In rococo/colonial costumes, how do they keep the jacket clean from hair powder?

Question

People from the 18th century commonly wear a wig that's powdered by either flour or other powder, right? Women's dress are usually pastel colored, powder wouldn't really show on there. But how did men keep their dark colored jacket or other clothes clean? Especially with the little ponytail dangling on their jacket?

I am doing research on costumes for Marriage of Figro, and I want to make it as authentic as possible.

Please don't answer if you don't know.

Answer 1

Well, first of all, not everyone wears powder. Only the wealthiest men wears them because they can actually afford it and can clean it anytime they want. Most middle-class men wore wigs made out of horse hair. (just use white/grey horse hair, it's much cheaper and easier to find)

Just on a side note, not all women wears hair powder either. It's a popular trend, but not everyone will do it. (Like today, straight hair is a popular trend, but I don't have a straightner)

Oh, and they only use powder on fake hair to cover up the difference between fake and real hair. (Since L"Oreal didn't invent hair dye to match the hair yet)

For costumes, for convience and sanitation, I realky reconmmend grey/white temp. hair spray. It gives a siilar effect as powder and it's not nearly as messy.

Answer 2

Powder would be applied in the "powder room"; the person being powdered would wear a protective robe and hold a paper cone up to their face. After that, I think the servant or coiffeur would brush them down. The hair was generally pomaded first, so that the powder would stick better to it. Apparently, powder doesn't stick to clean, fresh hair - so with the pomade, the powder would stay put.

Men would often wear a bag wig; the ponytail would be stuffed into this bag and would protect the clothes from being marked by the oil.

I saw a coat of Admiral Nelson's on show at an exhibition, and it did show the oily marks made by his pigtail.

Here is a helpful site:
http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/frisuren/frisuren.shtml

I don't think a huge amount of powder would have been used, just enough to fulfil the demands of fashion and cover the hair. Nobody would have wanted to walk around emitting clouds of powder, or mark their expensive silks and brocades with them. As another respondent said, it was mainly the wealthy who wore wigs and had the money to buy the powder, so they would have had the staff to look after them. Even so, it was a universal fashion which lasted over a century, so everyone would have wanted to be in the mode!

Answer 3

Well, for a start, the levels of cleanlyness at the time weren't that high. Washing was deemed unhealthy, Versailles had no toilets, a quiet corner in a hallway would do, and everything was covered up with liberal amounts of parfume. In fact wigs were also worn because it cut down on hair lice.

"Unhygienic conditions of the time meant that hair attracted head lice, a problem that could be much reduced if natural hair were shaved and replaced with a more easily de-loused artificial hairpiece."

"Powdering wigs was messy and inconvenient and the development of the naturally white or off-white powderless wig (made of horsehair) is no doubt what has made the retention of wigs in everyday court dress a practical possibility." ("Wig" : Wikipedia)

Powdering the wig was done before the upper clothes were put on, in the morning or before going out, often in elaborate powder rooms.

"If you consider that the powder was made to stick to the hair with the help of oily pomads, it is only logical that the long hair did not just hang down in back but was stuffed into a bag or wrapped with a fabric ribbon: Anyone who has seen what skin/hair oil can do to the inside of a shirt collar would not want the same to happen to the outside of a (non-washable) silk suit. The fashion museum in Ludwigsburg exhibits a Justaucorps where the neck/upper back part is discoloured and disintegrated by pomad and powder."

"As has been mentioned before, the powder will only stick if the hair is oily, either due to some pomad being applied or due to natural oliliness. "

"Hair and Hairdos of the 18th Century" : http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/frisuren/frisuren.shtml

The wig powder does appear on some portraits :

"There is a dusting of white wig powder on the proper left shoulder of the coat."

"Very specific details, including the variation in the background, the wart or mole on the nose, the folds in the coat, the wig powder, and the purple-blue shadows in the white neck cloth, are present in both likenesses, and the patterns of the waistcoats are identical."

"With the exception of the Worcester and Charleston paintings, no other Theüs portraits with wig powder have been located, and the substance is present on Smith’s shoulder. Since Theüs did not customarily render wig powder, its appearance in the two Holmes portraits supports the idea that he was copying an earlier portrait of Holmes that had it."

"Early American Painting" : http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/theus/portrait/discussion.html

"Both artists painted the sitter in a solid-colored woolen suit—brown in Stuart’s portrait and green in Peale’s; Stuart added a dusting of wig powder to Pettit’s shoulder."

ib. : http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/Early_American/Artists/peale_c/pettit/discussion.html

Answer 4

We keep it clean just like everyone else, by washing it. But because it is high maintanace it is impractical to wash it every single day. Especially if it is natural Afro hair. It takes a good 2-3 days after I wash my hair for it to "un-shrink" and go back to normal. After that time is over then the good hair days can begin. And our hair doesn't smell as much or get oily as much as other races so there isn't really a need to wash it everyday.

Answer 5

hair oil, real or artificial.

Plus they always have plenty of footmen around to give the jacket a brushing. In general, people would have had a lot more dirt and dust on them then now, because of dirt roads and wood/coal burning, it just doesn't get shown in historical-clothing dramas.