An early alternative method for curling hair that was suitable for use on people was invented in 1905 by German hairdresser Karl Nessler.[5] He used a mixture of cow urine and water. The first public demonstration took place on 8 October 1905, but Nessler had been working on the idea since 1896. Previously, wigs had been set with caustic chemicals to form curls, but these recipes were too harsh to use next to human skin. His method, called the spiral heat method, was only useful for long hair. The hair was wrapped in a spiral around rods connected to a machine with an electric heating device. Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) was applied and the hair was heated to 212 F (100 C) or more for an extended period of time. The process used about twelve 2-pound (0.9 kg) brass rollers and took six hours to complete. These hot rollers were kept from touching the scalp by a complex system of countering weights which were suspended from an overhead chandelier and mounted on a stand. Nessler conducted his first experiments on his wife, Katharina Laible. The first two attempts resulted in completely burning her hair off and some scalp burns, but the method was improved and his electric permanent wave machine was used in London in 1909 on the long hair of the time.
During the '40s, braided hairstyles (opens in new tab) rose to prominence, with stars like Billie Holiday donning crown braids and braided buns, occasionally weaving in pieces of fabric or hair in contrasting colors.
wigs with hairstyles of 1935
As the result of an emphasis on mimicking actresses like Joan Fontaine and Lana Turner, stylish women opted for glamorous hairstyles (opens in new tab) like thick, polished chignons, sometimes accessorizing them with clips or pins.
As the result of an emphasis on mimicking actresses like Joan Fontaine and Lana Turner, stylish women opted for glamorous hairstyles like thick, polished chignons, sometimes accessorizing them with clips or pins.
The earliest Egyptian wigs (c. 2700 b.c.e.) were constructed of human hair, but cheaper substitutes such as palm leaf fibers and wool were more widely used. They denoted rank, social status, and religious piety and were used as protection against the sun while keeping the head free from vermin. Up until the 1500s, hair tended to be dressed as a foundation for headdresses, but by the end of the century hairstyles became higher and more elaborate constructions in which quantities of false hair were used to supplement the wearer's own. Hair was gummed and powdered, false curls and ringlets were in fashion, and, in some cases, a complete head of false hair called a perruque, was worn. The French perruque was colloquially known as a peruke, periwyk, periwig, and eventually the diminutive wig by 1675.
The seventeenth century saw the complete resurgence of the wig and it became the height of fashion for both men and women, with many shaving their heads beneath for both comfort and fit. Hair historian Richard Corson sees the ascendance of Louis XIV to the French throne as pivotal. The king supplemented his thinning hair with false pieces until "eventually he agreed to have his head shaved, which was done daily thereafter, and to wear a wig." (Corson, p. 215) By the eighteenth century, those who had the finances had a large wig for formal occasions and a smaller one for use in the home. The larger or more "full bottomed" the wig, the more expensive, thus they were also a mark of class and income and the target of wig snatch-ers. If one was unable to afford a wig, one made one's natural hair look as wiglike as possible. By the mid-eighteenth century, white was the favored color for wigs, and they were first greased then powdered with flour or a mixture of starch and plaster of paris in the house's wig closet using special bellows. Lucrative trades were constructed around their care and maintenance, such as hairdressing, so-called because hair was dressed rather than cut. Women's wigs were particularly high, powdered, and bejeweled, and the subject of much caricature. To achieve the look, hair was harvested from the heads of the rural working classes. Richard Corson noted that the full wig was disappearing by about 1790, however, "when there was a good deal of natural hair in evidence" (Corson, p. 298).
With the introduction of the new bobbed hairstyle in the 1920s, wigs fell out of favor and were worn by older women who were not interested in the newly shorn look. Their use returned in the 1950s, but only as a way of having temporary fantasy hairstyles. The most renowned wigmakers and hairdressers in Europe were Maria and Rosy Carita. In black hairdressing, though, the wig was of supreme importance allowing for fashionable styles without undergoing the time-consuming, and in some instances painful, process of straightening. Black stars such as Diana Ross were known for their stylish wig collections in the mid-1960s. It was not really until the late 1960s that wigs underwent a massive renaissance in white hairdressing practices. Rapidly changing fashion, a space-age chic and the vogue for drip-dry clothes in new man-made fabrics led to a vogue for the artificial over the natural. By 1968 there was a wig boom and it is estimated that one-third of all European women wore what hair-dressers called a "wig of convenience." Men still tended to wear wigs differently moving further toward the naturalism that many women were rejecting. Until the early 1950s, all wigs were made by hand. However, the invention of the machine-made, washable, nylon and acrylic wig in Hong Kong led to cheap, mass-produced wigs flooding the market. The novelty fashion wig or hair-piece became one of Hong Kong's fastest growing exports and by 1970 the industry employed 24,000 workers. In 1963 British imports of wigs and hairpieces from Hong Kong was worth 200,000 ($350,000); by 1968 it was almost 5 million ($8.78 million). By 1969 around forty percent of wigs were synthetic and the leading companies in wig development were the American firm Dynel and the Japanese Kanekalon, who both used modacrylics to create wigs that were easy to care for and held curl well. In the late twentieth century, many false forms of hair are used and the change from a long to a short hair-style can be completed at a whim with extensions that have moved from black hairdressing to white hairdressing. Singers such as Beyoncé and Britney Spears use weaves of all styles and colors openly.
The dramatic hairstyles of wealthy Roman women changed so frequently that even sculptures began to have a sort of wig. Many notable women who had their portraits carved in marble began to ask that the hair be carved as a separate piece, so that the hair on the sculpture could be changed to keep up with the current fashion.
Upper-class Egyptian men and women considered wigs an essential part of their wardrobe. Wearing a wig signaled a person's rank in Egyptian society. Although a shaved head was a sign of nobility during most of the Egyptian kingdoms, the majority of Egyptians kept their heads covered. Wigs were worn in place of headdresses or, for special occasions, with elaborate headdresses. Egyptian law prohibited slaves and servants from shaving their heads or wearing wigs.
The base of an Egyptian wig was a fiber-netting skullcap, with strands of human hair, wool, flax, palm fibers, felt, or other materials attached. The wig hair often stuck straight out from the skullcap, creating large, full wigs that offered wearers protection from the heat of the sun. Most often black, wigs were also other colors. Queen Nefertiti, who lived during the fourteenth century b.c.e., was known for wearing dark blue wigs, and festive wigs were sometimes gilded, or thinly coated in gold.
The hot climate of Egypt made it uncomfortable for men to wear beards. However, Egyptians believed that the beard was manly, so they developed artificial beards, or beard wigs. Men of royal rank tied stubby beards on their chins for official or festive occasions. The king's beard was longer than that of other men and was usually worn straight and thick. Gods were depicted with thinner beards that curled up at the tip. Egyptians believed that kings were descended from the gods, and in some ceremonies kings would wear a curved beard to show that they represented gods.
During the seventeenth century, men of the upper classes shaved their heads and wore long elaborate wigs that grew shorter and simpler during the early decades of the eighteenth century. By 1750 these, too, gradually went out of fashion as men began to give up shaving their heads and natural hair became more popular, although it was usually curled and powdered to look like a wig. The powder could be brown, gray, or white, although the latter was preferred. If the natural hair was worn unpowdered and short, a hairpiece with a braided or tied queue could be attached at the back of the crown to fill out the hairstyle. By the 1790s soldiers in the American army were ordered to wear their hair tied and powdered when they appeared for review. From 1770 to 1800 hair styles among American men ranged from natural hair worn short to natural hair worn long and tied back to natural hair crimped and curled and powdered to full formal wigs. By 1800 wigs had universally died out among men except for older or more conservative men, especially those in the clergy, lawyers, and doctors, some of whom continued wearing wigs through the first three decades of the nineteenth century.
Women, on the other hand, rarely wore wigs from 1750 to 1800. The high, elaborate hairstyles of the time were constructed by brushing one's own hair, well greased with pomatum, over rats or puffs, and powdering it. When shorter hairstyles became popular among women after 1790, wigs, too, became more popular and were frequently worn to eliminate the necessity of styling one's own hair for
formal occasions. President Jefferson's married daughters asked him to have wigs made to match their natural hair for their visits to Washington in 1802 and 1805, and Dolley Madison and her sister ordered wigs in 1807 and 1809. Women whose hair was turning gray would often wear natural-colored wigs to hide the fact. From 1810 to 1830 women wore full wigs less often than partial wigs, with false curls, ringlets, and bangs being utilized to fill in hairstyles where needed. Also, the high-piled curls so popular about 1830 were frequently augmented by false ringlets attached to combs. Wig use gradually died out among women also, and by 1830 wigs were seldom worn by either sex. 2ff7e9595c
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