A new website and game from the United Kingdom helps kids get into wigs and their history.
This is a great game on its own, but can be especially fun and helpful for children going through medical treatments or illnesses that are causing them to lose their hair and thus they themselves need to wear wigs. Or just give them a better understanding of why family members may wear wigs.
The game starts with a fact: women went crazy with their hair styles starting in the late 18th century. You can then start at the model’s scalp (the model is a woman from the late 18th century in dressing garments) and designing begins. Additional facts are part of the entire process. At this point you learn that tall and towering wigs were built up with padding and additional hair pieces, and that pastes or glues made from pig fat helped to keep the wig in place.
Once you design the symmetrical wig shape you can decorate with ribbons, pins, clips, flags and feathers. You learn that women could spend almost an entire day on their hair design and the design could reflect an entire scene or new trend. You can then apply color, then known as powder, to your hair design. It’s at this stage that you learn that the odors from hair styling products and paste were often covered up by scented powders made from flour. The flour could be colored and women would wear a cone around their face to protect it from also being powdered. In the game, the woman dons a cone while colored powders are applied.
The Design a Wig game is a great way to educate anyone one the history of wigs and the role they’ve played in our culture for centuries. Interested in designing your own stylish creation? Stop in to Wig-A-Do and have fun with a new hair style! Call (856) 235-3534 today or see us in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey.
