Venice and Paris seem to have been the chief sources of fashion; from these depôts of taste were derived the flaunting head-dresses, the “shiptire,” the “tire valiant,” &c., which were commonly worn in these days of gorgeous finery, and which were rendered still more outré and unnatural by the dyed locks which they surmounted. The custom of dyeing the hair is of great antiquity, and was very prevalent in the East. Mohammed dyed his hair red; Abu Bekr his successor did the same, and it is a custom among the Scenite Arabs even to this day.
The ancients often mixed gold dust in their hair, and the Gauls used to wash the hair with a liquid which had a tendency to redden it. It was doubtless in personal compliment to Queen Elizabeth, that all the fashionables of her day dyed their locks of a hue which is generally considered the reverse of attraction. Periwigs, which were introduced into England about 1572, were to be had of all colours. It is in allusion to this absurd fashion that Benedick says of the lady whom he might chuse to marry:—“Her hair shall be of what colour it please God.”
Men first wore wigs in Charles the Second’s time; and these were gradually increased in size, until they reached the acme of their magnificence in the reign of William and Mary, when not only men, but even young lads and children were disguised in enormous wigs. And though in the reign of Queen Anne this latter custom was not so common, yet the young men had the want of wigs supplied by artificial curlings, and dressing of the hair, which was then only performed by the women.
One Bill preserved amongst the Harl. MSS. runs thus:—
“Next door to the Golden Ball, in St. Bride’s Lane, Fleet Street, Lyveth Lidia Beercraft. Who cutteth and curleth ladies, gentlemen, and children’s hair. She sells a fine pomatum, which is mixed with ingredients of her own making, that if the hair be never so thin, it makes it grow thick; and if short, it makes it grow long. If any gentleman’s or children’s hair be never so lank, she makes it curle in a little time, and to look like a periwig.”
And this, indeed, the looking like a periwig, seems to have been then the very beau ideal of all beauty and perfection, for another fair tonsoress advertises to cut and curl hair after the French fashion, “after so fine a manner, that you shall not know it to be their own hair.”
How applicable to these absurdities are the lines of an amiable censor of a later day!—
“We have run
Through ev’ry change, that Fancy, at the loom
Exhausted, has had genius to supply;
And, studious of mutation still, discard
A real elegance, a little us’d,
For monstrous novelty and strange disguise.”
To return to Elizabeth:—
The best known, and most distinguishing characteristic of the costume of her day was the ruff; which was worn of such enormous size that a lady in full dress was obliged to feed herself with a spoon two feet long. In the year 1580, sumptuary laws were published by proclamation, and enforced with great exactness, by which the ruffs were reduced to legal dimensions. Extravagant prices were paid for them, and they were made at first of fine holland, but early in Elizabeth’s reign they began to wear lawn and cambric, which were brought to England in very small quantities, and sold charily by the yard or half yard; for there was then hardly one shopkeeper in fifty who dared to speculate in a whole piece of either. So “strange and wonderful was this stuff,” says Stowe, speaking of lawn, “that thereupon rose a general scoff or byeword, that shortly they would wear ruffs of a spider’s web.” And another difficulty arose; for when the Queen had ruffs made of this new and beautiful fabric, there was nobody in England who could starch or stiffen them; but happily Her Grace found a Dutchwoman possessed of that knowledge which England could not supply, and “Guillan’s wife was the first starcher the Queen had, as Guillan himself was the first coachman.”