Wig facts for kids

A wig is an artificial covering of hair. The word is short for periwig and appeared in the English language around 1675. Some people wear wigs to hide the fact that they are bald, which means they have very little or no scalp hair. Actors often wear wigs to disguise their appearance or get into character. In Britain and other Commonwealth nations, some public employees, such as judges and barristers, wear wigs.

Many composers during the 18th century wore wigs.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wearing a wig.
Johann Sebastian Bach wearing a wig.
George Frideric Handel wearing a wig.
A portrait by Nicolas de Largillière, a French painter. He painted a man with a wig.
Largillière (self-portrait) did not have much hair, so he often wore wigs.

Images for kids

A conventional hime cut wig
Five Orders of Periwigs, 1761
Historical reenactment of wig making in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia
Trimmed human hair that is partly bleached.
Egyptian couple wearing formal wigs of the 4th or 5th dynasties
Tomb fresco depicting dancers and musicians in elaborate wigs with head cones. Thebes, Egypt, 18th Dynasty.
Bust of a Roman woman wearing a "diadem" wig, circa 80 CE
Wig Headdress, Wari People, 600–1000 CE, Brooklyn Museum
Queen Elizabeth I, pictured in 1588
Nicolas de Vermont
Wigs 17th century
Korean traditional wig (Gache)
Marie Antoinette wearing the distinctive pouf style coiffure; her own natural hair is extended on the top with an artificial hairpiece.
Charles-Alexandre de Calonne by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (1784), London, Royal Collection.
Colonel James Hamilton by John Smart (1784), wearing a white wig powdered with pink-coloured powder
Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia as a boy (c. 1795). The latest-born notable person to be portrayed wearing a powdered wig tied in a queue.
John Adams in 1788.
Thomas Jefferson in 1786.
James Madison in c. 1770-1780.
James Monroe in 1794.
Colourful wigs for costume parties
An assortment of wigs in display cabinet
Wigs as court dress