, left high and powder-dry, like mere relics of a hair-brained past craze.
