History of human interest in wigs

Wigs and kingship

The first wig in human history appeared in the ancient kingdom of Egypt. Perhaps most impressive is Cleopatra, played by Elizabeth Taylor, who wears a black wig. In 2011, the wig was auctioned, starting at $10000. If in ancient Egypt, a wig on the head of the privileged class was of great value.

Shaving head is a popular fashion in ancient Egypt. One of the reasons is to avoid lice and heat. The other is because of religion. Priests even have to shave other body hair. In this case, a well maintained, fragrant wig with complicated decorations on it naturally becomes a symbol of status.

In ancient Greece and Rome, people who could not explain the cause of baldness interpreted it as a punishment from heaven. The ancient Romans were full of malice to the bald people. They even tried to prevent the bald men from running for Parliament through the “bald law”. The reason why the ordinary people who entered the parliament didn’t want to be bald was that the aristocrats had to keep slaves to provide the source of wigs, while the bald slaves could only be sold for half the price.

Black Death doesn’t stop the spread of wigs

In the winter of 1751, Rousseau decided to change his luxurious way of life, so he threw away his sword, gilt edged Chinese clothes, white stockings, even sold his watch, and even gave up his work. “I only kept my short wig and coarse sweater.”. The importance of wigs in French life can be seen.

Besides the discrimination against baldness, syphilis is also a tacit factor. When Columbus and his crew returned to Europe, they brought back syphilis as well as information about the new world. With the magic of medicine at that time, the treatment of syphilis is mercury to scrub or smoke the affected area. Such treatment can not cure syphilis, but will make the patients who have been treated for a long time mercury poisoning, hair loss.

If you walk on the streets of Europe in the 15th-17th century and see a bright bald head, you will never think that the other side is a superman in the comic book, but rather avoid the promiscuous person who may be infected with syphilis.

When having a long and elegant hair becomes a sign of decency, wigs are also in demand from fashion. Even the black death can’t help people love beauty.

In 1665, the infamous black death broke out in London. Samuel Pepys, a British writer, wrote in his diary: “September 3, 1665: get up, put on my very beautiful silk coat and my new wig. I dare not wear this good thing since I bought it, because when I bought it, there was a plague in Westminster. It’s strange that after the plague passed, no one was afraid to buy hair and other things to be infected.”

In the era of selling iron by smashing pots and buying a wig to fill the scene, the wig industry is finally no longer limited to the court, but began to move to the market.In Paris, there were only 200 wigs in 1673, but in 1771, there were 945. Even in Rouen, a small town, there were 83 wigs in the 100 years from 1680 to 1781, and one master could make 100 wigs a year on average. Wigs have come into the homes of ordinary people and become less luxurious.

Of course, the nobles, complained about it. “Paris is full of barons now!” A marquis named mirabo recorded: “on Sunday, a man in black silk clothes and a delicate wig came to see me, which made me praise him lowly. As a result, he said that he was my blacksmith or the son of a saddle maker! Is the wig for dancing in the street? “

However, wearing such a towering wig, it is easy to be targeted by thieves. In 18th century England, the bikers didn’t grab backpacks, but wigs. According to the records, a classic way to steal a wig is to let a boy rush out to distract these rich people’s attention. At this time, another person needs to be quick and quick – to drag down the wig and throw it to the trained dog, then the man, the boy and the dog will run away in three ways, leaving the original place with a bald ladle disordered in the wind, who should be chased.

In addition to the boy who suddenly rushed out, there were also trained monkeys and passers-by who rode the road. They stared at the head of the rich man and waited for an opportunity to pull him down.

China imported wigs in the Tang Dynasty

Later than ancient Egypt, the earliest record of wigs in Chinese history comes from the spring and Autumn period. Similar to the west, wigs originally belonged to the privileged class. In the book of songs, there is a poem named “gentlemen grow old together”, which satirizes the luxurious style of xuanjiang, the wife of Duke Xuan Wei, and reflects her misdemeanor by repeatedly praising her gorgeous clothes.

However, adhering to the principle of “body, hair and skin, parents”, how to make wigs with human hair as the raw material?

Just as the poor people in ancient Rome would sell long hair for survival, the privileged class could always accomplish everything by spending money. A story is recorded in Shishuoxinyu: in the Jin Dynasty, there were a mother and a son in a poor family, but his son, Tao Kan, had great ambition when he was young. Once, fan Kui, a fellow official in the dynasty, went to the Tao Kan family to lodge. It was winter, but the Tao Kan family was helpless, so he could not entertain a large number of followers. So Zhan, Tao Kan’s mother, cut off her long hair and took two vacations FA, for a few stone rice; the pillars of the house split half as firewood, this is to entertain the group of fan Kui.

Fan Kui, who received the reception, exclaimed, “such a mother can produce such an excellent son as Tao Kan!” So he spread the fame of Tao Kan’s mother and son to all parties. Later, Tao Kan was recommended to be filial and honest, and became a famous general in the Jin Dynasty.

But the peak period of wigs is still in the Tang Dynasty. In the history of the Three Kingdoms · Xinluo Benji, which records the history of the Korean Peninsula, there are four records of Xinluo’s hair tribute to the Tang Dynasty. In the 18th and 33rd years of Kaiyuan alone, the total amount of Xinluo’s hair tribute reached 180 Liang. It can be seen that the demand for wigs in the Tang Dynasty was so great that it was not enough to take the hair from the prisoners’ heads, and even had to import the hair.

In the Qing Dynasty, when western culture was introduced into China, the fashion of wigs naturally flowed into the Qing Dynasty. In addition to the elegance of wearing wigs, Empress Dowager Cixi kept her appearance by a well-made wig when she was over 40 and bald.

According to Xiang Si of the library of the Palace Museum, Cixi began to lose her hair from a long time ago, so she chose to cut her hair very well among the beautiful young women, and then knitted the wig and the real hair together to make all kinds of hair styles. Cixi’s wig is divided into two parts. The main part is the wig on the top of the head, which is stuck on the scalp with a kind of red glue; the second part is the wig on the temples, where the wig is made of hair pieces.

It’s the secret of her life. Until she was buried in the grave, she still wore a wig. That’s why Cixi still had black hair when she was dug out of the coffin.

“Wig king” in China

At the same time, in the 26th year of Guangxu period in the Qing Dynasty, a businessman named Bai Xihe in Xuchang, Henan Province, made a business of wigs. By chance, he got to know German hunter who was doing hair business, so Bai Xihe exchanged German “Pegasus” steel needles for randomly discarded hair in the farmer’s home. The slogan of “looking for hair and changing needles” has become a symbol of Xuchang.

More than 100 years later, Zheng Youquan, also from Xuchang, carried forward China’s wig business. In July 2003, Rebecca, founded by Zheng Youquan, was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, known as the “first wig stock” in the A-share market. As a result, Zheng Youquan was ranked No. 182 on the Forbes China rich list in 2004.

In 2008, Zheng Youquan became the richest man in Henan Province with 2.9 billion yuan. Now, in the streets of Xuchang, there are mountains of hair everywhere. People here carry out a wig processing process, and then send these wigs to all over the world.

The real hair materials are mostly from India. This is because the Hindus who visit the temple of Tirupati in southern India often donate their hair to show their piety. In total, 600 barbers are employed in the temple to cut the hair of the believers. Every few days, tons of hair are transported out of the warehouse of the temple, sent to the factory for processing, and the finished products are exported to European and American countries. The temple exports 90 tons of hair a year, earning more than 300 million rupees.

The whereabouts of these hairs can be traced – you can roughly guess from the world bald map. In 2018, in the map of the world’s baldness rate published on infographics website, the Czech Republic ranked the country with the highest baldness rate in the world with 42.79%, followed by Spain and France with 42.6% and 41.24%.

The gene rewriting of baldness will probably not make any progress in a short period of time, but in the era of Guo Donglin wearing a wig to Lin Junjie, the fashion of wigs still seems to be not out of date.