Costume Wigs
Costume Wigs Galore!
Here at Heaven Costumes we have a love of great costume wigs, they are a fantastic accessory to our great fancy dress costumes and a really great costume wig can also be worn as a fun accessory to your every day clothes. As an online store selling only the highest quality costume and novelty wigs, we also like to know a little about the history and facts about wigs. We have gathered and put together a little information for you below, it can be fun to know how something like the use of wigs came about.
A wig is a head of hair made from horse hair, human hair, or other synthetic materials, and is worn on the head for fashion and other stylistic reasons. The first recorded use was in Ancient Egypt, where wigs were worn to shield their shaved, hairless heads from the sun. They are principally a Western form of dress, only used in the far East for the traditional Chinese and Japanese theatre. Entertainers, such as the Japanese Geisha, also wore fancy dress costume wigs as part of their costumes.
In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, wigs were worn as a symbol of social status, to improve one’s personal appearance and to compensate for hair loss. Currently wigs are used for a number of reasons. In Britain, judges, barristers and some members of parliament wear special wigs as a symbol of the office.
Some celebrities have also popularised the wearing of costume wigs for cosmetic use. These include Dolly Parton and Rachel Welch. Cher has worn a number of costume wigs over the last 40 years, in all different styles, from curly to straight, blonde to black. A recent celebrity who has popularised costume wigs is Lady Gaga. With her outlandish style, she uses a variety of wigs to create quirky and fun looks for her audience. Wigs are also used very frequently in film, theatre and television. Many actors and actresses use costume wigs, which are unnoticeable on the big screen. Some do grow out their natural hair and have it cut for the role; however this often takes a long time.
Wigs are also commonly worn for fancy dress costume parties. These costume wigs tend to be made of synthetic fibres, making them much more affordable than human hair wigs. They sometimes come with clips on the inside of the wig to adjust the size of the wig to suit the wearers head.
There are many kinds of costume wigs, some of them appear to be very natural with blonde soft curl costume wigs, long straight costume wigs, sexy to the shoulder length costume wigs to name a few. Some women may opt for a natural wig to wear with a fancy dress costume, as styling one’s own hair can be time consuming and tricky, while a costume wig is already pre-styled and ready to wear. There are a number of natural looking costume wigs on our website, available in blonde, brunette, black, and red head. These wigs come pre-styled, curly, straight or wavy, and even come with highlights, lowlights, ponytails and pigtails. These costume wigs can complement sexy costumes such as the French maid costume, nurse costume, or cop costume.
Other costume wigs are more unique and outlandish. There are wigs in vibrant colours like pinks, greens, reds, purples and blues. These can come in curls, bobs, long and short styles. The more unique, quirky style costume wigs are great for Halloween costumes, pirate costumes, hippie costumes, 1970's afro style costume wigs, movie star wigs, fair costumes, and space age costumes.
Wigs can be worn with ease if using a wig cap. A wig cap is a stretchy hair net which covers the entire head of hair. A wig can slip easily over this, and worn without the itchiness and irritation, and without slipping off.
A costume wig can really complete a fancy dress costume look, and really make you stand out from the rest. We hope you have enjoyed enriching your knowledge about wigs as much as we enjoyed gathering and writing this piece. While you are here, check out some of our fantastic wigs by clicking on the links on the right or go to our 'Costume Wig' category and begin browsing.
Happy shopping!
By Costume Vixen, 2011
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