For many people in the eighteenth century, the youthful look that gave one beauty and the appearance of health was only available for a fleeting period during a lifetime. Then, as now, it was common to turn to the help of artifice to maintain the aesthetic standards so commonly desired and expected. Cosmetics to disguise imperfections on the face, powders and dye to disguise the greying colour of hair, and stays and underclothes to change the silhouette were all popular and commonly used tactics. Wig wearing was an important part of building the image of youth and beauty, which could be achieved through the application of artificial body parts, such as hair, and beauty products. In this context, wigs can again be placed into the category of cosmetics, as an external accoutrement used to enhance the natural feature whilst also being obviously artificial. In the same way that stays enhanced and falsified the silhouette, and make-up concealed and exaggerated the features, so the wig assumed the same role for the hair in the formation of the artificial body.
Ideas of what constituted beauty changed over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In fact it is possible to trace a radical transformation over the period through the use of cosmetics when the art of display became increasing popular (across both genders) as seen in an increasingly exaggerated silhouette,
244
Ibid.,p. 145; Anon., The London Practice of Physic (London, [n.p.], 6th edn. 1769), p. 405; John Theobald, Every Man His Own Physician. Being a Complete Collection of Efficacious and Approved Remedies (London: Printed for J.F. and C. Rivington, 1764), p. 5.
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popular styles of hair and wigs, and the use of make-up.245 In the latter part of the seventeenth, and through the first decades of the eighteenth century, cosmetics were used to create a newly drawn, highly artific ial face where lips and cheeks were red, and faces were painted white (see illustration 2.4).246 White skin, considered the beauty ideal for men and women, was achieved with thick face powder, and red lips and cheeks were painted on to accentuate them against the starkness of the white.247 Artificial facial adornments did not stop with cosmetics: beauty patches were common during the latter quarter of the seventeenth century, in parallel to large, artificial wigs becoming popular.248 Historians have argued that this use of cosmetics in conjunction with artificial- looking wigs by aristocratic and upper class men acted as an extension of their public personas, ensuring they were seen as theatrical and highly visible in public life.249
245
Aileen Ribeiro, Dress and Morality (London: Batsford, 1986), p. 109. 246
Vigarello, Concepts of Cleanliness, p. 82 discusses the marketing of cosmetics
increasingly ‘natural’ language, extolling the virtue of ‘vegetable’ ingredients in the popular white and red coloured cosmetics.
247
Ribeiro, Dress and Morality, p. 109. 248
Cockayne Hubbub, p. 41. 249
Amelia Rauser, ‘Hair, Authenticity and the Self-Made Macaroni’, Eighteenth-Century Studies, 38:1 (2004), p. 103.
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Illustration 2.4. John Montagu, 2nd Earl of Montagu, Sir Godfrey Kneller, (1709)
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This change can be traced through also in the gradual decline in the wig wearing, where false hair began to be abandoned in favour of maintaining the natura l hair, albeit often retaining the highly complicated, exaggerated styles. At the end of the period, hairdressers were advertising themselves in relation to the natural look of the hair they made and styled: “La Croix, Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Hair-dresser… makes all sorts of false hair, imitating nature that the greatest connoisseur may be deceived”.250
These hairdressers commonly claimed that their customers would be able to fool people the hair was their own, ‘natural’ hair, given the similarity of their wigs’ characteristics with real hair growing on the head.
Wigs were commonly used to hide the effects of medical procedures resulting in scars. That a ‘complete’ or unmarked body was synonymous with youth and beauty is apparent in the abundant references in the medical literature to the wearing of wigs in order to hide a disfigurement, or to give the appearance of youth and a good physical condition.
250
S. Hooper, A Guide to Health, Beauty, Riches and Honour, the second edition (London: Printed for Hooper and Wigstead, 1796), p. 63.
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Wig wearing can begin to be viewed from a different perspective when attempting to understand contemporary medical and lay attitudes to hair and the body. The idea of taking the body’s natural production (hair) and replacing it with processed hair that is no longer natural, seems a very peculiar one from the twenty first-century perspective. False hair today is used to embellish what hair there is already in the form of hair extensions, or to replace what has been lost through illness or nature (going bald). During the eighteenth century it was common practice, in men at least, to completely remove by shaving the hair that grew naturally, and replace it with a wig. The shifting paradigms seen in medical practice and theory can go some way to understanding such practices.
2.5 Conclusion
Examining the treatment of hair in popular medical practice establishes close connections with eighteenth-century understanding of health and beauty, concepts that were fundamentally interlinked in the contemporary consciousness. The healthy appearance of external physical signifiers such as hair was strongly connected to notions of youth and beauty. Barbers and perfumers found in urban settings commonly offered services relating to health and cleanliness as well as to beauty, whilst both published and domestic medical guides combined advice on maintaining beauty with that of maintaining good health. Numerous recipes and trade manuals provided instructions on how to adapt the appearance of hair, suggesting a desirable beauty aesthetic was thick hair, which should grow long enough to frame the face. Of course, if this could not be attained naturally it could be achieved through the use of false hair, which often had the added benefit of disguising other imperfections.
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Theories of cleanliness and the transmission of disease changed over the course of the eighteenth century, which changed the nature of the products used and sold in relation to keeping hair clean. Understanding hair in everyday practice goes some way towards establishing the extent to which hair was seen as a significant body part in the maintenance of good health and why healthy, long hair was important to the overall health of an individual. Where this was not possible, the adoption of false hair or powders suggests that strong, long and fulsome hair was central to promotion and display of a healthy body.
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PART TWO:
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PART TWO: Transforming Hair
CHAPTER THREE
The Modification of Human Hair: From Part of the Body to Artefact
Hair was the central component of any wig maker’s business, and as discussed in the previous section, it was required to be strong and long in order to fit with the beauty aesthetic of the time. As we have seen, not only was hair considered to be a visible signifier of beauty, but the material significance of hair was also an indicator of overall state of internal health. Hair was central to the creation of a healthy, youthful appearance, and a valuable commodity in the beauty trade. There was therefore, a sizeable market in the buying and selling of hair to be made into wigs. The process of wig making was transformative both in the physical sense of removing hair from the head, but also in terms of the meaning and functions assigned to hair in the eighteenth century, which were directly affected through the physical transformation of hair into wigs. This section considers both the transformative process, the modification of hair as a part of the body, and the effect this had on those who worked in the hair trade. This chapter will consider the nature of the raw material, and the implications of transforming hair into wigs.