Why Did Men Wear Powdered Wigs in the Past?
In the 17th and 18th centuries, everyday items we take for granted today were status symbols among the European elite, including pineapples, mirrors, and, yes, wigs. While wigs have a long history in ancient societies, they were popularized as an upper-class fashion accessory during King Louis XIV’s reign in France from 1643 to 1715.
Louis XIV's court at Versailles was the epitome of style and sophistication. When the young king started losing his hair at the age of 17 in the 1650s, he began wearing hairpieces to cover it; by the time he reached his 30s, he had adopted highly coiffed statement wigs. These wigs, known as perukes, became an integral part of his regal appearance and an immediate trend among his courtiers and nobility. Around the same time that King Louis made wigs popular in France, his cousin King Charles II of England also began wearing them to cover his prematurely graying hair — both monarchs’ hair conditions are believed to have been caused by syphilis and its treatments.
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Like in France, wigs were a distinctive part of the English royal court in the mid-1600s, and quickly became fashionable in English society. While lower-quality wigs made of horse or goat hair trickled down to the merchant class, wigs made of human hair still primarily symbolized wealth, status, and professionalism. From about 1700 onward, it was common for wigs to be powdered. This was primarily for hygienic reasons: The powder, usually made from corn flour or bean flour, helped absorb oils and odors. The white powder was also believed to give the wigs a distinguished look.
Though they started as a fashion trend, wigs came to be a fixture of the legal profession in England. Judges and lawyers began wearing them to distinguish themselves from the general population and to convey a sense of authority, anonymity, and impartiality.
At that time, the American colonies were still under British rule, and as English customs and legal traditions made their way across the Atlantic in the first half of the 18th century, so did the practice of wearing wigs. Throughout the 1700s, American judges and lawyers adopted the trend, though in a more subdued style than the French and British. Wigs were also worn by members of the political elite, including prominent Founding Fathers such as John Adams and James Madison.
By the time of the American Revolution — and after the United States gained independence from England — wigs had waned in popularity for men in both Europe and in the U.S. While early paintings of America’s Founding Fathers depict many of the men with styled white hair, by this time, wigs were largely replaced by powder and pomade. This hairstyle conveyed the same stately status that wigs had long signified, while allowing the fledgling nation to break with English traditions.
When the first session of the U.S. Supreme Court convened in 1790, wigs, while waning in popularity for the general public, were still part of courtroom dress, and Justice William Cushing arrived at the court wearing the white wig he had worn in Massachusetts. Thomas Jefferson, who is believed to have worn hairpieces for a short time in the mid-1700s, was ready to move on, telling Cushing, “For heaven’s sake, discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum.”
By the early 19th century, the majority of men in Europe and America had stopped wearing wigs, but the tradition persisted in England, where wigs are still seen in courtrooms today. In 2007, the U.K. decided that barristers no longer needed to wear wigs in civil and family law courts. The U.K. Supreme Court followed suit, except in criminal trials and certain ceremonial events, where, to this day, a wig is still required for judges and lawyers.
Yet even without the requirements in general trials, wigs are still commonplace in many English courtrooms, and the tradition was long-lived in some former British colonies as well. Canada phased out wigs throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and Ireland and Jamaica didn’t stop the practice until 2011. In Australia, bench wigs and the more formal full-bottomed wigs persist today. In Africa, countries such as Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Kenya still use the headgear in courtrooms despite discussions about its relevance and appropriateness in postcolonial times — not to mention just how hot the additional hair is in warm climates.
