All About Indian Hair

The 18th century saw the emergence of elaborate wigs, mile-high coiffures and highly decorated curls. White powdered wigs with long ringlets were the order of the day often tied back with a black bow for men or decorated with feathers, bows and garlands for women. Big hair was definitely the ‘in’ thing and many styles were modelled over a cage frame or horsehair pads – the bigger the better. Some immensely tall coiffures took hours to create and were heavily starched and powdered. However, the length of time spent creating these elaborate styles did mean that weeks went by between styling and the mixture of horsehair and heavy powder created perfect nesting material for vermin!
This didn’t seem to put them off though, and some adventurous souls had mini gardens or maritime scenes complete with model ship incorporated into their style – in fact it was not unknown for imaginative ladies to create mini-bird cages complete with birds on top of their heads!