The lofty Top-knots on her crown, with which she sails abroad withal,
Makes me with care, alas! look down, as having now no hope at all,
That ever I shall happy be in such a flaunting Wife as she.
In debt with every shop she runs, for to appear in gaudy pride,
And when the milliner she duns, I then am forc'd my head to hide:
Dear friends, this proud imperious wife she makes me weary of my life.
Roxburghe Ballads, circa 1686.
Wigs of various kinds have been in use from very early periods, as the grace and ornament which the hair imparts to the human frame have always been generally recognised. The want of it has ever been deemed a subject of reproach, held in ridicule, in all climes; hence the constant recourse to false hair.
Strutt affirms that the beards of the Egyptians, as well as the coverings for the head, appear to have been made of false hair, and removed when the face was shaved. There is no doubt that the Egyptians wore wigs, as examples are to be seen in the British and other museums.
The wig given in the illustration is probably a woman's, and was found near the small temple of Isis at Thebes. It belongs to the seventeenth dynasty, about B.C. 1500; it is formed of natural curlings of the hair in the upper portion, and the lower portion, which was originally much longer, consists of long, thin plaits, a number of which have been broken off and decayed, the thin plaitings contrasting very happily with the natural curls.
WIG, EGYPTIAN, B.C. 1500.
British Museum.
Lamprideses describes the wig of the Emperor Commodus as powdered with scrapings of gold, and oiled with glutinous perfumes for the powder to hang by.