Wigs and Kingship 2


The Black Death could not stop the popularity of wigs

In the winter of 1751, Rousseau, who was recovering from a serious illness, decided to change his former luxurious lifestyle, so he threw away his saber, gilt-edged clothes, white stockings, even sold his watch, and even gave up his job. Wigs and Sweaters".

The importance of wigs in French life is evident.

The reason for the popularity of wigs, in addition to the discrimination against baldness, there is an unspoken factor - syphilis. When Columbus and his crew returned to Europe, they brought back syphilis in addition to the message of the New World. With the magical medicine of the time, the cure for syphilis was to scrub or smoke the affected area with mercury. Of course, such a treatment method cannot cure syphilis, but will cause mercury poisoning in patients receiving long-term treatment, and a lot of hair loss.

If you were walking on the streets of Europe in the 15th and 17th centuries and saw a bright bald head, you would never think that the other party was a one-punch man in the comics, but would avoid this promiscuous person who might be infected with syphilis in disgust. .


When having a long flowing hair and becoming a sign of decency, wigs have also become a necessity from fashion. Even the frightening Black Death can't help people's love of beauty.

In 1665, when the infamous Black Death broke out in London, the English writer Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary: "September 3, 1665: Arise, put on my very fine silk coat, and Put on my new wig, I haven't dared to wear it since I bought this good thing, because when I bought it, there was a plague in Westminster. Strangely, after the plague passed , no one is afraid of buying things like hair and getting infected."

In fact, the Black Death still affected beauty-loving people a little - the popular long wigs became short wigs, but that's about it.

Under the background of the era when it is necessary to buy a wig to fill the scene, the wig industry is finally no longer limited to the palace, but begins to enter the market.

In Paris, there were only 200 wig masters in 1673, but in 1771 the number of wig masters soared to 945. Even the number of wig masters in the small town of Rouen changed from 20 to 83 in the 100 years from 1680 to 1781, while one On average, the master can make 100 wigs a year. Wigs flowed into ordinary people's homes and began to become less luxurious.

Of course the nobles also complained about this. "Paris is full of lords now!" recorded a marquis named Mirabeau: "On Sunday, a man in black silk and a fine wig came to see me, and I complimented him in a lowly manner, In the end, he said, he is the son of my blacksmith or a saddle maker! Are wigs used for dancing in the street with casual wear?"

However, wearing such a towering wig is also easy to be targeted by thieves. In England in the 18th century, the "bikers" were not robbing backpacks, but wigs. According to the records, a classic method of stealing a wig is to have a boy rush out to distract the rich people, and then the other person will have to be quick - pull the wig off and throw it to the trained dog, and then the man, the boy , The dog escaped in three separate ways, leaving a bald scoop in place in the wind, not knowing who to chase.

In addition to the boy who suddenly rushed out, there were also well-trained monkeys and passers-by on horseback. They stared at the top of the rich man's head, waiting for an opportunity to smash it down. More https://coslour.com/