History supplies many interesting passages bearing on our present investigations. The Lycians, having been engaged in war, were defeated. Mausoleus, their conqueror, ruthlessly directed the subdued men to have their heads shaven. This was humiliating in the extreme, and the Lycians were keenly alive to their ridiculous appearance. The king's general was tempted with bribes, and finally yielded, and allowed wigs to be imported for them from Greece, and thus the symbol of degradation became the pink of Lycian fashion.
Hannibal, the brave soldier, is recorded to have worn two sorts of wigs, one to improve, and the other to disguise his person.
Wigs are said to have been worn in England in the reign of King Stephen, but their palmy days belong to the seventeenth and the earlier part of the eighteenth centuries. According to Stow, they were introduced into this country about the time of the Massacre of Paris, but they are not often alluded to until the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The earliest payment for one in the Privy Purse expenses occurs in December 1529, and is for twenty shillings "for a perwyke for Sexton, the king's fool." Some twenty years later wigs, or, to give the full title, periwigs, became popular. In France the mania was at its height in the reign of Louis XIV. We are told that in 1656 he had not fewer than forty court perruquiers, and these, by an Order of Council, were declared artistes. In addition to this, Le Gros instituted at Paris an Académie de France des Perruquiers. Robinson records that a storm was gathering about their heads. He tells us "the celebrated Colbert, amazed at the large sums spent for foreign hair, conceived the idea of prohibiting the wearing of wigs at Court, and tried to introduce a kind of cap." He lost the day, for it was proved that more money reached the country for wigs than went out to purchase hair. The fashion increased; larger wigs were worn, and some even cost £200 apiece.
Charles II. was the earliest English king represented on the Great Seal wearing a large periwig. Dr Doran assures us that the king did not bring the fashion to Whitehall. "He forbade," we are told, "the members of the Universities to wear periwigs, smoke tobacco, or to read their sermons. The members did all three, and Charles soon found himself doing the first two."