The like all other portions of human attire, has undergone a great many varia tions in fashion. In the presentdaY, the great object is, in the first 'place, as far as possible, to imitate nature, and deceive the eye; and secondly. to produce wigs of extreme lightness—a full-sized peruke rarely being more than two or three ounces in weight.. A full head of hair, from a young woman's head, will sometimes weigh five or six ounces. There are two heads of hair in the South Kensington museum, which are in the raw state as imported, and weigh together 117r ounces.
The chief portion of the hair used in Great Britain is received through French dealers, who collect it from Holland and Germany, as well as from the various depart ments of their own country. The light colors are usually obtained from the former countries, and the dark shades from Brittany. This does not arise from the circum stance that these countries yield the finest heads of hair, but because the poverty of the people causes its sale to be a matter of importance, and the peculiar fashions of the country head-dresses render its loss of less consequence.
Time wholesale price of long hair is from 30s. to 400s. per lb., and the peasants of France alone supply 20,000 lbs., of the value of £40,000. • The average import, during four years from France, was 14,000 lbs., of the value of £28,000. Besides the imports from France, which chiefly comprise the darker colors, a considerable quantity comes from Germany, usually of light shades.
a pure white powder, made from pulverized starch, scented with violet or some other perfume, and at one time largely used for powdering over the head. The strange fashion of using hair-powder is said to have originated from some of the ballad-singers at the fair of St. Germain, in France, whitening their heads, to render themselves more attractive. Introduced into Great Britain, the fashion became
universal among the higher and middle classes, and by ladies as well as gentlemen. To make the powder hold, the hair was usually greased with pomade, and accordingly the fashion was extremely troublesome. An act of parliament fixed that the fine dust of which the powder was composed should be made from starch alone; and we learn from the Gentleman's Magazine, that on Nov. 20, 1740, fifty-one barbers were convicted before the commissioners of excise at LondOn, and fined £20 each, for having in their keeping, hair-powder not made of starch, contrary to act of parliament; and on the 27th of the same month, forty-nine others were fined, for the like offense, in the same penalty. In 1795 a tax of a guinea (afterwards £1 3s. 6d.) was put on the use of hair-powder, and at one time yielded £20,000 per annum, but it had the effect of causing hair-powder to fall into general disuse. The French revolution, which overturned so many institutions, contributed also to the people of Europe returning to natural and unpowdered hair. When gentlemen first left off hair-powder with queues, they were considered very unfashionable; and the custom of having the hair cut short, which is quite universal at present, was then deemed vulgar. At the present day, powder continues to be used by some of the footmen of the nobility and higher ranks as part of their livery; and occasionally, at public or private bats costumes, ladies and gentlemen still appear with their heads powdered. The tax on hair-powder was done away with under 32 and 33 Vict. c. 14, the act which substituted a system of excise licenses for the former mode of collecting assessed taxes. At the time of its abolition, it was paid by about 800 persons, and yielded a revenue of about £1000 a year.