March 25, 2011. Paul Hixon
Hair loss in men (male pattern baldness, aka androgenetic alopecia, androgenic alopecia and alopecia areata) is extraordinarily common. However, in their constant search for the best hair loss treatment products and hair loss remedies, wigs are rarely considered.
This was not always the case and, for many periods of recorded history, the wearing of wigs and hairpieces by men was considered very fashionable.
Wigs, or periwigs for men, as they were called, are generally thought to have been re-introduced into the English-speaking world from France when Charles II returned to England from his exile in France and was restored to the English throne in 1660. These wigs weren’t small, short or discrete – they were big, bold, brash and meant to be noticed. Shoulder-length or even longer designs were worn in France and these soon became fashionable throughout the English speaking world and particularly in the court of King Charles II.
We know a great deal about this period in history thanks to the diarist Samuel Pepys, who carefully recorded his thoughts and activities at the time. It is clear, for example, that the Great Plague was a subject of concern to wig wearers because the hair used in their manufacture was often cut from the bodies of plague victims. This rather ghoulish and somewhat unsanitary practice obviously gave Pepys pause for thought:
“Put on my new periwig, bought a good while since, but darst not wear it because the plague was in Westminster when I bought it… Nobody will dare to buy any haire for fear of the infection? That it had been cut off the heads of people dead of the plague.”
But even with concerns of this nature attached to their wearing, wigs remained popular and fashionable for almost all men of rank or social status. Hair loss in men and the lack of hair loss prevention products was simply not an issue; and, because of this, wig makers, too, were held in high regard, and the most famous and successful obtained considerable rank and social status. So could wigs, once more, become fashionable hair loss prevention solutions? Well, probably not, but stranger things have happened.
Updated March 25, 2011. Published February 5, 2011. Paul Hixon
