Performing Health and Beauty in Eighteenth-Century England: The Significance of Hair in the Creation of Appearances

Abstract

Hair played a central role in the creation of appearances in eighteenth century England, indeed big hair and wig wearing remain an evocative symbol of eighteenth-century England today. English fashions dictated that hair was central to the display of social status, youth and beauty, though establishing the motivations for the widespread custom of wig wearing can be problematic because wigs do not often survive in the historical record. Hair is encountered in the archives preserved as a keepsake, or as a piece of evidence to be used in court, but the wigs so popular in the eighteenth century remain elusive today in their physical form. This study traces eighteenth-century understanding of physical nature of hair as part of the body and attitudes to its transformation. It seeks to understand the everyday practice of adapting hair and strategies of use in wig wearing, using descriptions in contemporary journals and hairdresser’s manuals and archival records containing accounts of individuals. In the absence of surviving artefactual evidence, it draws heavily on portraiture and caricature to establish the cultural and social significance behind the central place of hair in the creation of appearances.