page_title: Lace wig
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lace wig / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Actor in a human hair, lacefront wig.
context_page_description: A lace wig or a lace front wig is a special type of hairpiece or wig in which human hair or synthetic hair is tied by hand to a sheer lace base which goes over the scalp.
context_section_description: Wigs have been used since antiquity as hairstyles and costumes; ancient Egyptians wore wigs to shield their shaved heads from the sun. Wigs were kept in place by using beeswax and resin. Wigs were once made from horsehair, wool, buffalo hair or even feathers. Other ancient cultures, including the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans, also used wigs as an everyday fashion. There was intermittent use of wigs in many cultures throughout history including the prophylactic use of them in England in the 1600s to help protect from head lice.
  The modern wig was adopted by Louis XIII to cover his balding head. By the late 1600s, both wigs and handmade lace headpieces were common with European and North American upper classes as daily fashion. Wigs were made of human, horse, and yak hair and sewn onto a frame with silken thread were meant to be obvious as wigs and not the wearer's actual hair. Powdered wigs in rows of curls, known as periwigs, were adopted as court dress in many cultures with elaborate curls and style.
  After the American Revolutionary War, styles in North America changed and the wig as a sign of social class died out of use. Wigs began to be used more to augment natural hair for elaborate hairstyles, for religious reasons, or to cover hair loss in both genders and therefore were required to blend with the wearer's natural hair. The selling of human hair by the lower classes for use in wigs by the upper classes was captured in stories like Gift of the Magi and Little Women.
  In the 19th century a new wig-making method began to replace the weft method most commonly used prior.  A small hook called a "ventilating needle", similar to the tambour hooks used for decorating fabric with chain-stitch embroidery at that period, is used to knot a few strands of hair at a time directly to a suitable foundation material. By the 1870s, the lace machine had made lace affordable through mass production and the use of lace as foundation material for wigs entered popular use. Using lace allowed for a more natural-looking wig because the flesh-colored lace is almost imperceptible. The more common use was a strip of lace just at the front, known as a lace front wig, which gives the impression of a natural hairline.
caption: Actor in a human hair, lacefront wig
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