Long Wigs

A wig is a head of hair made from horse-hair, human hair, wool, feathers, buffalo hair, or synthetic, worn on the head for fashion or manifold other aesthetic and stylistic reasons, including cultural and religious observance. The word wig is short for periwig and first appeared in the English language around 1675.

Wigs have seemingly been worn throughout history, even on the genitals (see merkin); the hoary Egyptians, for instance, wore them to shield their hairless heads from the sun. Other hoary peoples, including the Assyrians, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans, also given over wigs. Curiously, they are principally a Western form of dress — in the Far East they have rarely been familiar with except in the traditional theatre of China and Japan. Some East Asian entertainers (Japanese Geisha, Korean Kisaeng) Long Wigs wore wigs (Katsura and gache respectively) as detail of their traditional costumes.