Why do british lawyers wear wigs

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Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again. Get in Touch. Sign in. Forgot your password? Get help. Password recovery. Read More. Jamie Wiles. July 27, Fashion Influence In , an academic paper called The Discourse on Robes and Apparel forever changed the way British high court officials dressed.

Michael D Beckwith on Unsplash But robes are just half of the look. Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash Courtroom wigs are white, often handcrafted out of horsehair, and can cost thousands of pounds. Tags culture hemingway. More from author. Barrister robes of violet, green, black, and scarlet have served different purposes through the years, though the color requirements have fluctuated many times in the last few centuries.

But What About Judge Wigs? The fashion trends of the 17th century helped judge wigs work their way into courtrooms too and the headpieces were fully adopted as proper legal attire by with just as many strict rules as robes. Courtroom wigs are white, often handcrafted out of horsehair, and can cost thousands of pounds Judges used to wear long, curled, full-bottom wigs until the s, then they switched to smaller bench wigs.

Without widespread treatment with antibiotics Sir Alexander Fleming didn't discover penicillin , the treatment for syphilis, until , people with syphilis were plagued by rashes, blindness, dementia, open sores and hair loss. The hair loss was particularly problematic in social circles. Long hair was all the rage, and premature balding was a dead giveaway that someone had contracted syphilis.

Wigs, when not used to cover syphilis-related hair loss, were a big help for those who had lice. After all, it was much more difficult to treat and pick through the hair on one's head than it was to sanitize a wig. During his reign from to , the Sun King disguised his prematurely balding scalp — historians believe it was caused by syphilis — by wearing a wig. In doing so, he started a trend that was widely followed by the European upper- and middle-class, including his cousin, Charles II, the King of England also rumored to have contracted syphilis , who reigned from to Although aristocrats and those who wished to remain in good social standing were quick to adopt the practice of wearing wigs, English courtrooms were slower to act.

In the early s, judicial portraits still showed a natural, no-wig look. By , however, full, shoulder-length wigs had become part of the proper court dress.

Over time, wigs fell out of fashion with society as a whole. During the reign of England's King George III, from to , wigs were worn by only a few — namely bishops, coachmen and those in the legal profession. And bishops were permitted to stop wearing them in the s. But the courts kept wigs for hundreds of years more.

In , though, new dress rules did away with barrister wigs — for the most part. Wigs were no longer required during family or civil court appearances, or when appearing before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. Wigs, however, remain in use in criminal cases. In the U. In England, and other former English and British colonies — like Canada, for instance, whose provinces abandoned the wigs throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, or Jamaica which removed the wigs in — lawyers and judges now only wear wigs for ceremonies.

Yet, wearing wigs still enjoys popularity among British lawyers, the Guardian reported in Before the adoption of wigs in the 17th century, British lawyers had a dress code that would seem positively modern.

They were expected to appear in court with short hair and neatly trimmed beards. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close.