News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-24
WIG MAKING.
Facts of Interest About Counterfeit
Hirsute Coverings.

The are of wig making is dignifed
with the most ancient of histories. There
is a periwig in the British Museum of
Egyptian origin supposed to be 1000
years old, and Xenophen mentions that
Astyages wore an immense wig. Ro-
man Emperors supplied the lack of
natural hair with artificial substitutes,
the wig of the Emperor Commodus be-
ing highly perfumed and s%prinkled with
gold dust; and even the South Sea Is
landers understand the art of wig MAX
ing. After the decline of the popular
fashion of Louis XIII s establishment,
that no gentleman could appear without
a wig, wigs were rarely worn at all, be-
cause they were so crudely fashioned as
to deceive no one as to their purpose,
but Mr.. Rouchfuss, the oldest wig maker
in the city, asserts that there is now q
revival of the custom and O continually
increasing demand for wigs and toupees,
though this is not noticeable, because
there are so many more bald-headed men
than formerly that the percentage of
wig wearers is small and wigs are so cum
ningly made as to defy detection. Ply
slclans frequently recommend the wear
ing of wigs as a preventative of or cure
for catarrh and neuralgia and influenza.
"An kinds of people wear them," Mr..
Rouchfuss asserts, 'from the fastidious
man of unlimited means, who buys q new
wig costing $25 or $50 as often as once n
month, to the nan who only can afford
n once o year, and then takes n wig
that some fussy man has discarded after
once or twice wearing because the color
didn't please him or something in the
style didn't quite suit. These we sell
cheaper, like the misfts in the tailors'
establishments; but we never make any
misfits."
GLOW often does any one need a new
wig?"
''Once in three or six months, &C
cording to the care they give it. Peo-
pie with wigs are just as they are with
clothing. Some men will wear q suit
and look dressed in it when you can
see your face in the back of the coat and
carry q valise in the knees Of the trou-
sers. 1t is the neat way they put it on
and the care they give it. Just so with
q wig. I have a customer out West, a
military man, who is away there among
the Indians, sleeping in a tent most of
the time and with most announcement ar
Judgements IOE Vic CdIc VI Ills CIObuIlR
and for toilet purposes. He buys q new
wig about once a year, and even then
the old n is as good as new, only that
it has faded. That's because he takes
care OF it. Then I have customers here
in the city, hurried business men, who
jam on their wigs all in a twist, crack
ing the paper at the same time, and
they come back in three months with
them perfectly ruined. There's one
class of customers that never get wigs
in the wrong place or hurry too much in
their ad ustment, and they are women.
Work or worry, fire Or thieves, never
hustle a woman into getting the parting
of her wig crooked OF a single hair in an
unnatural place, but a man will stick n
toupee on so that it will show a streak
of badness between that and his hair
just for the sake of catching a car five
minutes earlier, and then come in here
and wonder why it doesn't fit"
Chow do you fasten on toupees?"
"With n peculiar preparation like
paste, which comes in a long stick and
is hard until o small piece is broken off
and worked in the fingers like putty.
Three or four of these pieces will fa stem
q toupee on so a blizzard can't blow it
off, but it loosens easily with the fingers
when we wish to remove it."
What is the most expensive wig
made?"
GA pure white ventilated wig costs
$40 or $50, and a plain weft wig in a
color ONE as low rs $15. Toupees
run from $40 to SIS. OF course, ladies
wigs are more expensive, sometimes
going as high as 500, according to the
length and color of the hair. But very
few ladies wear wigs, for there are SO
many little devices by which women
conceal their lack of hair ; and they are
cunning enough in the arrangement of
the few tresses which they have to make
the most of them"
Which are the hardest to please,
"There's very little difference. They
are both hard to please at first. They
are accustomed to seeing little or no
unnatural. Old wig wearers have their
particular hobbies, but they are easily
satisfied. One of my customers wears a
toupee that weighs four ounces, one
quarter of q pound you sec, when q
whole wig only weighs an ounce and n
quarter. That's because he wore it
years ago, when they made wigs like
floor mats, because they didn't know
any better. There's one advantage that
wig makers have, and that is they keep
their customers. A man hat puts on n
wig can never take it off. He would as
soon think of dressing himself without
his coat as without his wig, and he
would feel as strange without it as other
men would feel in the street without
any hat. 1t looks easy to make a wig,
but it isn't, and not every man can make
them. Wig makers are born, not made,
just like artists in other professions. =
Neo York Sun.