Practical Guide to Wig Making and Wig Dressing E-Book

Melanie Bouvet

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

The art of wig making and wig dressing has been practised for centuries, and continues to be an exciting and essential part of costume production for theatre and film. With style inspiration ranging from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, A Practical Guide to Wig Making and Wig Dressing is a comprehensive introduction to the knowledge and techniques required to produce beautiful, durable and historical hairstyles able to withstand the demands of performance. Featuring over 700 photographs, this book offers detailed step-by-step instructions on how to make a wig, how to dress it according to time period, and how to fit and remove it, as well as advice on tools, products and suppliers. The work of current industry practitioners is showcased throughout the book, offering key insights into career pathways and professional styling gained from a wealth of experience. Additional material includes: a history of the use and development of wigs: examples of wig foundation making and wig knotting: an introduction to facial hair making and dressing; how to make hairpieces sets and dressing for male and female Superbly illustrated with 727 colour photographs and 20 line artworks. Melanie Bouvet is the Wigs and Make-up Co-ordinator of new productions for the Royal Ballet.

Leseprobe

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO

Wig Making and Wig Dressing

Malanie Bouvet

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2018 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2018

© Mélanie Bouvet 2018

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of thistext may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 446 9

Contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

1A Quick History of Wigs

2Wig Foundation Making

3Wig Knotting

4Facial Making and Dressing

5How to Make Hairpieces

6Wig Dressing Tools and Styling Products

7Wig Handling and Basic Wig Dressing Techniques

8Women - Wig Sets and Dressing for Different Decades

9Men - Wig Sets and Dressing for Different Decades

10Different Ways to Put a Wig on for Men and for Women

Glossary

List of Suppliers

References

Index

Acknowledgements

I want to start by thanking The Crowood Press for giving me the amazing opportunity to write this book. You have been by my side all along since 2016, to guide me through this journey. Thank you for believing in me.

An enormous thank you to Linda Cooley, Joanna Foster, Louise Cunningham, Jin Ho Kang, Mel McLeary and Hideko Huntingford for contributing your skills and knowledge. I am really honoured to have you featured here. I know how important it is to you all as well to ‘pass it on’ to the next generations. Linda and Jo, thank you also so much for letting me come to your studio all those weekends, and lending me wigs for the demos. It was so kind of you and I loved every minute.

Thank you to my dear friend Chris Benoodt, who wrote and researched the history chapter.

Thanks to Orsolya Gesztesi for your contribution, for your help and tremendous support at all times, and for being a lovely model.

Thank you to Aude Thibault de Maisières for modelling.

Jenny Tiramani for her invaluable advice.

To the Opera House for letting me use stock wigs for the demos.

To Sarah Baxter, from the Society of Authors, for all your help and patience at the beginning of this journey.

Thanks to my family, without whom I would not be here. Thanks to my parents for their support all my life, my brother, my uncle Denis, who originally told me about the London College of Fashion. To Janz and Jonz, for their support and enthusiasm.

And last but not least, my husband, Richard, for his support on what has been a new adventure, and of course for kindly agreeing to model.

Preface

I have always been passionate about hair and wigs from a very early age. I used to watch films and wonder how they achieved these amazing hairstyles and how they made the wigs. Whether it is a film, a stage or a TV performance, the hair and the make-up are crucial in giving life to any character or performer. I knew this was the field I wanted to work in. Therefore at seventeen, I embarked on a journey to London to become a hair and make-up artist, to experience and learn the amazing crafts that are wig making, wig dressing and make-up. I left France and went to study at the London College of Fashion for four years. During that time, I did a lot of work experience, where I met some amazing people who were involved in the trade. I was lucky enough to be a junior, for a short time, at Alexandre de Paris, who is one of the best hairdressers of all time. The chignon techniques in his salon were incredible; this was beautiful, classic hairdressing and styling at its best. I had the opportunity to meet him – that moment will stay with me forever. I also did some junior placements at Michael John, Guy Kremer and Angels in the wig-making department, which was fascinating. A couple of months before my graduation in June 2000, I had an assistant role for the National Opera Showcase in South Bank. The lady who I assisted went on to become the Head of Wigs and Make-up at The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. She remembered me from the showcase job and asked me to come and work freelance with The Bolshoi, who perform there every summer. The rest is history.

I have now been working at the Royal Opera House since 2000. I started freelance for the Royal Ballet and the Opera, then went on to become a full-time Wigs and Make-up Technician in 2002. In 2007, I was appointed Wigs and Make-up Team Leader for the Royal Ballet at the age of twenty-eight. Five years later, I became Assistant Wigs and Make-up Coordinator for new productions and in 2013 to present, I was appointed Wigs and Make-up Coordinator for new productions. I was nominated for a Technical Theatre Award in 2014, and in 2016, I won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Wigs and Make-up. All this was triggered by doing a lot of work placements and unpaid jobs as an assistant while I was at college. I want to highlight how important these experiences are for the future of any hair and make-up student. Through these placements, you meet a lot of people who can become your future employer and the knowledge that you acquire is invaluable, as you never stop learning. In the summer of 2016, The Crowood Press commissioned me to write an educational book about wig making and wig dressing. It was an opportunity I could not refuse. Through the years, I have come across some amazing wig makers and wig dressers. A couple of them have agreed to embark on this journey with me. The aim of this book is to be a valuable guide for students and anyone interested in the craft of wig making and dressing, using the knowledge and experience of industry experts to make it accessible to everyone. The people I feature in this book share my view of how important it is to pass on that knowledge. We will only be using real hair for the wig making and real hair wigs for the dressing. These are amazing crafts. We need to make sure they will remain for years to come, so this is me giving my small contribution towards it. I hope this book helps you on your journey to becoming a professional wig maker or wig dresser!

Mélanie Bouvet

Introduction

This book is to help anyone who is interested in going into wig making and wig dressing. Whilst the focus is on the finished look of the hairstyles, what matters most is how you get to that end product. Techniques are the key here, and how to master them. This is not the way to do it; this is one way to do it. In an ideal world, when you have finished practising everything in the book, you should have a good understanding and skills in how to make a wig, facials, how to dress them, put them on and remove them. It should also be a great help for future students or even people currently working in the business who have already ventured into these crafts, and are interested in seeing different techniques. It is very important to me, and the colleagues who have contributed to the book, to pass on knowledge to the younger generations, to make sure the skills don’t die with time. The more there is out there to refer to for these students, the better.

Throughout the book there are Professional Profiles of top designers in the wig-making industry, who each tell the story of how they got to where they are today. The hope is that you will be inspired to continue your journey into this exciting industry and to gain some knowledge of the different avenues and routes that are available.

Finally, you will get a good understanding of where to get yourself all the tools you need with the suppliers list. I hope you will enjoy these beautiful crafts as much as I do!

A Quick History of Wigs

1

Wigs and postiches have been used for centuries. It is important to explore the history of hair and wigs in different civilizations and periods in more depth – not only to find out how they came to be used, but also to know who the hairdressers were who came up with the trends and the iconic wig and hairstyles. What tools and techniques were used? We hear about who wore them, but not as much about who created them. This book provides the perfect opportunity to find out who these innovators were; we will explore the history of wig making from the ancient Egyptians through to modern times.

The history of wigs is both the history of hairstyles and that of social behaviour. Our appearance to others has always mattered – whether to attract, disguise, entertain, or become identified as part of a social group. Our faces identify us, but faces can look alike. Hair can make a visual impression, especially from a distance, and can be our single-most identifying natural feature. It is logical then that its arrangement, if not convenient or possible with one’s own hair, should be made with substitutions – wigs. Artefacts such as coins, statues, and cave paintings from ancient cultures show humans using false hairpieces and wigs in a variety of situations. During archaeological excavations, especially those in the nineteenth century, actual remains of wigs were found in burial sites. These remnants, although extremely fragile and subject to decay, survive to prove that humans have fashioned and valued wigs for as long as we have existed in civilized societies.

EGYPTIANS

Most ancient Egyptians were fastidious in their personal hygiene, practicing daily rituals of bathing, oiling, and shaving. Men and women had their heads shaved, most often by women barbers, to avoid pests and for comfort in their hot climate. Knives and tweezers were used to scrape and pull the hairs from their heads, faces and eventually their bodies. Despite the preference for hairlessness, their aesthetic did not favour baldness and various head coverings were worn. Wigs were worn by people in all levels of society except slaves, for whom shaving their heads and wearing wigs were forbidden by law. Those who could not afford wigs wore felt caps for protection from the sun.

Egyptian bas-relief from the Louvre, Paris. It shows a wig with tightly curled hair. Source: Antiquité Egyptienne du Musée du Louvre, Guillaume Blanchard, July 2004.

As is typical throughout history, those in the ruling class led the way. The higher one’s social status, the longer and more elaborate the wig. The royals and wealthiest had several wigs that coordinated with fashions and rituals. Wigs for the upper classes were made mainly of human hair, but also of linen or palm fibres, then plaited and set with beeswax or another unguent into a helmet shape and often embellished with bands, ornaments, or flowers. Fragrant oils such as almond, rosemary, or castor oil scented natural hair and wigs. Silver threads and gold powder embellished the wigs of the pharaohs, their wives, and high priests, especially for important holidays and rituals. Perfumed wax cakes were melted over the crown to scent, set the style and, counter-intuitively, ‘cool’ the wearer. Wig covers served as additional decorative headwear. They were sometimes garlands with cascading coins, ornaments or other jewelled designs.

A special wig called a goddress, consisting of long side and back panels, was reserved for queens and noble women. Gold powder was often applied to add shimmer during movement. As the Egyptian culture flourished, so did the size and height of wigs. Queen Isimkheb wore a wig in 900 BCE weighing so much she required assistance to stand. Made of human hair and beeswax, it is part of the Cairo Museum collection.

Less expensive wigs were made of wool, flax, palm fibres, felt, or other material attached to a net skull-cap. Sometimes strands of human or animal hair were mixed in and stiffened into styles with braids and tight curls with beeswax. Egyptians eschewed grey or white hair. If they did not choose to dye their hair with henna, they would often resort to wearing wigs to conceal their age. Wigs were most often black but were also dyed with henna and other natural vegetable dyes to achieve red, blue and green hair colours.

Although men shaved their facial hair, they still considered beards a mark of manhood. Beard wigs were tied onto chins for important occasions. In the later Dynastic Period of ancient Egypt, kings wore a ‘divine beard’ called an osird. It was made of gold or silver, worn straight while alive, but curled upward at the end after death indicating the wearer had become a god. This can be seen in bas-relief carvings depicting the pharaohs.

Given the importance of the pharaohs’ appearance and the belief that they should be provided for in the afterlife, it would be likely that one of the many servants buried alongside their ruler might have been a hairdresser and/or wigmaker.

GREEKS

Hair was sacred in ancient Greece. To emphasize this idea, boys were not allowed to cut their hair until their beard came in and once it did, it was sacrilege to cut it. Punishments for cowardice often included shaving half of one’s beard to humiliate the offender. Hair was trimmed from the dead and posted on doors to announce the deceased’s departure. Mourners would cut their own hair to place on the corpse as a gesture of grief.

The great theatrical tradition that grew out of Athenian tributes to the god Dionysus are among the earliest forms of entertainment in which actors used masks and wigs to assume the identities of characters and men assumed the roles of women. Masks were the most important part of the actor’s costume. Half masks covered the forehead, eyes and nose, but full masks covered the whole head with holes for the eyes and mouth. This allowed for emphatic or exaggerated painting or decoration to completely transform the actor and make the character type identifiable to the audience. Hairstyles on Greek theatrical masks were coloured or exaggerated to emphasize the nature of the character. Although none survive, we know of them from depictions on pottery and murals. They were lightweight, made of wood, linen, leather, cork, and occasionally real hair.

It is in Greek theatre history that we encounter a job title akin to a wigmaker – skeuopoios – that translates roughly to mask maker, wig maker, or prop maker. Skeue are the trappings or props used in theatre to help convey a narrative. Aristotle similarly defined opsis as the visual spectacle of tragedy including masks, scenery, costumes, and props. Today, theatrical preparations are commonly divided among several talented contributors; set designers, costumers, lighting specialists, property managers and so on, but in early Greek tragedies it may have been a single soul who embellished the performance with whatever imagination could conceive and whatever resources were at hand.

ROMANS

The emperors Hannibal (247–183 BCE) and Nero (37–68 AD) used wigs to disguise and protect themselves in battle. Caesar (100–44 BCE) hid his bald pate with a wig and laurel wreath. Around 210 AD, Plautilla (185–211), wife of Emperor Caracalla (188–217), had a portrait bust of herself made with a bald head so that it could be dressed in wigs to suit the current fashion. This was a common practice among wealthy patricians.

Portrait of Gaius Iulius Caesar, sculptor unknown, c. 44CE.

When the dark-haired Mediterranean Romans expanded their empire and conquered the fair-haired peoples of Northern Europe, slaves from these territories were used for sex and their red or blonde hair was used to make wigs. The association between subservient sex and blonde hair was so natural that laws requiring Roman prostitutes to wear blonde wigs were enacted. Blonde wigs made their way into regular Roman society by way of Messalina (20/22–48), the third wife of Emperor Claudius (10–54). Driven by a desire for sex with strangers, she went out at night in a blonde wig to satisfy her urges. It was rumoured that she got so wild her wig would come off and that she was easily recognizable when she returned to the royal house. Messalina’s trick caught on with other Roman women who were interested in exploring their own sexuality by wearing blonde wigs and even dyeing their own hair with saffron flowers. Wearing blonde wigs became so popular that the practice was mocked by the Roman poet Martial, who wrote:

The golden hair that Galla wears Is hers – who would have thought it? She swears ‘tis hers, and true she swears For I know where she bought it.

Eventually the blonde wig law became irrelevant and unenforceable. However, the stigma of sexual promiscuity attached to blonde hair lingered on, arguably unto the present day.

MEDIEVAL EUROPE

While it appeared that wig-wearing fell out of fashion for several centuries following the decline of the Roman Empire, it may be more accurate to say that fewer records of wig wearing habits survived. It was likely that during the Dark Ages, the ability to indulge oneself in hair styling and fashion was challenged by the difficulties of climate, conquest and currency, although these indulgences did exist to some extent.

During the Middle Ages, fashionable women plucked or shaved their hair to create a very high hairline and large forehead. They wore their hair very long and plaited to keep it off their faces. Hair, especially long hair, had an erotic connotation. Lower classes wore their hair shorter. Serfs were required to shave their heads. The Catholic Church asked women to keep their hair covered with hats, square shaped headdresses or snoods to avoid tempting men. Their husbands were the only ones allowed to see their hair down. The Church condemned wigs per the doctrine of Saint Paul, who declared that one’s head must be exposed while in communication with God. If promulgating the saint’s doctrine wasn’t a sufficient deterrent, wigs were called ‘badges of the devil’.

Wigs are mentioned sporadically in the late Middle Ages. During the 1100s, in the reign of King Stephen (1092– 1154), wigs made of human hair or silk thread were introduced to England, and primarily worn by women. Wigs made a brief comeback in France when King Henry III (1207–1272) wore a wig to cover his thinning hair. Around 1450, prostitutes used pubic wigs called ‘malkins’ or ‘merkins’ to cover syphilitic patches. Since it was a common practice for prostitutes to raise their skirts as advertisement of their goods, merkins disguised this liability.

SIXTEENTH CENTURY

In the late 1500s, European royals revived wig-wearing. The ledgers of Henry VII of England (1491–1547) recorded the purchase of a ‘perwyke’ for the king’s fool named Sexton. Mary Queen of Scots (1542–1587) and Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603), both of whom had red hair (Mary’s typically styled into a heart-shape), were responsible for bringing wigs back into fashion in the British Isles. Courtiers followed their leads in all matters and, whenever possible, the trend continued with the rest of the population. In the Elizabethan age, fashion in general was extreme in shape, colour and decoration with high, stiff ruffs, heavily padded farthingale skirts, and cinched up doublets for the men. Hairstyles, following these extremes, began to gain height, a trend that didn’t stop until the late 1700s, taken to the extreme by the French. If the wearer didn’t want to bother with one’s own hair, wigs were frequently used, and hair was sometimes coloured to match clothing. A rich lady’s wig wardrobe consisted of several choices. Queen Elizabeth I of England was said to have had eighty wigs in her possession, and Mary Queen of Scots, who was under house arrest in England, still managed to have her hair changed daily.

Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, c. 1595. Elizabeth’s natural hair would have been grey or white by this stage in life. She is wearing a wig. Note the high forehead.

Shakespeare

While wigs were part of finery of the wealthy, they were also prominent as functional props for theatrical costuming, and especially useful for conveying the female gender of characters played by male actors. Women were not allowed to act during Shakespeare’s time in England (1564– 1616) or in other parts of Europe, and were discouraged even up to the mid-twentieth century stage and film industry era. Therefore, theatrical wigs were a primary tool in creating believable female characters. Wigs were also designed to make clear the emotional interpretation of a character, for example the humorous nature of a fool or the tragic nature of a victim.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

By the 1600s wigs were an indispensable part of the upper-class wardrobe in England even though the Puritan ‘Roundheads’, who wore their hair cut into a simple round bowl shape, spoke out against them. In 1624, King Louis XIII of France (1601–1643) began wearing a wig of human hair sewn into a linen foundation to disguise his premature balding, thus popularizing the practice of wig-wearing among men, a practice that continued until the French Revolution almost 200 years later. His successor, Louis XIV (1638–1715) continued the practice, shaving his head when his hair began to thin at age seventeen in 1655. Sensitive about his height, he compensated by wearing increasingly larger wigs as he aged. The association between large wigs and royalty inspired the reference to ‘bigwigs’, meaning a person of importance. The Louis XIV style was generally to wear the wig parted in the middle with a high peak on each side, cascading down the long shoulder-length sides and back in crimped curls. A shortage in hair occurred during the London Plague of 1665, causing wigmakers to resort to horse or goat hair. As a result, they discovered that these coarser hairs held curls much better. However, they could not stop the worry that some wigs might have been made from the victims of the Plague. The sale of hair and wigs was such a profitable business that thieves were brazen enough to steal a wig from the wearer while walking down the street or riding a carriage.

Portrait of Louis XIV of France, artist unknown, 1684. In the late seventeenth and up to the mid-eighteenth century, men’s hairstyles were more elaborate and voluminous than women’s hairstyles.

Hygiene and public health standards were nearly non-existent, so lice and other pests often infested people’s hair. It was much easier to shave one’s head, wear a wig, and if the wig became infested, send it to be boiled and ‘nitpicked’ by the wigmaker. Perhaps the single greatest reason that wigs became so popular was the rise of venereal disease. The ravages of syphilis caused facial sores that were covered with ‘fashionable’ false moles. Hair fell out in patches and baldness ensued. Without any cure, much of the population became bald and the social stigma of hair loss could be disguised with a wig. The French term used for wigs during this time was perruque, which morphed into the interchangeable English words peruke and periwig. The words refer to wigs that have long sides and back with horizontal rows of curls, especially powdered wigs, and to the wig or hair extension culminating in a ribbon-tied ponytail at the back of the neck. In Britain, judges, barristers, bishops and coachmen adopted wigs as a part of their work uniforms. The custom of wearing wigs in the British court was simply the slow adoption of fashion. Wigs became the norm for judges and barristers during the mourning period for Charles II (1630–1685). In the court system, two types of wigs are worn. The full-bottomed wigs covered the crown and back of the head to the neck, then draped down each side in long lapels that had horizontal rows of tight curls. They were reserved for judges and senior barristers and are still worn for ceremonial occasions. The second type, a shorter, less formal ‘bob-wig’ featuring curled or frizzed shorter sides and a short, tied tail in the back, was adopted in the civil courts in 1780 and is still worn today. Bishops were excused from wearing wigs in 1830.

Kabuki

European theatricals were not the only performances that used male-only actors. Although the earliest Japanese Kabuki performances were enacted by women, they were banned from Kabuki in 1629. Wigs in this art form not only contributed to a gender-identity, but also to the perfection of the art form itself. Kabuki, which can last four or five hours, was appreciated not for its plot or narrative as much as for the artistic performance, the aesthetics, and interpretative skills of the actor. Costumes and wigs were aesthetically designed to exaggerate and enhance the characteristics of each character’s role.

Kabuki actors dressed as Samurai in 1880. Theatrical hairstyles did not reflect the way average citizens styled their hair.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Hairstyling and wig making literally and figuratively reached new heights in the eighteenth century. Once the trade of barber-surgeons, English law split the roles in 1745. Barbers could no longer practice medicine and focused on haircuts and shaving, some adding wig making to their repertoire. The business of hairdressing exploded from the mid-1600s through the 1700s. The skills needed to design and craft hairstyles required specialized craftsmanship. The demand for hair, wigmakers, hairdressers, perfumes, pomades, and powders created booming new industries. By the mid-1700s, there were over 1,000 wig shops in Paris, employing over 5,000 people.

Given the excesses of the French court, the French led the way in all things fashionable, although England and the rest of Europe were quick to follow their lead. Louis XIV had granted the first licenses to wigmakers. The first guild for perruquiers, the French term for wigmakers, appeared in Paris in 1693 and set standards for membership and training. Applicants to the guild and testing were required to enter and expectations were established that wigmakers could adequately perform several services, including hand-crafting wigs, as well as styling, cleaning, and repairing them.

Portrait of George III of England by Allan Ramsay, 1762. He is wearing a peruke with the tail in a silk bag.

The ‘tête de mouton’ hairstyle. One panel of a snuffbox with the daughters of Louis XV of France, ictoire (1733–1799) and Sophie Philippine (1734–1782), 1761–2.

Wig making improved during this time as wigmakers experimented with new materials and manufacturing methods. Pigs’ bladders were cut and stretched into skullcaps for actors to play bald characters. The technique of ‘ventilating’ wigs was developed by sewing hairs into a silk net foundation. New knotting techniques and securing the fit with springs around the edges contributed to more comfortable and durable wigs.

In his later years, Louis XIV made aging fashionable among his court by powdering his excessively long and full wigs. Just a few years later Louis’ English cousin, King Charles II (1630– 1685) powdered his wigs and the fashion trend was set. Men typically wore white powdered wigs. Pastel pink, green, and blue colours for wigs were more popular with the ladies. The word toilette derives from the practice of draping toile around the wearer who held a paper or metal cone over their face while powder derived from chalk, flour, or starch was puffed, tossed, or blown over their heads. It was a messy process and most wealthy households had a room, the toilette, dedicated to this procedure.

In the early eighteenth century, it was men who wore wigs of high fashion, great height, and shoulder-length following the royal taste of Louis XIV. Women of the same period eschewed fussy hairstyles, preferring to add hairpieces or extensions to their natural hair, so as not to emulate the artificiality that men of ‘The Peacock Age’ flaunted. Le Fontange hairstyle was popular until around 1720. It occurred accidentally, when, according to lore, the Duchess of Fontange messed up her hair on a hunt and quickly tied it up on the top of her head with a ribbon. Supposedly Louis XIV asked her to keep it that way and inspired the ladies of the court to copy the Fontange style that had captured his attention. Another natural hairstyle for the ladies in the mid-eighteenth century was the tête de mouton, or ‘sheepshead’ that employed a few tight rows of short curls on the sides of the head, while the rest of the hair was swept up off the forehead and to the back of the head.

Madame de Pompadour (1721–1764), the mistress of Louis XV of France (1710– 1774), was extremely influential in society, culture, and politics. She wore her hair brushed back, creating a heightened roll at the forehead before tight curls or ringlets cascaded down the back or sides. The ‘pompom’ hairstyle caught on and later became known as the ‘Pompadour’.

Detail from Marie Antoinette in Court Dress by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, 1778, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, showing the pouf hairstyle at a fashionable height for women’s hair in the late eighteenth century.

Queens, royal mistresses, and ladies of the court each had their favourite hairdressers and wigmakers. A great craftsman gained a reputation not only for his client, but also for himself. The first celebrity hairdresser, Monsieur Léonard, was born Léonard Autié (1751– 1820) in the south of France. He migrated through Bordeaux to arrive in Paris in 1769. He sought the already established hairdresser Legros du Rumigny whose recently published hairstyling manual gave Autié the confidence that his own skills were superior. He was quickly recognized for the talented styling of a famous actress and summoned to work for Madame du Barry (1743–1793), Louis XV’s mistress. Later, he outshone Sieur Larsenneur, personal stylist to Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), queen to Louis XVI (1754– 1793). For her, he invented the ‘pouf’ hairstyle, which like the ‘pompom’ brushed hair back from the forehead, but teased it to a new height.

After he gained her favour, the Queen supported Monsieur Léonard in reviving a fashion magazine that spread court fashions and hairstyles across Europe. He eventually returned to his first passion, Italian opera, and opened a theatre dedicated to it. After making a name and fortune for himself, he put his two brothers in charge of the hairstyling business. He went into semi-retirement but continued to receive an annual salary as the ‘Coiffeur de la Reine’ even though his younger brother took over the daily styling.

As the French court’s decadence and hedonism grew in the Rococo period, hairdressers were coaxed to style hair in ways that made their clients stand out. Hairstyles became more extravagant and towered to new heights. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, women of the aristocracy nearly always had wigs constructed to accommodate hairstyles that could reach as high as three or four feet. The time and amount of hair and other materials needed for these grand hairstyles made natural hairstyling impractical. Feathers, ribbons, jewels, and strands of pearls were relatively simple decorations that gave way to props and models built into hair designs that had to be carefully balanced on one’s head. Wigs even took on increasingly complex themes reflecting the times, such as designs based on naval victories that included model battleships or ‘La Ballon’, so named for the invention of the hot air balloon.

When Marie Antoinette gave birth in 1780, she lost a significant amount of hair. To address this, Monsieur Léonard created a new style for her called La coiffure de l’enfant. He cut the top and sides of her hair to approximately 15 to 18cm, created a crepe-like texture by tightly setting it to give volume and brushing it to an airy, loose finish. He used marteau (pin) curls at the back with big ringlets coming down her neck.

In the last third of the eighteenth century, just as women’s hairstyles and wigs had grown to unwieldy heights, men’s hair and wigs tended toward a smaller profile. White powdered hair was curled into neat rows above the ears while the rest of the hair was pulled to the back and tied with a black ribbon and left to hang, or to be put into a silk bag. The silk bag served the purpose of keeping the powder off the jackets. Many wealthy gentlemen left this styling to their wigmaker, while those who could not afford it simply tied back their own natural hair.

NINETEENTH CENTURY

When the people of France revolted against the bourgeoisie in the French Revolution in the 1790s, the aristocracy ceased to flaunt their wealth with elaborate clothing or hairstyles. In fact, they adopted the look of the lower classes to escape persecution, or worse, beheading at the Guillotine. Shorter, unkempt haircuts, like the 1970s ‘shag’ style, affected the look of the lower class but were a fashion among the wealthy. With the new Napoleonic regime, Neoclassicism aspired to the values of the Greek and Roman republics and influenced art, culture, and fashion. Men and women wore simpler hairstyles using their own hair. Short fringes with comma curls across the forehead, reminiscent of Julius Caesar, were popular for men. At this time, women too emulated the Greeks and Romans, wearing hair banded around the forehead or upswept and decorated with a simple diadem. Wigs were not worn as frequently as they had been in the past.

TWENTIETH CENTURY

In the first quarter of the twentieth century, innovations in science and technology revolutionized the way people lived. Amongst all this change, women embraced a freedom that expressed itself in the image of ‘The Modern Woman’. When women took on typically masculine roles during World War I and began to enjoy athletics and sports in the following years, they adopted more comfortable clothing and cut their hair. The ‘bob’, a blunt, chin-length haircut, sometimes with a fringe (bangs) became symbolic of modernity. The cloche hat that was so popular did not accommodate hair gathered into a bun, so cutting it off and leaving face-framing curls was the solution. Cutting one’s hair was sometimes practical, sometimes rebellious, and sometimes both. However, short hair on women was not universally accepted. Reactions included women being locked in their homes, hairdressers being sued, and even a father killing his daughter for the transgression of his authority. Women straddled the boundaries of the old versus the new order by retaining their shorn hair for a hairpiece or wearing wigs to avoid confrontation.

Frenchman François Marcel Grateau (1852–1936) invented a curling iron that heated and crimped hair into tight waves close to the scalp in 1872, but didn’t patent the device until 1905. Marcel waves caught on and were ‘all the rage’ in the Roaring Twenties with the shorter haircuts that women favoured.

British hairdresser George Westmore (1879–1931) had nineteen children, including six sons who followed in his professional footsteps and achieved high levels of success and recognition in Hollywood from the early 1900s through to the 1950s. Around 1913, when his twin sons, Percival (known as Perc, 1904–1970) and Ernest (Ern, 1904–1967) were nine years old, he began teaching them how to make wigs and dress hair. The family moved from England to Canada and, finally, the United States, landing in Hollywood just as the movie industry was beginning to take off. He added make-up services to his repertoire and opened the first studio make-up department for Selig Studios in 1917. George styled Mary Pickford’s curly hairdo, but it was his sons who grew the family business with notable clients. Montgomery (Monte, 1902–1940) originated the ‘clean’ Latin look for Rudolph Valentino and styled starlets Gloria Swanson, Clara Bow and Sonja Henie.

A detail from a family portrait of Caroline Bonaparte, wife of Marshal Joachim Murat, Francois Gerard, c. 1809–10. Musée National du Château du Fontainebleau. Note the diadem on Caroline and the short-cropped hair on her son, harkening back to the style of Roman emperors.

The basic idea of hair raised above the forehead for the Pompadour hairstyle continued well on into the 1940s and 50s with revivals by both male and female Hollywood stars like Clark Gable, Carmen Miranda, Betty Grable, and Robert Mitchum. Continuing in the 1950s, it was embraced by rebel icons, rockabilly fans and rock-and-roll singers, most notably Elvis Presley and James Dean.

Elvis Presley’s roots in rockabilly influenced his revived Pompadour hairstyle. (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. Reproduction Number: LC-USZ6-2067)

Scientific discoveries made in the twentieth century brought a new wave of synthetic fibres – acrylic, modacrylic, nylon, and polyester that cost much less to produce and opened new markets for wigmakers. Modacrylic, invented in the 1950s, was the synthetic material most used for inexpensive wigs. This was the catalyst for accessibility to wigs across the world, not only in Hollywood but in stage and film theatres globally, and for people of more modest means.

The 1960s ushered in ‘teased’ styles that required time-consuming backcombing and damaging hairsprays. Wearing a wig provided an alternative. The bouffant styles in the 1960s soon gave way to natural, long hippy hair. The 1970s saw a revival of hairpieces in the shape of pre-formed buns, braids, and ‘falls’, a heavy row of hair that was clipped or attached with a comb at the top of the crown and draped down the back. The 1980s was the decade of ‘big hair’, featuring lots of layering and perms to provide volume. The 1990s reacted by deflating the volume but still leaving some layering or feathered fringe, or the flip-bob, a short ‘pixie’ cut with an upward curl on the bottom layer. The ‘Rachel’ cut, made popular by the US television show Friends featured layering along the front sides of shoulder-length hair.

With wig prices in an affordable range for the middle class, marketers used celebrity endorsements to increase sales. Stars who have had wig lines include Raquel Welch (1998), Jessica Simpson (2006), Vivica Fox (2008), and Christie Brinkley (2013) to name a few. Other stars have a noted reputation for wearing wigs, such as Dolly Parton, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga. The creativity in wig design is limitless and provides them with alternative stage personas.

Today, affordability has allowed wigs to enter our lives beyond fashion and theatre. Cancer patients who have lost their hair and people with alopecia can opt to wear a wig. Celebrities who are reticent about appearing in public can don a wig and blend in socially. Beyond fancy dress or Halloween costumes, cosplay fanatics frequently indulge their fantasies with wigs to achieve their desired character. Women who have difficult hair or busy lifestyles can use a wig to create a polished look in a hurry. Changing your image is as easy as changing your wig.

PROFESSIONAL PROFILE

Christine Benoodt

Christine Benoodt is an art historian and independent art consultant from Chicago who works for private and institutional clients providing art collection management, fine art appraisals, and special project research and writing.

Christine received her BA in Art from Grinnell College, focusing on drawing and painting, and a Masters with Distinction in Art History from the University of Glasgow. She lived in London for two years where she completed the Art History and Art World Practice program at Christie’s Education. Given access to experts not only in fine art, but also in silver, furniture, textiles, prints, and porcelain, she trained in art handling, object analysis and cataloguing fine and decorative arts.

She is a popular lecturer, providing insightful visual presentations on various art history topics. Several of her lectures have explored the body arts of fashion, shoes, and hair design in the context of history and social behaviour. She completed the American Society of Appraiser’s coursework through the University of Chicago and is compliant with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice.

Christine is currently cataloguing a large institutional collection of religious art spanning 500 years. She has been a volunteer Master Docent with the Loyola University Museum of Art since 2006 and participates in their illuminations program for people with memory loss and their caregivers.

Wig Foundation Making

2

This chapter is about giving you an introduction on how to make a wig foundation, from how to take the measurements, how to transfer them to a block, to detailed step-by-step instructions on the making of the foundation, going through what tools, nets and laces you will need. Making a foundation should take around two and a half to four hours maximum.

TAKING HEAD MEASUREMENTS

The diagram above shows the way we will take the measurements of the head to make a wig foundation. This way, the person’s head needs to be prepped with a wrap or pin-curls (see Chapter 10 on different techniques), and a stocking cap, leaving the hairline clearly on show and all hair out of the way. You then start measuring from no.1 to no.6 as on the diagram and write the figures on a measurement sheet. They can be taken in inches or centimetres.

This is not the only way to take measurements. There are different methods and one way is not necessarily better than the other. What counts is that the diagram is very clear as to how they were taken, so that the measurements are transferred accurately on to the block on which the foundation will be made. Another option is to create a ‘plastic wrap’ that will help you make your foundation, as well as taking the measurements. Here is how you do it and what happens to it next:

1.Wrap the head of the person in cling film on top of the stocking cap.

2.Tape the whole head to keep the shape, making sure you don’t miss a bit of cling film.

3.You draw the edges of the hairline all around with a felt pen, such as a Sharpie, or use a chinagraph pencil, and tape on top of the lines to fix them. A useful tip is to write on the shape the name of the performer and the date you made it.

4.Lift it off and your plastic shape is done.

5.If the plastic wrap is not tight enough, it can sometime get loose as you take it off. A good way to avoid that is to place some galloon (see ‘Materials Needed to Make a Foundation’ below) around the circumference before removing the plastic from the head and tape it on, to make sure it does not change shape.