Abstract

  Throughout history wigs have had cultural value as symbols of power, health, and self-expression. Despite their historic popularity, wigs have traditionally been stigmatized in the United States due to their connection with aging, medical conditions, and hair thinning. However, 21st century American perspective toward wigs has become less stigmatized over time, a change reflective of expanded beauty standards and acceptance of people with different backgrounds and identities. Despite the positive trend towards perception of wigs, the methods of hair acquisition have historically been unscrupulous and remained poorly regulated up to present days. For centuries, wigs came from the hair of slaves and prisoners of war, or outsourced from developing countries. Raising public awareness of where wigs come from may pressure hair buyers to adopt more transparent, ethical practices. A fair-trade hair movement reminiscent of those in the coffee and diamond industries could be the vehicle for those changes.

Keywords: Wigs; History; Alopecia; Culture

References

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Citation

Citation: B Burroway BS., et al. “The Societal Impact of Wigs”. Acta Scientific Clinical Case Reports 1.1 (2020): 21-23.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 B Burroway BS.,et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.