The Washington herald., 1913-05-04
WIGS.
WIGS.
4 Lot ef Infor,nation About Them.

4 Lot 0f Information About Them.
From the London Answer.
Nowadays wigs of Office form a de-
caying race. The lordly. full-bottomed
wig of His Majesty's judges still re,
mains, out more than one stern justice
has been known to cool his feyered brow
on a scorching day by discarding his
imposing but Oppressive head covering
So late as the year 1880 bishops wore
wigs when seated in the House of Lords.
but since that date. the custom has fallen
into disuse
With the exception of the Speaker OF
the House OF Commons the law retains
a monopoly of the wig. Barristers and
solicitors keep company with the judges,
but with far smaller and more comfort
able "thatches." Then again there IL
and other funkeys and carefully busted
lover with -four or powdered oatmeal.
Seach Great Britain and you will
hardly find half a dozen wig makers
that is manufacturers of the ceremonial
article. A full-buttomed wig, such as
Judge would buy for IL guineas. would
last the remainder of his life, and there
have been, very few judges who have
bought a second, lawyers and barris-
tiers pay guineas for their official head
dress, and generally speaking, one wig
is SUFFICIENT for an entire professional
career
All Official wigs are made from horse
hair. and a maker OF these articles must
search over more than a hundred-weight
of stock hair to obtain a pound worthy
of use for this august purpose. The hairs
are built up three times on foundation
of silk and a wooden model is made of
the subjects head before the task COM
mences. -
Strictly speaking, official wigs are as
old as the hills. They have been found
on the heads of Egyptian mummies and
were certainly known to the Greeks and
Romans. In the eighteenth century-the
zenith of the wig era-there were thirty
or forty varieties. Then, the more i'm
portant the wearer. the larger the wig,
hence our term ''bigwig." as applied to
a magistrate.
Very different is the history Of the
shy, retiring wig, whose mission is UNI
blushingly to mask badness. Very often
a man, finding a white, bare patch on
his head will have "scalpette' made
to fit the spot so accurately as to defy
detection. AS the bald spot increases.
so does the scalpette until eventually
II becomes a wig, held in place by light
steel springs clipping over the ears.
A man may be called upon to pay as
much as 20 guineas for a wig, partic-
ularly IL his natural hair is of an I'M
usual color. Each individual hair in the
wig must be built up separately and cut
to length on a foundation of hair net.
Women naturally indulge in false
tresses to a far greater extent than the
mere man. The miliner's art itself often
demands the aid of artificial hair, and
nowadays instead of the hat being made
up for the wearer, the wearer must be
made up for the hat. Transformations.
pompadours, toupees, ringlets, fringes and
hair nets are a few varieties of hirsute
adornments prepared for the fair sex.
A good deal of the so-called hair Is
made from silk. 1t takes dys readily and
lastingly, curls well and washes admira-
bly,. A length of hair such as one may
buy at a suburban hairdresser's for two
shillings probably Is made from silk.