Wonderful and weird facts about wigs you didn’t know

When shopping around for your fabulous new wig, your mind might start to wander about wigs and some of the history and facts surrounding them.

There are certainly several weird, wacky and wonderful facts about wigs, most of them you probably never would have thought about.

Wigs have been around for centuries and have developed over thousands of years into what we know today as handy accessories that can be used as bold fashion statements.

At LolaSilk we pride ourselves in providing an exciting range of top-quality wigs at the best prices so that South African women can have easy access to some of the best wigs in the world to ensure many different looks and styles.

In this article we will have a look at some of the most interesting, bizarre and fabulous facts about wigs that you probably did not even know about. Have fun!

The word “wig” is derived from French

The word “wig” was first used in the English language in 1675 and is a shorter word for “periwig.” This is derived from the French term “perruque.” King Louis XIII from France started wearing wigs in the 1600’s and quickly became extremely popular among wealthy French people. The bigger your wig, the more money and status you had. Periwigs were a very important part of many British and French high-class families.

Most of the hair used to make wigs comes from India and China

This might come as a shock to you, but most of the hair used to create beautiful human hair wigs, are sourced from India and China. In these countries people commonly shave their heads as part of various traditions and religious practices. About 10 million pilgrims shave their heads annually at a certain temple in India. The hair is then sold to wigmakers.

Natural red hair wigs are very rare

Wigs that are made of natural red hair are extremely rare. This is because only between 1% to 2% of the entire world’s population has natural red hair. For this reason, it might be a good idea to buy a wig that has been dyed with shades of red.

Wigs used to be more popular among men than women

Today, the largest portion of consumers that buy wigs remain women. However, there was a time in history that men wore wigs more than women did. The French King Louis XIII started wearing wigs, which spread like a wildfire amongst rich people, as mentioned earlier. In this time women did not really wear wigs, only in the case of dressing up. In this time many men wore wigs to their jobs, such as judges and high-ranking government officials. Wigs are still worn in certain courts to this day. Wigs only became more popular among women than men during the 1950’s.

Unused wig hair is used for odd things

You would be amazed to hear what happens to unwanted hair that does not make the cut to be used in high-quality human hair wigs. Unlike you might think, unused hair is not simply thrown away, but rather used for various other purposes. Some of the other uses include making false eyelashes, fertilizers and stuffing. The most bizarre use, though, might be using hair to make amino acids, which are then used to make pizza dough.

It can take several weeks to craft a quality wig

Making one of those fabulous wigs usually take much longer than you might think. Firstly, the hair is collected, after it is untangled and sorted according to length. After that, the hair has to go through a process to ensure that it is clean. That includes removing dirt and possible lice. The hair is then washed and dried and dyed into many different colours. The process of carefully crafting the wig starts then, by sewing hair with a needle and thread or a specialised sewing machine. It could take up to two full months to create a custom wig as we know it.

Synthetic wigs are improving rapidly

As mentioned earlier, a lot of hair that is used in human hair wigs are sourced from countries like China and India. However, these countries are growing economically which means that their citizens are also becoming wealthier. This means that people are less likely to donate their hair in order to earn an income. This shift has meant that many companies are investing a lot of time and money into perfecting the art of creating synthetic wigs that look just as natural as human hair wigs. It is becoming increasingly popular to buy a good quality synthetic wig over a human hair wig.

The team at LolaSilk is always ready to help you with expert advice in order to make the best purchase in top-quality wigs. Contact us to help you choose the best Brazilian wig to suit your personal needs.