| Introducing the Wigmaker I’m going to tell you all about wig making in my other reports that I wrote. My reports will tell you about raw materials and tools that real wig makers such as me used to make wigs. I will also tell you in my reports that you will be reading about wigmakers importance. You will read lots of cool facts and theories. Why Wigmakers were so important The wigmaker was important in colonial times. The wigmaker was important to the bald people because bald people needed hair or wanted hair so the wigmaker provided a wig for them. The wigmaker also made goods for the judges. The judges needed wigs to show that they were wealthy and they could afford the wig. Another thing the wig makers were needed for was for wealthy people. A lot of wealthy people wore wigs to show that they were important. Only wealthy people could afford real hair wigs poor people bought horse Hair wigs. Sick people also wore wigs. Sometimes when you get sick your hair falls out and they want a wig. Hat makers also needed wigs to model their hats on them for there customers. Also people in colonial times didn’t take showers. They only took bayhs once or mabey twice a year. That is why people in colonial times had lice and the wig that the wigmaker provided for them. A Wigmaker’s Tools Being a wigmaker you use a lot of tools. There are five tools I would like to mention. The first tool is a skullcap. A skullcap is a piece of cloth that is used to keep your head tied up till the wigmaker makes you wig and this process takes one to two days. The second tool I would like to mention is a hackle. A hackle is a fancy word for a hair brush. The hackle is used to brush the wigs hair out. A cylindrical is another tool wigmakers use cylindrical oven that wigmakers use to bake the hair. Two more tools I would like to mention are the narrow strips of paper that are used to measure peoples head for the wig. There is also a weaving frame that is used to weave parts of the hair that the wigmaker did not sew together by hand. A weaving frame looks like a bench with three legs holding it up and one part pf the weaving frame is elevated a little. Wigmakers raw materials Wigmakers used many raw materials. I n this section I would like to mention four raw materials that wigmakers used. One of the raw materials wigmakers used was clay. They used clay for wrapping the parcels of hair in and then baking the hair with the clay on top so that the hair would not burn. Parcels of hair are pieces of hair are wrapped together that are used to make wigs. Then another raw material is fine sand. Fine sand is used to get of any natural oils on the hair. Rye is also a raw material that wigmakers use. It is used for baking on the hair soft and tougher than it already is. How the wigmaker works The wigmaker was very important in colonial times. The wigmaker, who was also called a peruke maker, had to go through many different steps to make a wig. STEP 1 The wigmakers had to shave his or her head to prepare it for measurement. The head had to be shaved because the measurement would not work. (10 min) STEP 2 The wigmaker next measured the customers head. The peruke maker measured by taking narrow strips of paper that was marked of five distances. Then the puruke maker measured from ear to ear from forehead to back of the head and from each cheek to the back of the head. (30 min) STEP 3 The next step was the puruke maker covered the persons head with a skullcap. The skullcap was for the replacement for the wig. This step took 1 min. While the wig was being made. A skullcap is a fancy turban or a cloth that is used to wrap around persons shaved head. (2 min) STEP 4 The hair that the wigmaker gets from hair donors is tied in small bundles or parcels. Then the hair is cleaned with flour dust, fine sand to get rid of any natural oils. (2 days) STEP 5 The hair was then pulled through a hackle. The hackle separated and rearranged in parcels of lengths, thickness, and colors. (10 min) STEP 6 Then the bundles of hair were rolled around a clay curling pin. A curling pin made the hair curly and made it stay that way. (10 min) STEP 7 The next step was to boil the curling pins. The boiling made the hair stronger and a little tougher than they were. Then they were taken to a cylindrical oven where they were dried. (1 day) STEP 8 Then the bundles of hair were taken to the bakery and covered with rye dough made the hair soft. (1 day) STEP 9 Then once the baked loaves of hair were cut they were put back in the oven for drying. (1 day) STEP 10 Then the hair was slipped from there there clay pins, combed again. (10 min) And checked for strengths, fullness, and colors and then were trimmed. STEP 11 The wig maker looked at a pattern to see the lenghth and the style of the wig drew a set of parralal lines on a sheet of paper already of in squares. These parallel lines formed a pattern that followed the measurement he or she had made on the customers head with the narrow paper strips. (10 min) STEP 12 Now the wigmaker will make a support that the wig could rest on while the wig maker sews the wig. (1 day) STEP 13 The wigmaker now sews the bundles of hair together by carefully pulling each bundle of hair onto the wig. (1 day STEP 14 The wigmaker had to make sure that the wig is like the pattern and how the customer would like it. (1 min) STEP 15 Then the wigmaker curled and put perfume on the hair. This was called dressing (1 day) STEP 16 The wigmaker gives the person there wig back and gets paid. (20 min) COLONIAL AND MODERN-DAY WIG MAKING Wig making has changed in many ways in the post 300 years. But in many ways it has stayed the same. One of the ways it has changed is in colonial times wig makers measured his or her head with narrow strips of paper marked of five distances. Today wig makers use tape measures. Wig makers in colonial times used only gray, white, or brown hair. Today there are a lot of colors you can choose. In colonial times wigmakers used skullcaps to cover a persons head. Now they use a kind of hat. A cylindrical oven was used in colonial times. Now they use a different oven to dry wigs one that is also used to dry clay today. It works faster. There were colonial weaving frames that wig makers used to weave horse hair. These wigs were less expensive than real hair. Now, I would like to talk about how wigs are made today. One thing we do today that is different from colonial times is that now wigmakers make different kinds of wigs called toupees. A toupee is a section of a wig just big enough to cover one part of the head where the bald spot was. They did not have these in colonial times. Today wigmakers sew the hair onto a net that is made out of lace, instead of a thin rope they had used before. Now, wig makers use a weaving machine that is used to weave the hair together. If not the wig maker would do it by hand like they did in colonial times. Wigmakers have had stayed the same in that wigmakers still use horse hair and human hair. They also use hackles. Wigmakers still use the same sewing utensils when they make a wig by hand. Wigmakers still dress the wig. Dressing the wig means to prepare it for its pick up curl the hair put perfume and make sure that it is brushed out. |
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