Why did men wear wigs in the late 1700's?

Question

I was watching the movie "Amazing Grace" and I saw men wearing the white wigs. They wore it with their factions in court. I dont know if it was to show that you were upper class?

I would like learn more about this British fashion they had and why these white wigs were important to them.

Answer 1

Wigs in the late 1700's were believed to be a sighn of high social status. It was sometimes restricted for any low class men to wear them. They symbolized not only the upper class but sopposedly made men look older and wiser.

Answer 2

Because everyone had lice, but long hair was considered stylish.

So people cut their hair short to control the lice and wore wigs instead.

Answer 3

It kinda goes back to the 1500s. The history of wigs surprisingly dates back to ancient times. But after the fall of Rome it fell into disuse for a thousand years until some time in the 16th century (the 1500s). At that time folks started wearing wigs for their hygene benifits. That is, wigs were worn because of lice. Folks would shave off their hair and wear a wig in it's place. Remember that at that time conditions in towns and cities were often rather unhygenic, meaning folks were more prone to catching lice. It was easier to clean lice out of a wig or just burn the wig than it was to delouse a person's head, which usually had the person having their head shaved anyway.

From the looks of things over time the wig became more of a status symbol than something to cover up baldness or help with hygene. A mark of one's position in society or of one's authority Which is what they were pretty much by the late 1700s. A gentleman, particulary a wealthy gentleman, would have a higher social standing in society than an ordinary farmer. And governors, mayor, judges, priests, and military officers would have been authority figures. Ones importance would probably mean they could afford more expensive wigs. So the more expensive the wig, coupled with the more expensive and lavish the clothing, the greater one's social status.

However, by the 1780s wigs began falling out of favor as status symbols. For a long time folks of high social standing wore powdered wigs. In the 1780s young men began wearing powder in their hair rather than wearing podwered wigs. And by the 1790s both wigs and the powder  were reserved for old men and ladies presented at court.

Answer 4

Wigs were popular in Britain for just over a hundred years, from the restoration of charles II in 1660 (he introduced the fashion from France) until about the 1770s.

In the 1770s they went out of fashion, there is a passage in the 'The Rivals' a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, produced int he 1770s, which makes it clear that wigs are no longer fashionable.

it was not confined to upper-class men, any many who could afford it might wear a wig, though obviously the very poor would not.

For some reason, it continued long afterwards to be the fashion for bishops and barristers and judges to continue to wear wigs.  Queen Victoria had a lifelong dislike of bishops, because as a child she was afraid of "their wigs and aprons" as she put it.  Bishops no longer wear wigs, but barristers and judges still wear them in court.