When I shaved my hair last year, it didn't register as a big decision. No-one ever saw it anyway – for the best part of six years, it was almost always underneath a wig. Despite this being common for many black women, up until recently wigshave been viewed as anything but everyday. They were an ‘on occasion’ expense – for hair loss, (whether out of illness or age), for costume (fancy dress or theatre) for tradition (the powdered wigs of British judges or the ‘sheitel’ worn by orthodox Jewish women).
“The older generation grew up wearing wigs back in the 1960s and 1970s, when (for black women at least) they were a part of your outfit,” says Gina Knight, founder of Gina Knight Wig Design. “Attitudes are returning to that era – wigs are again just an extension of your style.” Wigs have always regularly appeared on catwalks without actually being ‘in fashion’ – now, they are shouted about from every internet corner. They’re a staple in the online lexicon of gay, black, and ‘stan’ Twitter, the custodians of online speak: “Wig snatched”, “wig flew”, “wigs reported missing”.
The ubiquity of RuPaul’s Drag Race no doubt plays a part in this – iconic wig reveals from contestants such as season 9 winner Sasha Velour and season 5’s Roxxy Andrews, became the stuff of legend. Andrews’ ‘wig-under-wig reveal’ has been emulated countless times since, including by Katy Perry on Instagram, six years after it first debuted. Annaliese Keating’s wig removal in How to Get Away With Murder was another pivotal pop culture moment.
It’s difficult to quantify the exact size of the wig industry worldwide; it’s made up of several moving parts from hair merchants to wholesalers to wig-knotters. The likes of ASOS, Boohoo, and Urban Outfitters stock them under the ‘beauty’ and ‘accessories’ sections of their sites, and the global hair wigs and extension market is estimated to reach revenues of more than $10 billion by 2023. Halloween’s gradual shift to a millennial, international celebration, the rise of e-girls, (whose characteristic bright hair is often achieved by wigs), and cosplay’s move away from the margins, means we see wigs more and more on social media. But they are now normalised offline too, outside of a costume context.