Aviva Trivia

Fashion in eighteenth century England demanded that a wig augment a woman’s natural hair. A wig could be three to four feet tall, and a single wig was sometimes worn continuously on outdoor occasions for months at a time. Weather conditions made it necessary to wear large flexible bonnets made of pleated taffeta as a protective covering on the wig. Being decorated with everything from fabric, feathers, flowers and pearls to animals and plants and even naval ships and boosted by hair pads, this coiffure was often kept together with pomade made of apples, floral oils, and lard. This made them an attraction for pests, especially mice. The wigs were fitted with caps of gilt wire to keep off mice and powdered regularly to prevent other infestation. These wigs went out of fashion when taxes on hair powder became too high to be sustained.