The word wig is short for periwig and first appeared in the English language around 1675.

Based on an ivory carving of a woman’s head found in southwestern France, anthropologists speculate that wigs may have been used as long as 100,000 years ago. Wigs were quite popular among ancient Egyptians, who cut their hair short or shaved their heads in the interests of cleanliness and comfort (i.e., relief from the desert heat). While the poor wore felt caps to protect their heads from the sun, those who could afford them wore human hair wigs sheep’s wool, or palmleaf fiber mounted on a porous fabric. An Egyptian clay figure that dates to about 2500 B.C. wears a removable wig of black clay.

The British Museum holds a beautifully made wig at least 3,000 years old that was found in the Temple of Isis at Thebes; its hundreds of tiny curls still retain their carefully arranged shape.

Wigs were popular in ancient Greece, both for personal use and in the theater (the color and style of wigs disclosed the nature of individual characters). In Imperial Rome, fashionable women wore blond or redhaired wigs made from the heads of Germanic captives, and Caesar used a wig and a laurel wreath to hide his baldness. Both Hannibal and Nero wore wigs as disguises. A portrait bust of Plautilla (ca. 210 A.D. ) was made without hair so wigs of current fashion could always adorn this image of Emperor Caracalla’s wife.

During the Plague of 1665, mens wigs in such short supply that there were persistent rumors of the hair of disease victims being used to manufacture wigs. This shortage of hair was partially remedied by using wool or the hair of goats or horses to make lower grades of wigs (in fact, horsehair proved useful since it retained curls effectively). For several decades around 1700, men were warned to be watchful as they walked the streets of London, lest their wigs be snatched right off their heads by daring thieves.

The enormous popularity of wigs in England declined markedly during the reign of George III, except for individuals who continued to wear them as a symbols of their professions (e.g., judges, doctors, and clergymen). In fact, so many wigmakers were facing financial ruin that they marched through London in February 1765 to present George III with a petition for relief. Bystanders were infuriated, noticing that few of the wigmakers were wearing wigs although they wanted to protect their jobs by forcing others to wear them. A riot ensued, during which the wigmakers were forcibly shorn.

During the late eighteenth century, Louis XVI wore wigs to hide his baldness, and wigs were very fashionable throughout France. The modern technique of ventilating (attaching hairs to a net foundation) was invented in this environment. By 1784, springs were being sewn into French wigs to make them fit securely. In 1805, a Frenchman invented the fleshcolored hair net for use in wigmaking.

A series of other improvements followed rapidly, including knotting techniques, fitting methods, and the use of silk net foundations. These matters were so important that a major lawsuit arose, and one inventor committed suicide after selling his patent cheaply and watching others become rich using his technique. One of the manufacturing processes that was tried at this time was based on the use of pig or sheep bladders to simulate bald heads on actors.

In the mid 1800s, some wigs and toupees were made by implanting hairs in such bladders using an embroidery needle. In the late nineteenth century, children and apprentices of wigmakers amused themselves by playing the “wig game,” in which each participant accumulated points by throwing an old wig up to touch the ceiling and catching it on the head as it fell.