WHY DID MEN WEAR WIGS?
WHY DID MEN WEAR WIGS? For over a century, European men refused to go outside without first putting on an enormous wig. At the time, the headpiece was better known as a peruke or periwig. A periwig had to have curls or at least waves. By the 1670's the style favoured was long rows of cork-screw curls and by the 1690's the periwig would rise high above the wearer's head and would often be parted in the middle. The peruke wig has a fascinating history. It turns out that powdered wigs weren't as innocent as they look.... There's a surprising secret hidden in peruke history. Syphilis began to spread in Europe in the 1490s. Syphilis was spread by sexual contact, and before the development of antibiotics, there was no cure. Minor symptoms included patchy hair loss and open sores, but during the late stages of the disease, the afflicted could lose eyes, noses, and hands, and syphilis also attacked the brain, causing insanity. But Europeans devised a new way to hi