When Wigs Went Out of Fashion, Was Everyone Like, ‘What Were We Thinking?’

January 6, 2009 by Nicole · 2 Comments
Filed under: Economics

When did wigs go out of fashion? And I’m talking about the white powdered wigs, not current wigs or hair–extentions… And more importantly, when they did go out of fashion and people were onto the next ‘fad’ or fashion trend –
Did people say to each other, ‘Oh my God, can you believe we wore WIGS ?!!’

Last night my husband had on the History Channel, as he always does, and he said to me,

“I wonder if people looked back at the generation before them that wore wigs and were aghast at the fashion.”

First of all, I felt like saying, “Who are you? Bring back my husband who doesn’t care about fashion… Is this Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”

Then I thought about it and Googled it… and here you go:

In ancient times Egyptians wore wigs to shield their bald heads from the sun- that makes sense.

Then, wigs were revived in the 16th century as a means of compensating for hair loss or improving one’s personal appearance. And that makes sense. There was also a lot of hair lice in those days so people would shave their heads to get rid of it- then wear a wig… DISGUSTING, but practical.

So, back to the question:

It’s funny to think about how people must have reflected on wig wearing…

I mean, I cringe when I think of the 80’s and what I wore: stirrup-pants anyone?

But wigs are crazy-worse that stirrup-pants.

But wigs were somewhat of a necessity of the time; so maybe people didn’t make fun of people before them.

Actually, I don’t think people started making fun of previous fashion trends until recently, as in the last 30 years, because PEOPLE DIDN’T HAVE TIME to make fun of fashion. People were growing their own food and working long hours and life was harder than now-a-days.

Just a thought.

It’s still funny to think about some young people a couple of hundred years ago sitting around saying, ‘Can you believe your mom wore a wig? How lame!’